One local union is withholding dues from the state AFL-CIO, and others are considering similar action to protest the chapter’s takeover by the national AFL-CIO.
Gilbert Ortiz, business manager of Laborers Local 578 in Colorado Springs, said his local began withholding an assessment that normally goes to the state chapter last month.
“I am just not going to be part of the AFL until they turn it back over to local control,” Ortiz said Monday.
Ortiz, whose local represents about 1,000 construction laborers, said his union will use the held-back dues for political organizing. He and his members will continue working with the AFL-CIO in its political campaigns, he added.
Losing the assessment, which runs about $2 per member per month, could hurt the chapter, especially if the mutiny spreads, said Gary Chaison, professor of labor relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. The money is used to pay for staff, services and political activities.
The Denver Metro Area Local of the American Postal Workers Union, which has 2,200 members, and other unions are searching for ways to express displeasure with the takeover. They may also withhold their per-capita payments, said Joe Quintana, APWU field coordinator.
The national AFL-CIO took over the state chapter in January after a dispute between president Steve Adams and secretary-treasurer Paul Mendrick threatened political gains that Democrats, aided by labor, had made in the state, according to labor leaders.
Some local labor officials say the organization should have given them more time to solve the problems on their own.
The advisory committee now overseeing the federation is working to solve a number of serious issues, said Keith Maddox, a national AFL-CIO official, who is handling operations of the state chapter.
“We encourage all leaders to give them their input and support as they strive to complete their work and move the Colorado AFL-CIO forward,” Maddox said in an e-mail statement.
The national AFL-CIO decided to terminate Adams and Mendrick and replace their elected positions with an executive director.
Adams resigned last week after reaching a settlement with the organization’s national office. Mendrick has vowed to fight his ouster.
Many of the local unions are in favor of setting up a legal defense fund for Mendrick, who will need money if he battles to be reinstated, said A. Neil Hall, business manager for the Colorado Building and Construction Trades Council.
Mendrick also has launched an official appeal of the national office’s intervention, arguing that AFL-CIO head John Sweeney did not meet the criteria necessary to put the office in trusteeship.
It is the third time in the AFL- CIO’s history that the national has taken over a state chapter and the second time it has done so in Colorado. In 1972 AFL head George Meaney sent officials to Colorado after the state chapter endorsed presidential candidate George McGovern over his objections.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
