Yup. The four unions–UFCW (as I reported just a few minutes ago), Teamsters, UNITE HERE and SEIU–will not attend the convention that opens tomorrow. The Laborers will likely stay at the convention–but, as I said, there is a very contentious building trades meeting going on now.

This was pretty clear this morning: as one person from the Coalition said, “let’s just get this over with and go back to work.

So, what does this mean? The big question I think, in the short term, is how does Sweeney handle the issue before the delegates, from a monetary standpoint? Forget all the rhetoric about splits being good or bad.

But, the four walkers have already not paid per capita for the last two months (an early sign that they were thinking of walking). There has to be a coming to terms with the huge shortfall the Federation will face–potentially as much as $30 million–if the Change To Win coalition unions end up disaffiliating, as a group or one by one.

Will one or more delegates stand up at the convention and ask: “President Sweeney, do you have a plan for the likely event that the Federation will face a large hole in its budget? And does that plan include asking for a large per capita increase for those unions staying in the Federation?”