The Laborers International and the Operating Engineers announced that they were leaving the AFL-CIO’s Building Trades Department to form a new construction trades alliance called the National Construction Alliance. I had written that the Laborers were going to leave the AFL-CIO–but, at least, on the timing, I jumped the gun. But, Laborers president Terry O-Sullivan made clear it’s just a matter of time before the Laborers do leave.

The Laborers’ unhappiness with the leadership inside the Building Trades Dept. is nothing new. In fact, during the contentious AFL-CIO convention last summer, there was an internal fight that really forecasted what happened yesterday. You can read about the background here and here. If you look back at that back and forth, you can see that Operating Engineers President Vicent Giblin was already in a mind meld with O’Sullivan. So, none of this is shocking.

It’s a sign of how unimportant the mainstream media considers this story that The Washington Post ran with an AP story, rather than something from its own reporter.