LIUNA rejoins AFL-CIO

August 18 2010

The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) has announced that it will re-affiliate with the AFL-CIO after four years away from the large umbrella labor organization.

“Now more than ever, working people and our country need a united union movement,” said LIUNA General President Terry O’Sullivan. “Despite the historic success of the 2008 federal elections, too much is not getting done on Capitol Hill. A united union movement can better focus Congress — and particularly the U.S. Senate — on helping to lead our nation, rather than being locked in inaction.”

LIUNA left the AFL-CIO in June 2006 and joined the Change to Win coalition, whose members include the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. LIUNA’s General Executive Board unanimously approved the move back to the AFL-CIO.

“The LIUNA of today is different from the one that left the AFL-CIO, and that’s in large part due to the strength of Change to Win’s Strategic Organizing Center,” O’Sullivan added. “Neither our ongoing organizing efforts in weatherization and residential construction — the biggest campaigns we have ever launched — would have been launched without Change to Win.”

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the organization is “very happy” to once again count LIUNA as a member. “More than ever, now is the moment for a unified labor movement,” he said.