Leesburg workers spurn unions in wake of AFL-CIO split
The labor group's woes worked to the city's advantage in a 2-to-1 rejection of 2 unions, an official says.
Nin-Hai TsengSentinel Staff Writer
August 18, 2005
LEESBURG -- City officials emphasized a fracture in the AFL-CIO in attempting to dissuade blue-collar workers from joining one of the unions that left the 50-year-old labor federation last month.
When the Service Employees International Union and two other major unions broke away from the AFL-CIO, it was called the biggest split in the labor movement in nearly 70 years. Leesburg Deputy City Manager Jay Evans said the splinter in the labor federation worked to the city's advantage.
"Unions preach solidarity, but you can see that they don't have solidarity in their own house," Evans said Wednesday.
Workers apparently bought city officials' message that unionization was unnecessary. By more than 2 to 1, they defeated a proposal Wednesday to be represented by the SEIU and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The vote was 114 against unionization and 52 in favor.
Leesburg city officials played up the AFL-CIO's recent shake-up, saying organizers could not possibly unite workers when they themselves are divided with different missions.
The SEIU, along with the United Food and Commercial Workers and the Teamsters, left the AFL-CIO to focus more of their resources on increasing membership. Meanwhile, the IBEW has stuck with the AFL-CIO.
City officials showed newspaper clippings about the division within the AFL-CIO and encouraged workers considering unionization -- including meter readers, electric lineman and garbage collectors -- to search the Internet for more information.
"This old sorry union they're trying to put here is not going to help us any," said Eric Coffie, 30, who makes a living maintaining the city's sewer lines. He said he didn't want to pay the $26 to $32 in monthly union dues, fearing that it would be wasted on union officials living it up.
"They'll be sipping pina coladas on some island without me, and I'll have no money to pay child support," Coffie said.
Ted Roberts, senior organizer with SEIU for the Central Florida area, acknowledged many employees were concerned with SEIU's split from the AFL-CIO. He blamed the outcome on "fear and intimidation" on the part of the city.
"We got whipped," Roberts said. "Obviously the workers really didn't want it."
City officials pledged to have an open dialogue with employees.
"Now we sit down and have very frank conversations with them," Evans said. "We'll learn, if we haven't already, what their concerns are and how we can best remedy them."
The SEIU has about 1.9 million members nationwide, Roberts said. About 2,400 members are in Central Florida, including 350 Orlando city employees.
Nin-Hai Tseng can be reached at nhtseng@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5919.
Copyright © 2005, Orlando Sentinel
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