Split labor groups agree to join campaign efforts

Two national labor groups have agreed to set aside their differences and work together to mobilize political activity this election year.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, says his organization will join with the Change to Win Coalition to form a national committee to coordinate election activities. Unions from both groups will work together on get-out-the-vote campaigns, candidate endorsements, and support for labor leaders who are seeking public office.

''The entire labor movement is united by the desire to make working people's issues the country's priority this election year," said Sweeney.

Meanwhile, Anna Burger, chairwoman of Change to Win, said that her organization would allow its affiliates to continue to participate in local AFL-CIO labor councils and pay dues so they can help mobilize voters. Burger and Sweeney made their disclosures Tuesday.

Last month, Burger asked all seven Change to Win unions to sever financial ties with the councils until Sweeney had granted the United Farm Workers a solidarity charter. The charter allows members of the seven unions to work with the AFL-CIO. The federation had refused to issue the charter to the farm workers because only the first five breakaway unions were eligible, the AFL-CIO said.

Lane Windham, an AFL-CIO spokesperson, said yesterday that Sweeney had decided to ask the AFL-CIO Executive Council to consider issuing a charter to the farm workers.

Jeffrey Crosby, the president of the Massachusetts North Shore Labor Council, applauded the labor leaders' decision yesterday. Last week, in an e-mail sent to 119 labor council presidents around the country, Crosby urged Burger to reverse her decision to discontinue dues to the labor councils, saying that labor could not afford to break ranks in such an important election year.

''The desire of the unions at all levels to work together on the fall elections were sufficient to overcome any immediate differences," said Crosby. ''This is a big deal for labor councils all over the country. They are breathing a sigh of relief right now."

The AFL-CIO and Change to Win have been at odds since last year, when the seven unions broke ranks with the federation, citing disagreements over strategy, organizing, and financing. In forming Change to Win, the unions took an estimated 6 million union members with them, reducing the AFL-CIO's national membership to about 7.5 million.

The seven are the Service Employees International Union; UNITE Here, a laundry and textile union; The International Brotherhood of Teamsters; United Farm Workers; the Carpenters Union; Laborers International Union of North America; and United Food and Commercial Workers.