My busy fax machine spit out this June 3rd letter from Joe Hansen to John Sweeney. It’s an interesting contrast at least in perception to the AFL-CIO’s comparison of the two competing visions of what needs to be changed in the labor movement. The AFL-CIO comparison states pretty clearly that there is not a lot of difference between the approaches so why split the labor movement?

Hansen’s reply is not exactly “Jane, you ignorant slut” but he does say pretty clearly “There are serious and substantive differences about the direction, the structure, and the operations of the AFL-CIO and the labor movement that must be addressed and resolved in the interests of our current and future members. More of the same is not acceptable to UFCW, nor is it to America’s workers. The status quo will not stand.”

As Hansen sees it, the differences boil down to redirecting resources to organizing, governance of the Federation and the proper role of the AFL-CIO. At the end, Hansen gives a veiled signal that the UFCW is seriously contemplating leaving the Federation: “The UFCW believes in a united, reformed AFL-CIO as the center of a new movement to build worker power, but unity without a common commitment to reform serves no purpose.”

Again, I post. You decide.