A Worm’s Eye View of the AFL-CIO

by editor | Jun 7, 2011 | Labor Relations Ink

Harry Kebler, editor of the Labor Educator, has published five articles over the past month laying out what he sees, from a labor insider’s perspective, as the problems with the AFL-CIO. Here are a few of our favorite passages – “A basic principle of unionism (and democracy) is the right of members to choose their officers in a free and fair election. In the AFL-CIO, members do not have that right. They are given a prepared list of candidates to vote for, in a sham election where there are no opposing candidates. ” “Since there is no independent oversight committee to check on AFL-CIO expenditures, officials can spend our money freely, for whatever purpose suits them. If the Federation suffers financial losses in poor investments, they do not have to disclose the losses. If they make costly mistakes, they can keep them secret.” “The AFL-CIO is currently in the hands of an oligarchy of middle-to-elderly white males who do not depend on the membership for re-election. To keep up the fiction of diversity, they appoint women and minorities to the Council, who can be removed if they criticize the established policies of their leaders.” “The AFL-CIO can’t grow under its present structure, because it has a frozen leadership. The Old Guard functions like a private, self-serving, self-perpetuating club. It has no interest or need to make changes that could strengthen the Federation. They prefer to maintain the status quo and you can guess why.“ Remember, this guy is a union champion! And with champions like this, who needs us!