Last night, a meeting was held between representatives of the Change To Win Coalition and a small group of Central Labor Council and State Fed reps. “They are really discouraged,” says my wag early this morning (I’m not even dressed…I can’t speak for my source since we did this my phone…yes, folks, you can call me early).

If you remember, the Change To Win Coalition had put forth an amendment which is at the heart of the debate over whether to allow unaffiliated labor bodies to take part in Federation local and state organizations (you can see the relevant language at the bottom of page 5 and top of page 6 in the Coalition’s proposals). That amendment was defeated in the Constitution Committee.

But, apparently, the amendment has been resurrected and will be brought to the floor today. As the CLC leaders who met last night see it, this is a way to throw some red meat on to the floor of the convention–delegates will rise to speak about the amendment and, in the process, point out that the Coalition’s unions are not in the hall to defend its own amendment, and, then, proceed to defeat the amendment. Of course, the Laborers and Farmworkers are at the convention so we’ll see how that plays out.

My source also confirms the accuracy of what I reported on yesterday. The CLC leaders have already been threatened by representatives from AFSCME, the machinists and communications workers–they have been told that if they take any money from SEIU or the Teamsters, the other unions will not participate in CLCs. That strikes the discouraged CLC leaders as odd since yesterday the praise for CLCs was ringing through the hall from a variety of speakers who made passionate speeches about affiliates needing to fully participate in CLCs and build the movement from the ground up. Hypocrisy anyone?

In fact, to be concrete, I’m told that the Washington State Fed president, Rick Bender, has called the Teamsters’ representative in his state and told him he will not accept anymore per capita checks from the Teamsters–but they are welcome to come as guests (personally, if it’s the usual donuts and other junk food served at those kinds of meetings, I’d tell the Teamsters’ folks to pass).

UPDATE: I received an e-mail from David Groves of the Washington State Labor Council. He clarified his council’s position: “SEIU and Teamsters delegates who registered to attend our annual convention next week in Spokane have been invited to attend the convention as guests. That’s way different from somehow inviting the Teamsters to remain in the WSLC as “guests” – which is what you say here — which makes it sound like they can come to all our meetings and passively participate in our organization.”

In one sense, this is discouraging: I continue to say…this position makes no sense, and certainly John Sweeney has been steadfast in his position on the issue. Why not let any legitimate union pitch in to a Central Labor Council or State Fed? We often hear of the lack of resources for those central labor bodies, on the one hand, and yet, on the other hand, there’s a lot of rhetoric about building the labor movement from the ground up. Here are non-affiliated unions will to HELP the AFL-CIO accomplish its mission…Am I missing something here?

But, on the other hand, the national leaders’ position may have awakened a sleeping tiger. As I found out yesterday from roaming the halls, a lot of the CLC leaders see the whole internal political fight has having nothing to do with them. I’ll be the first one to say that not all CLCs and State Feds are equal–a good number are fairly weak and ineffective. But, there are some really terrific, dynamic people running other local and state labor bodies.

By taking a hard line, the national leaders may be igniting a longer term declaration of independence from the national AFL-CIO–not officially cutting ties but actually building their own networks and plans distinct from what happens inside the Washington circle. I think the national presidents have picked up on this rumbling and, as a result, are trying to calm the waters by, for example, putting out a proposal to raise the per capita tax four cents to raise money that would be dedicated for CLCs and State Feds, as well as proposing a resolution (that passed yesterday) calling for a summit to be held very soon to discuss how the disaffiliation of SEIU and the Teamsters (and other disaffiliations to come) have changed the landscape for the AFL-CIO.

In any case, the Change To Win coalition is planning a meeting to talk about the relationship between the coalition and the CLCs and State Feds. “We want to see what they want from us and we’re generally going to try to be constructive and we will commit resources to them,” says my source.

Damn, listen up CLCs and State Feds: grab this love right now. Everyone is sucking up to you but, remember, that won’t last. And, check this out, John Sweeney says you have to practice monogamy but the coalition has no problem with you going to the dance with the AFL-CIO and the coalition together. Hmmmm…