Four major unions demand AFL-CIO delete their members from master mailing list

Submitted by Jesse Russell on May 3, 2005 - 9:21pm
Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly versionSend to friendSend to friend

Four of the unions pushing AFL-CIO reform want their member's names deleted from the AFL-CIO's master mailing list of 13 million union households. The AFL-CIO told Workers Independent News that Political Director Karen Ackerman did get a letter telling the AFL-CIO to delete the more than four million members of the Teamsters, SEIU, Laborers and UNITE-HERE. A union official who asked to remain anonymous says these unions have been the backbone of labor's political effort, yet they were not consulted in Las Vegas before the AFL-CIO's political program was proposed. These unions want affiliate unions to be in on the labor federation's political planning. They also want the membership data that has been collected by the AFL-CIO about their members but not shared with the unions. Our source says the unions want complete control over their membership lists, but they'll continue to support labor's political mobilization. The AFL-CIO had no comment other than to say they're "looking into" the matter.