Usa, sindacato, edilizia Nyt 06-02-15
2 IMPORTANTI SINDACATI DELLE COSTRUZIONI STANNO PER ABBANDONARE
L’A.F.L.-C.I.O.
STEVEN GREENHOUSE
USA: Dopo l’uscita di altri cinque sindacati di categoria
nel 2005, anche due organizzazioni dei lavoratori dell’edilizia stanno per
abbandonare la Building and Construction Trades Department, appartenente alla federazione sindacale
americana AFL-CIO, per creare un nuovo
sindacato, Building National Construction Alliance, con la previsione di 1,5
mn. iscritti, tra muratori, carpentieri, muratori, lattonieri e camionisti.
I due sindacati sono Laborers International Union of
North America, 700 000 tesserati, presieduta da M. O’Sullivan,
e International Union of Operating Engineers, 400 000 iscritti,
presieduta da Vincent J. Gublin.
1973-2005:
la percentuale dei lavoratori edili sindacalizzata è passata dal 40% al 13%.
O’Sullivan e Giblin hanno posto 4 condizioni per non abbandonare
AFL-CIO: sostituzione dei dirigenti, riduzione spese, sistema di voto con un
voto per ogni lavoratore, aggiornamento del sistema di assegnazione delle competenze
ai sindacati rispetto al tipo di lavoro. AFL-CIO avrebbe respinto solo la prima
condizione, accettando le altre tre.
Nyt 06-02-15
2 Major
Construction Unions Plan to Leave A.F.L.-C.I.O.
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
The
national labor movement suffered a new split yesterday when two major construction
unions — the laborers and the operating engineers — announced that they were
quitting the Building and Construction Trades Department of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
The unions also said they would soon
announce the creation of a
rival building trades group, the National Construction Alliance, that would
include the carpenters, the bricklayers, the iron workers and the Teamsters.
The new group,
officials from the two unions said, would have more than 1.5 million members and would be more
vigorous than the Building and Construction Trades Department in unionizing
construction workers.
"We cannot stand idly by, tied to a
past that promises only further decline for construction workers," said Terence M. O’Sullivan, president of
the Laborers International Union of North America,
which has 700,000 members. He indicated that his union would soon quit the A.F.L.-C.I.O., following
five other unions that have left the federation in the past year.
Mr. O’Sullivan and Vincent J. Giblin, president of the
International Union of Operating Engineers,
said the Building and Construction Trades Department had been ineffective in
stopping a decline in construction union membership. The percentage of construction
workers who are unionized has plunged to 13 percent today from 40 percent in
1973.
In recent days, officials with the
A.F.L.-C.I.O. and several construction unions have engaged in intense talks
with Mr. O’Sullivan and Mr. Giblin to try to persuade them not to quit the
building trades department.
"We’re saddened by their decision
to leave," said Sean McGarvey, the department’s secretary-treasurer. "This
is a net negative for unionized construction workers as we’re faced with one of
the biggest building booms ever."
He said some builders might grow more
reluctant to deal with unions if they risked being called on to sign differing
contracts with rival construction federations.
The laborers and operating engineers, which has 400,000 members, had threatened to
quit the building trades department unless four demands were met:
replacing the department’s leaders; trimming its budget; having a voting system
of one worker, one vote; and updating a system several decades old for
determining which unions are to have jurisdiction over which types of work.
Mr. McGarvey and A.F.L.-C.I.O. officials
said they had gone far to satisfy Mr. O’Sullivan and Mr. Giblin on all but
one demand: replacing the leaders of the building trades department.
Mr. Giblin said yesterday that the
department’s current leadership was indecisive, ineffectual and directionless. But
several union presidents rejected the demand for new leadership and rallied
behind Edward C. Sullivan, the department’s president.
The New York