Large union to re-join AFL-CIO coalition

The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) announced Sunday it will re-affiliate with the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor coalition, about four years after it left.

LIUNA General President Terry O’Sullivan stressed the need for unity, citing the struggling economy’s toll on the construction industry, whose workers it represents.

“Now more than ever, working people and our country need a united union movement,” O’Sullivan said. “Despite the historic success of the 2008 federal elections, too much is not getting done on Capitol Hill. A united union movement can better focus Congress — and particularly the U.S. Senate — on helping to lead our nation, rather than being locked in inaction.”

LIUNA, which has over 500,000 members, had departed the AFL-CIO in order to join the Change to Win federation, a relatively new coalition founded as an alternative to the AFL-CIO.

The powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU) played a large role in forming Change to Win, both of which are undergoing a period of significant transition. Anna Burger retired last week as chairwoman of Change to Win and as secretary-treasurer of SEIU.

LIUNA’s press release noted that when it left the AFL-CIO in 2006, “the union expressed hope for an eventual reunification, continued to organize much of its political efforts through the AFL-CIO and has been engaged in ongoing discussions with the federation for some time.”

O’Sullivan praised LIUNA’s partnership with Change to Win over the past several years.

“The LIUNA of today is different from the one that left the AFL-CIO, and that’s in large part due to the strength of Change to Win’s Strategic Organizing Center,” he said. “Neither our ongoing organizing efforts in weatherization and residential construction — the biggest campaigns we have ever launched — would have been launched without Change to Win.”

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement Monday that his group is “very happy” that LIUNA is back on board, saying it would bring the labor movement closer together.

“More than ever, now is the moment for a unified labor movement. And as we rebuild and strengthen the labor movement, we will work together to create good jobs, restore a middle-class economy and elect leaders who stand with working people,” he said. “Together, brick by brick, we will build an economy that works for everyone.”

The move will become effective Oct. 1 per a unanimous vote by LIUNA’s general executive board.

— This post was updated at 9:40 a.m.