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AFL-CIO NATIONAL CONVENTION
July 25-29, 2005
CHANGE TO WIN UNIONS BOYCOTT CONVENTION, THEN BEGIN ANNOUNCING DISAFFILIATION
Photo essay by Steve Share, Minneapolis Labor Review editor
(This page under construction)
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Left: Before announcing a boycott of the AFL-CIO convention, the Change to Win Coalition was very much a presence at the Sheraton Hotel as delegates arrived for the convention and a two-day conference that preceded it. Change to Win distributed t-shirts and an information packet just steps away from the registration desk for the AFL-CIO convention and also hosted a reception July 24. By the next day, however, Change to Win was all over the news but nowhere to be found at the Sheraton or the AFL-CIO convention hall at Navy Pier.
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Above: Leaders of the Change to Win Coalition applaud at a July 24 news conference at the Hyatt Hotel announcing unions boycotting the AFL-CIO convention. Left to right: Tom Keegel, Teamsters; Andy Stern, SEIU; Edgar Romney, UNITE HERE; Anna Burger, SEIU.
Below: as the news conference was about to begin, labor union members marched in a picket-line outside to protest the boycott.
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Above: a roomful of reporters and 14 television news cameras await the start of a July 25 news conference called by SEIU and the Teamsters to announce they're quitting the AFL-CIO. "When was the last time you saw so many news media attend a labor news conference?" one reporter asked a colleague. |
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Left: SEIU president Andy Stern announces pull-out from AFL-CIO: “Our world has changed. Our economy has changed… but the AFL-CIO is not willing to make fundamental change as well… We believe in
fundamental change, not incremental reform.”
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Right: Teamsters president
James Hoffa announces pull-out from AFL-CIO: “We have chosen a course of growth and strength for the American labor movement based on organizing new members… This is just the beginning of a new era for America’s workers.” |
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Below: office space ear-marked for SEIU sits empty at the AFL-CIO convention at Navy Pier. |
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