Why Do AFL-CIO Leaders Maintain
A Strict Disconnect with Members?

AFL-CIO’s secretary-treasurer, Liz Shuler, has persistently refused to respond to questions from union members about the financial health of the Federation and how she is spending our dues money. Unionists have been asking about rumors that the AFL-CIO is dripping red ink, and they want to know how much is being invested in organizing, education and politics—all legitimate concerns.

But Shuler, who is paid $238,975 a year, has not said a word about her job as secretary-treasurer, since she was elected for the job 11 weeks ago at the AFL-CIO convention, She doesn’t feel threatened by criticism of her unresponsive behavior.

Don’t expect President Trumka to get her to talk. He rarely, if ever, spoke about the AFL-CIO’s financial status in his 14 years as secretary-treasurer, and he never told us how the Federation’s net assets shrunk from $66 million to negative $2.3 million in eight years.

The Executive Vice President is Arlene Holt, who served as assistant to former President John Sweeney. Her duties, as described in the AFL-CIO Constitution, are: “to act on behalf of the President when requested to do so. The Executive Vice President shall administer those departments, functions, and responsibilities assigned by the President.” For this, she receives a salary of $238,975 a year and a pension equal to 60 percent of her pay when she retires.

And what about the 51-member Executive Council? Should we know what they are supposed to be doing for us? Except for a handful of Council members, they’re saying nothing publicly about the struggles of working people during the current crisis. In fact, we don’t know anything about them: their backgrounds, their accomplishments, their ideas, even what they look like or the union they come from. They meet two or three times a year behind closed doors and we never know if there’s a disagreement on policies or who said what.

Then there is the AFL-CIO Executive Committee, a new group established in 2005, which includes vice presidents from 10 of the largest international unions. This committee governs the AFL-CIO between meetings of the Executive Council and also approves the Federation budget. Although it is required to meet at least four times a year, the executive committee has not issued even a summary of any of its meetings in four years.. We’re left in the dark about how the committee is running the AFL-CIO when the Executive Council is not in session, which is most of the year.

Is the AFL-CIO Still Part of the American Labor Movement?

Some of the AFL-CIO’s big-time leaders, including a few competent ones, believe they can come up with answers to labor’s economic, political; and social problems if they are not badgered by critics demanding to know what’s going on. So far, that theory has been a bust. They’ve learned that they can’t make spectacular progress without massive support from their membership.

It is also at least partly true that many labor leaders are fearful of mass action by the rank-and-file as a potential threat to their job. Still others do not have the personality or skills to provide inspirational leadership to union members ready for action.

There is no shortage of seminars, workshops and top-level strategy sessions to find the magic formula that will encourage workers to join unions, but little attention is paid on how to inspire their members to support union organizing campaigns.

There is a lesson for Trumka and his cohort of union leaders: If they mistrust or mistreat union members and retain undemocratic practices, they’ll never succeed in building a bigger and stronger labor movement.

The men and women working at the AFL-CIO’s Washington headquarters can hardly claim a monopoly of good ideas, based on their record of recent years. So why does Trumka insist on rejecting suggestions that emanate from knowledgeable unionists who do not belong to his clique or who may even be dissidents? Smart insiders can learn a lot from smart outsiders.—Harry Kelber

LaborTalk (18) will be posted here on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2009 and on our web site www.laborsvoiceforchange.org.