Major Unions Disaffiliate from the AFL/CIO

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Press Release






Statement of James P. Hoffa on the Teamsters' Disaffiliation from the AFL-CIO



July 25, 2005

Good afternoon. This is an historic day. I join my brother Andy Stern and the great SEIU in a joint announcement.

I am here today to announce that the General Executive Board of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has unanimously voted to withdraw our membership from the AFL-CIO.

This decision has been reached through a lengthy and thoughtful process. It has been a difficult decision to make and we do not take this step lightly.

The Teamsters General Executive Board is directly elected by our 1.4 million members to chart the course of our great union. And after months of discussion and deliberation, we have made our decision as a matter of principle and have decided on a new course of action.

We submitted, in good faith, proposals to dramatically change the direction of the AFL-CIO to stem the losses that we have endured over the past decade. We proposed that the AFL-CIO embark on a new course of action that would not only protect our existing Teamster members and their families, but lead to thousands of new working men and women having the opportunity to organize into a strong union that would give them the chance to achieve the American dream – to own their own home, send their kids to college and plan a strong retirement.

In our view, we must have more union members in order to change the political climate that is undermining workers rights in this country.

The AFL-CIO has chosen the opposite approach.

Today’s decision means that we have chosen a course of growth and strength for the American Labor Movement based on organizing new members.

We have partnered with seven strong and progressive unions in the Change to Win coalition to organize the unorganized and create real power for the working families of America.

Earlier today the leadership of the Change To Win coalition met with our respective organizing directors to set in motion a process of building larger scale strategic organizing capacity.

This is just the beginning of a new era for America’s workers.

And let me be clear, the Teamsters will remain the bulwark of the labor movement. Striking workers, no matter what union they belong to, can always count on the Teamsters for support and assistance. That is our history and tradition and we will never waver from our proud role as defenders of America’s working families.

We will continue to work with our brothers and sisters in the Building Trades, in State Federations and Central Labor Councils to achieve justice for all working people. But let me be clear, our coalition will not allow corporate America to pit one union against another to the detriment of our members and their families.

We wish our brothers and sisters that remain in the AFL-CIO the best of luck in their efforts. We pledge cooperation with the AFL-CIO on all the fronts that affect working families.

Click here to read the letter of disaffiliation from Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney: http://www.teamster.org/05news/PDF/20050725disaffiliationltr2.pdf

SEIU Leader's Statement:
Statement by SEIU President Andrew L. Stern
July 25, 2005

Thank you for joining all of the SEIU executive officers today – Anna Burger, Eliseo Medina, Tom Woodruff, Gerry Hudson, and Mary Kay Henry.

Yesterday, SEIU made the decision to not participate in today’s AFL-CIO convention.

Last night, after years of discussion across all levels of our union, our International Executive Board met. Today, we have made the decision to disaffiliate from the AFL-CIO.

I want to stress that this was not an easy or happy decision.

In itself, it represents not an accomplishment, but simply an enormous opportunity, and a recognition that we are in the midst of the most rapid transformative moment in economic history, and workers are suffering.

We are walking down a road, and the mileposts are clear.

A country that once had 35 percent union membership is now down to 8 percent in the private sector.

And the results are that workers have less health care,
less time to spend with their families, less secure pensions in their retirement, but more debt and more insecurity about the future.

The American dream has slipped out of reach for too many.

Our world has changed. Our economy has changed. Employers have changed…but the AFL-CIO is not willing to make fundamental change as well.

By contrast, SEIU has changed.

Our union was started in 1923, right here in Chicago. In fact, we’re meeting today at SEIU Local 1 – our very first local. Those original members were janitors…

Immigrants – Italian, Irish, Polish -- who traveled to this country in search of that same American dream.

And despite the fact that other unions looked down on them, these workers united, found strength, and gave birth to a new union which has become the largest union in the AFL-CIO and the fastest growing in the world.

In the past 9 years alone, we have united more than 900,000 workers – largely people of color, immigrants, and working women -- because SEIU members made decisions to:

- unite themselves into unions large enough to be successful

- devote the needed resources to organizing

- develop the strategies to unite workers and set high standards in whole industries, markets, and employers

- and make our union at all levels truly reflect the diversity of today’s workforce.

Those choices – the choices of our members – are at the heart of SEIU’s disaffiliation decision. Those choices are the very ones we proposed to the AFL-CIO. Those choices are at the heart of the Change to Win Coalition.

I’m proud to be here today with President Hoffa and to stand with the other Change to Win Presidents who are committed to this type of fundamental change.

A lot has been said about the differences between our strategy and the package proposed by the AFL-CIO leadership.
They are not differences in purpose or goal. They are fundamental differences in basic strategy.

We believe in very fundamental change, not incremental reform.

We believe in accountability, not what ‘should’ happen but what “shall” happen.

We believe we can and will succeed based on our own efforts – not a rescue by others.

We know…that when you’re heading down a road and you know where it ends…you have to get off that road and go in a different direction where there is hope.

As I have said, many times before, the future of American workers is not a matter of chance but a matter of choice.

Today, SEIU is respectfully making a choice to go in a different direction that we believe will work for working people.

We wish the AFL-CIO well, and hope they are successful. We may disagree but we intend not to be disagreeable.

But we know that working people in America can’t afford to wait any longer.

Our goal is not to divide the labor movement, but to rebuild it -- so working people can once again achieve the American Dream.

Today, we take the first step down that new road.