Reply #13: (WA) State's unions confront the need for change (Related story)

[icymist]

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

State's unions confront the need for change

By PAUL NYHAN AND BRAD WONG
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS

Yesterday's split in the U.S. labor movement is over workers such as Patricia Scarberry.

Scarberry earns $10.70 an hour teaching kids at Tiny Tots Development Center in Rainier Beach, and she struggles. She may be a far cry from the traditional union worker, but she is the movement's future. Child care is one of the fields expected to grow in the coming years, and two of the AFL-CIO's biggest unions left the "union of unions" yesterday, in part, over how to reach people such as Scarberry.

The Service Employees International Union and Teamsters formally broke ranks over disagreements on recruiting and what some said is the organization's resistance to change.

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One reason: The fight that prompted the split is occurring more at a national level.

"We don't expect to have adversarial relationships with the Teamsters or the SEIU," said David Groves, a Washington State Labor Council spokesman.

"Part of the frustration is (that) the unions who have left, they haven't had any grievances with us at the state level," he added. "In that respect, we're like children who are victims of a divorce."

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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/234011_localreax26.html