Yesterday, the AFL-CIO Executive Council held its last meeting before the July convention in Chicago. If there was going to be any *public* compromise or thawing, it could have happened yesterday. But, nope, things are pretty much headed the same direction.

According to one person from the Change To Win coalition, “the meeting was another exercise in reinforcing the status quo. Rubber stamped sweeney proposals.

The AFL-CIO Officers were unwilling today to guarantee our unions a real voice at the AFL-CIO Convention in July. While the AFL-CIO affiliates that belong to the Change to Win Coalition represent 35% of the membership of the AFL-CIO, we will have less than 9% of the delegates to the Convention because of the undemocratic way the AFL-CIO constitution allocates delegates.”

Sweeney does have the power to direct roll call votes based on per capita membership on critical issues that are at the heart of this debate. But, says this wag, “without a ruling by President Sweeney for roll call votes on critical issues, including a package of amendments submitted by our unions, the Convention will simply rubber stamp the AFL-CIO Officers proposals and amendments short of real debate and discussion. Our unions are calling on President Sweeney to ensure a real debate over the future of the labor movement in July by modifying the rules of the Convention and guaranteeing roll call votes based on per capita membership strength on critical issues.”

The unions had sent Sweeney a letter last week requesting roll call votes (I’ll post that letter as soon as i get it today). According to this person, Sweeney said he would address the issue at the Executive Council meeting. When UFCW president Joe Hansen raised the roll call vote issue, Sweeney said he would address it later–but never did. Apparently, votes on the budget and other issues went pretty much as expected, with Sweeney holding his supporters together.

So, based on this last Council meeting before the convention, the Change To Win coalition has to hope that it can somehow persuade Central Labor Councils to side with the coalition’s call for a roll call vote. That is a hard mountain to climb since CLCs are not known for their inclination to be independent from the top leadership of the AFL-CIO.