The fax machine is humming…John Wilhelm, president of the hospitality industry division of UNITE HERE, resigned yesterday from the Federation’s Immigration Committee. In a very tough letter to John Sweeney, Wilhelm blamed a “!6th Street focus” for creating divisions on immigration that Wilhelm says will now arise at the convention.

A couple of thoughts as you read the letter. First, obviously, the timing of the letter can’t help in whatever slim chances remain to find some compromise that keeps one or more of the Change To Win unions from leaving the Federation (though another wag who wrote me yesterday says there are a few unions who are pissed at Sweeney for trying to compromise too much with the insurgents…go figure).

Second, Wilhelm’s letter levels a similar criticism to that voiced by Firefighters president Harold Schaitberger when he abruptly resigned two months ago as head of the Federation’s Public Affairs Committee: that the Federation’s staff has too much power and has not consulted the elected leaders properly. What may give this criticism some legs is that Schaitberger is a supporter of John Sweeney’s re-election. And it gives some sense that there are some broadly-shared concerns about how the Federation operates–but the broader consensus on some issues has been obscured by the choosing up of sides over the question of the re-election of Sweeney.

And, obviously, this has some added significance because, for along time, Wilhelm was rumored as a likely candidate to run against Sweeney.

Here’s the letter:

July 18, 2005

John J. Sweeney, President
AFL-CIO
815 16th St., N.W.
Washington, D.C.

Dear President Sweeney:

I write to resign as Chairman of the AFL-CIO Committee on Immigration.

The Immigration Committee you appointed after the 1999 AFL-CIO Convention has done an extraordinary job. I am grateful to all the members of the Committee for their consistent focus on human rights and on the future of the labor movement.

The work of the Immigration Committee was, until this year, consistenly characterized by serious discussion and communication among Union leaders–of very different viewpoints, from very different Union experiences–seeking to find common ground. The Committee never approached finding consensus by finding the lowest common denominator. Rather, the Union leaders on the Committee consistently strove to lead the labor movement by finding a consensus all of us can unite around.

The Committee was remarkably successful. The landmark Executive Council vote in 2000 put the labor movement where we belong: squarely on the side of immigrant workers.

The fact that Executive Council vote was unanimous was a tribute to the hard work and discussion among the leaders on the Immigration Committee. That historic 2000 vote overcame years of division within the labor movement on the immigration issue, and put us where our heritage, and our future, dictate that we belong.

By that same hard work, the Immigration Committee led the labor movement in the critically important job of finding the right path to protect immigrant wokrers after 9/11, including the historic Immigration Workers Freedom Ride in 2003, which united the labor movement with immigrant advocates, the religious community, and community organizations.

This year, sadly, you and the AFL-CIO staff took control of the AFL-CIO’s immigration work. That work suffers from the 16th Street focus.

Rather than Union leaders working hard to overcome differences and find common ground, 16th Street has taken over. You have personally sent out two important position memos without consulting the Immigration Committee, both incomplete at best, both short-circuiting the necessary debate and discussion among principals that in the past has led to consensus on these difficult issues (after one memo you called to tell me it went out by mistake; the second memo drew no such call). You and I have twice this year agreed that the Committee should meet; you said that you would find dates and schedule a meeting but no such meeting has been scheduled. The AFL-CIO staff has authorzed all statements for the Convention that refer to immigration, without any discussion by the Immigration Committee (and I note that, sadly, your comprehensive resolution entitled “The Values That Unite Us As A People And A Movement” does not mention immigration).

The predictable result is that we head into the AFL-CIO Convention with division on immigration, after five years of unity. On such an important and difficult issues, a process driven by 16th Street, instead of the Immigration Committee’s succcessful five-year history of consultation and discussion among Union leaders from a cross-section of the labor movement, will inevitably have that result.

That is why I resign as Chairman of the Immigration Committee. The Committee has been rendered irrelevant.

Be assured that I personally, and UNITE-HERE, will continue to fund every way possible to support immigrant workers. I am confident that other Unions and Union leaders will do the same. To do anything to undermine the labor movement’s unity on this is a disservice to immigrants, to human rights, and to our economic and political future.

Fraternally,

John W. Wilhelm
President/Hospitality Industry

cc: AFL-CIO Executive Council
Immigration Committee
UNITE HERE General Executive Board