Eight years after leaving the AFL-CIO, the United Food and Commercial Workers will re-affiliate with the labor federation, delivering a blow to the remaining members of Change to Win, including Service Employees International Union and its 150,000 members who are healthcare workers.
Observers say the move signals that UFCW increasingly will compete with the SEIU, the largest healthcare union, to organize healthcare workers.
UFCW represents 1.3 million members, and its return adds one of the country's largest unions to AFL-CIO, which already boasts more than 12 million members. UFCW, SEIU, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and four other unions in 2005 left AFL-CIO and formed Change to Win. The new coalition explained the move to members by saying the unions needed to concentrate more on organizing and recruiting to build power and influence.
Officials from UFCW, which represents mostly grocery and retail store workers, said they are open to working with their former Change to Win allies. Joining the AFL-CIO gives them access to additional resources to build a grass-roots movement.
Some observers weren't surprised by the move, citing the Obama administration's preference for dealing with a more unified labor movement versus individual groups with splintered interests.
The UFCW has stepped up efforts in the healthcare field, organizing at hospitals, clinics and nursing homes, said Denise Keyser, an attorney with Ballard Spahr in Cherry Hill, N.J.
SEIU, which represents 2.1 million workers, has more healthcare workers than any single union. But observers say it should be concerned about competition from the UFCW.
“They're not just meatpackers and supermarket workers anymore,” Keyser said of UFCW. “I think you will see more organizing in the healthcare industry as a part of AFL-CIO.”
The majority of SEIU's healthcare workers live in California, represented by SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West. The union spokesman, Steve Trossman, said it's difficult to determine the impact of the departure as UFCW's retail sector is quite different from the healthcare industry.
SEIU hasn't given any indication it's considering rejoining AFL-CIO.
Chris Cimino, of Chicago-based Chessboard Consulting, saw the UFCW move as bad news for SEIU and Change to Win: “They, along with the Teamsters, are becoming more and more isolated from the mainstream American labor movement.”
Declining union membership was one of the reasons SEIU and the others formed Changed to Win, and those numbers continue to decrease. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this year that union membership was at 11.3% in 2012, a decrease from 11.8% in 2011.
Follow Ashok Selvam on Twitter: @MH_aselvam
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