AFL-CIO facing a crossroads

Washington state labor official says Colorado union must heal rifts to stem loss of affiliates

Joanne Kelley, Rocky Mountain News

Published February 2, 2007 at midnight

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Colorado's AFL-CIO, already hit by major union defections, could face the loss of more members if it doesn't resolve conflicts within its ranks, according to the executive assigned to address an ongoing rift.

"If the divisions continue to grow and grow, that's when you start to lose affiliates," said Rick Bender, president of the Washington State Labor Council. "Our affiliates don't have to belong. I'm hoping that within the next few months we get this thing turned around."

Bender assumed his role last week as trustee of the Colorado group, chosen partly because of his success in bringing key unions back into the federation's fold in Washington state.

The troubles in Colorado began long before the union dispute that delayed Denver's selection as the site for the next Democratic National Convention, Bender said.

The AFL-CIO confirmed this week that it had to assign officials from outside Colorado to take control of the state federation because of so-called internal divisions.

While executives both inside and outside the state office have declined to provide specifics, they say the problems stem partly from a labor schism that began at the national level.

In July 2005, the Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union quit the Washington, D.C.-based AFL-CIO. Local versions of those groups subsequently pulled out of the Colorado federation, as did another huge union, the United Food and Commercial Workers.

The UFCW Local 7, which represents about 24,000 grocery store and food preparation workers and nurses and other medical professionals, parted company with the Colorado AFL-CIO in the fall of 2005, its spokesman said.

"That hurts you financially," Bender said. "The Colorado state federation got hit hard."

The Washington State Labor Council, which Bender has headed since 1993, also lost local affiliates. But most of them returned recently through an AFL-CIO "solidarity charter" program.

Labor officials in Bender's home state describe him as a consensus builder.

"Labor is well-known for 'We love each other and then we hate each other and then we love each other,' " said Beth Thew, secretary-treasurer for the Spokane Regional Labor Council, AFL-CIO. "He (Bender) is able to create an atmosphere of collaboration and cooperation."

Bender has been working in Denver in recent days with Keith Maddox, a national AFL-CIO official who has been named to manage the day-to-day operations of the state office.

They have interviewed dozens of Colorado labor leaders in a fact-gathering process that began last year and has continued into the past week.

"It's forcing all of us to talk about things important to us," Maddox said. "When you talk about what it is we're trying to accomplish, every single person is on the same page."

But Maddox acknowledged that the "system was breaking down in some areas. That's why we're here. Internally in the labor movement, I think, this will be a very positive experience once it's over with."

The Colorado AFL-CIO's officers have retained their titles and certain duties. President Steve Adams has been an effective lobbyist at the state Capitol, Bender said, and he'll continue to work in that role.

The two executives have taken control of the bank accounts and payroll duties in the Colorado office. But Bender characterized that as "standard operating procedure" and said they expect an audit to go smoothly.

"I think it's much better to have someone step in from the outside who has no dog in this fight," said Maddox, who works on special projects for national AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "We've done too much good work here (in the labor movement) not to sit down and resolve this."

Ed Bagwell of the Teamsters Local in Denver said, "In defense of the labor movement, we have for the most part been on common ground on the majority of the issues, although we may not be part of the same labor federation."

Teamsters unions representing about 16,000 Colorado workers left the AFL-CIO to affiliate with Change to Win, a group Bagwell called "a very progressive model for organizing and looking to the future."

Still, Bagwell said Adams and his state federation "have done a tremendous job, and they still do a great job. I'm sure they'll get their issues resolved. "

Rick Bender

• Former Washington state legislator (1973-1991) has been head of Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, since 1993.

• His fellow state federation heads in 15 Western states have elected him to the national AFL-CIO board for three terms running.

• He'll be flying back and forth between Washington, where he was lobbying at his own state Capitol on Thursday, and Denver until he can resolve "internal divisions" in Colorado's labor movement that "could threaten the effectiveness and potentially damage" it over the long haul.Source: Washington State Labor Council, Afl-Cio

kelleyj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5068

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