Today, there are going to be a series of speeches coupled with discussions about organizing campaigns: Houston Janitors, Advance Demolition, Cintas, Wal-Mart, School Bus Drivers, Smithfield Foods, DHL and Hotels. I’ll report in with summaries of as many as possible. What did dawn on me is this: why do most union conventions take a week and cost millions of dollars? This puppy is going to be done in one day–partly because its tossing off the usual habit of wasting a lot of “air time” on politicians who come in and give completely meaningless speeches.

Yesterday was pretty much a series of meetings of the delegates. Had a chance to catch Laborers President Terry O’Sullivan in the hall. Earlier I had heard that at his delegate meeting O’Sullivan reaffirmed that the Laborers leaving the AFL-CIO is a matter of “when not if.” Look for something definitive to happen by October 15th if something is not worked out that satisfies the Laborers on the issue of Solidarity Charters.

Anyway, O’Sullivan said that he’s hopeful that we’re getting to a point where there’s a recognition that “there’s going to be two labor federations and the question is how do we work together and complement each other. There’s been emotions from both sides. If we can take the emotion out of it, at the end of the day…the reality is that we have to work together.” He also voiced strong support for trying to work out relationships at the local level with AFL-CIO local labor bodies. “This isn’t a rival Federation but a new Federation which is commited to working with the AFL-CIO. If this was about growing at someone else’s expense, I wouldn’t have joined CTW.”

Last evening there was a rally at the convention center across the street from the hotel. Jesse Jackson spoke, saying “we must stop the assault on the American Dream…the American workers must have the right to organize and make a decent wage.” There were other short speeches but basically people chowed down on bar-b-que chicken and pork, hot dogs and burgers and, of course, spirits.