Rising here early to jump on Democracy Now! radio program. They wanted a brief soundbite for a lead-in to the program which got me thinking…what is the message this morning?

Obviously, the first thing to anticipate is the press conference at 1 p.m. where SEIU will announce it is leaving the Federation. Jim Hoffa, prez of the Teamsters, is holding a conference call with his board to make a decision on the union’s future in the AFL-CIO. There is no question that there is a strong sentiment within the Teamsters to pull out of the Federation, which probably is a mix of Hoffa’s dislike of Secretary-Treasurer Rich Trumka (you know, some of this personal shit matters) and the on-going issues the Teamsters have over jurisdiction fights. Whether the trigger gets pulled this afternoon…well, tune in later…

I think people have a slight hangover after the day’s events. Last night, I walked through the bar of the Sheraton (I was way too tired to actually drink myself) and chatted with a few people. I think there is a feeling that, well, at least, the anticipation is over–people know that the threats by the Coalition To Win were real.

We know the negotiations to make a deal failed. In talking yesterday, right after the Sweeney election rally, to Gerry McEntee, president of AFSCME, he indicated that the negotiations failed because of the issue of a successor to Sweeney, both over the proposed process and the names being floated (Laborers President Terry O’Sullivan or UNITE HERE’s John Wilhelm). There was a fair amount of grumbling from the pro-Sweeney folks that the Coalition was not negotiating in good faith and that this whole affair was, in Steelworkers president Leo Gerard’s words, just a naked power grab.

From the coalition’s standpoint, they see it as a matter of a gap of principles and programs for the future. It wasn’t just the difference in dollars between what should be invested in organizing versus politics–which, at the AFL-CIO level, wasn’t a huge difference. It was, as they see it, a difference in how to redefine the purpose and power of the AFL-CIO, both by streamlining what it did and also giving it more authority to hold member unions accountable, particularly for organizing strategies.

Is there a labor book to be written, “You Just Don’t Understand!!!”