Local Unions Vow to Work Together Despite AFL-CIO Split

Southern California union leaders are promising to work together to bolster a strong regional labor movement despite the AFL-CIO split.

Political analysts say California unions are united by a single challenge looming on the horizon – the Nov. 8 special election which will decide measures that will affect the future of the labor movement in California.

Seven unions are expected to disaffiliate from the AFL-CIO to spur organizing under a single alliance, The Change to Win Coalition. Two of them, The Service Employees International and The Teamsters, have officially broken away.

Voters will vote on anti-union Prop. 75, which threatens to weaken the voices of working Californians by forcing unions to get written approval to spend money on political campaigns. The unions would be tied down by the added paperwork while special interests continue to pour money into issues that favor companies over working families.

Several of the state’s unions, including the California Teachers Association, are independent from the county federation, an arm of the AFL-CIO.

Martin Ludlow, head of the Los Angeles County Labor Federation, said the local leaders will work even harder to strengthen the labor movement.

“The local labor movement is going to be strengthened by the need to be even more aggressive,” he said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. Ludlow was attending the national AFL-CIO conference.

SEIU Local 434B President Tyrone Freeman, who heads the largest local in Southern California representing home care workers, also emphasized that the local unions will continue to work together.

“Our disaffiliation does not diminish our commitment to the local federation,” Freeman said.