By Doug Cunningham

Two construction unions - the Laborers and Operating Engineers - have left the AFL-CIO's Building Trades Council. Laborers President Terry O'Sullivan says a new, more modern approach to the construction industry is needed in the labor movement, so the unions are forming a new organization called the National Construction Alliance.

[Terry O'Sullivan} : "We cannot stand idly by tied to a past that promises only further decline for construction workers, their unions and employers."

Operating Engineers President Vincent Giblin says he wanted to see changes in the AFL-CIO's Building Trades Council's issues focus and approach to jurisdictional disputes, but those changes were refused.

[Vincent Gilbin] : "We had harbored the hope that common sense and logic would prevail at the building trades department and that the collective good had triumphed self-interest. But apparently this is not the case. That compels us to move on, to pursue a new course of action that best serves the interests of our members, our local unions and most especially the construction industry where each and every one of our rank and file go to work every day."