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Local AFL-CIO regains control year after takeover by national

By Joanne Kelley, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published March 27, 2008 at 9 p.m.

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Mike Cerbo says state unit has "pulled back together."

Mike Cerbo says state unit has "pulled back together."

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The Colorado AFL-CIO will regain local control of its operations today, closing a bitter chapter for the state's organized labor movement.

The move restores autonomy to a group whose previous internal divisions prompted last year's takeover by the national office and the ouster of its top elected leaders. Members of the state labor federation will vote to make the change official at the group's convention in Denver.

"We've pulled back together and we're moving on," said Mike Cerbo, who was hired as executive director of the Colorado AFL-CIO after national trustees took control of the state office's daily operations and removed its president and secretary-treasurer from their posts.

At the state convention, member unions will vote to change the Colorado AFL's constitution to reflect the switch to having an executive director oversee the group instead of elected officers.

The group split into factions amid disagreements between its main leaders. When the national office appointed Washington labor leader Rick Bender to serve as the state federation's trustee, he concluded that both of the officers needed to be removed to keep member unions from defecting.

Former Colorado AFL-CIO President Steve Adams and Secretary-Treasurer Paul Mendrick lost their jobs in the power struggle.

"If we were to keep one or the other, we would probably lose one-half of the unions" in the state, Bender said last April. "There was no way we could bring unity. That's the rationale."

The AFL-CIO, both at the national and local level, had already suffered a blow a couple of years earlier when several key labor unions left to form their own coalition, Change to Win.

With the trusteeship issue behind it, the Colorado AFL will turn its attention to the coming election season.

"It's going to be a big political year - from the White House all the way on down," Cerbo said.

The former state lawmaker said the labor group would be working to get more representatives in the Colorado legislature who support "working family" policies. The state AFL-CIO's members will also play an active role in campaigning for up to four statewide ballot initiatives backed by organized labor, Cerbo said.

kelleyj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5068