Discussion continued in Chicago Wednesday over the split in the AFL-CIO and the creation of the Change to Win coalition. Workday Minnesota interviewed several union leaders from Minnesota to get their reactions to these changes ? and their views about the future of the labor movement.

Tom Keegel
Secretary-Treasurer of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and President of Teamsters Joint Council 32 in Minnesota
"We have 45,000 Teamster members in Minnesota. What this means is they have demanded a change in the way we operate. We need to work hard to organize workers in this country. That is our goal. We've thrown money at politicians and that's not done the job.

"We believe that you have to be involved in the political arena, not only at the national level but in the state of Minnesota. But if you don't have the members, you have a hard time getting people elected who believe in the same philosophy that we believe in.

"What's being portrayed by some of the leadership of the national AFL-CIO -- that we are so-called outcasts -- that's not the case. We believe in a different direction . . . It is our goal to continue working with the federation, with all the unions within the state."

Steve Hunter
Secretary-Treasurer of the Minnesota AFL-CIO and member of AFSCME
"It presents some challenges for the future. The healthy thing is that people are debating what's the best approach to organizing more members. Hopefully we keep our focus on that. We're going to do everything we can in Minnesota to continue to move labor forward. . . . This isn't unprecedented in the labor movement. We all know that the CIO left the AFL at one time. In 1955 they came back together and we had a really strong labor movement. I'm confident that in time we'll all be back in the same House of Labor again. It's just a matter of working through this.

"There is a lot of discussion about how this plays out in the field. There are some who say there should be no communication, no collaboration. There are others who say we're not going to put the knife in each other's back, but we're not sharing resources. It's too early to tell right now how that's all going to shake out."

Ray Waldron
President of the Minnesota AFL-CIO and member of the Roofers Union
"We have a model in Minnesota we'd like to present nationally, have some of these national labor leaders review and follow. The down part of this (split) is that a lot of the leaders, a lot of the good young leaders in Minnesota have no control over what happens. They'll follow their internationals or else be replaced."

Russell Hess
President of the Southeast Central Labor Council and member of the Laborers Union
"The Laborers union right now is not talking about leaving the AFL-CIO, but if they did, and I'm president of the Southeast Central Labor Council, I'm not going to be president of the Southeast Central Labor Council. It creates a leadership vacuum. If UNITE-HERE leaves our central labor council, that's the recording secretary and a trustee that are not available to be on the board anymore. It creates leadership problems in a small central labor council where sometimes it's hard to find leaders to step up to lead the labor movement.

"We do it (cooperation with nonaffiliates) now. The Carpenters union came out in Labor 2004 and knocked on doors with us . . . We had people from the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees knocking on doors with us and they're not affiliates with the CLC. It's critically important in a town like Rochester. We don't have 60,000 people to choose volunteers from. Any volunteers that come to us, we're going to get them involved, one way or the other."

Connie Beissel
President of the Southern Dakota County Labor Council and member of the National Association of Letter Carriers
"I'm a recent labor council president. I was just elected this year. I've only had seven months on the job . . . This is an historic convention, no doubt. For me to come in, during all this chaos, it's kind of overwhelming for me. I'm not sure what I can do with my one lonely vote. Thankfully my union isn't one of the ones disaffiliating."

Bob Oswald
Representative of the Carlton County Central Labor Body and member of PACE-USW
"We'll have to wait and see what comes out of this convention and how much fighting there is. In Minnesota, the Carpenters pulled out but we've always accepted the Carpenters in our group. . .We've got some differences. Hopefully in Minnesota, we can all work together, even though there are some differences with the top people."

Rhys Ledger
Teamsters Joint Council 32 Director of Organizing
"I'd like to state for the record that we have no intention of raiding unions opting to remain in the AFL-CIO. In fact, quite the opposite is true. We're actively working with those unions to agree on formal and informal no-raid agreements."

Michael Madden
Representative of the Chisago County Central Labor Council and member of Machinists Lodge 112
"I think our responsibility is to be an example in Minnesota. We have a history and practice. We push the envelope forward in 2004 and 2006 is coming. The way we've been able to do that is because we respect one another and we have unity. How is this going to play out? We're going to have to study it after the dust falls. We're not going backwards. We have to bring more people to the table and that is our challenge for the Minnesota trade union movement."

Tom Cvar
President of the Iron Range Labor Assembly and member of UFCW Local 1116
"I went to the Executive Board meeting of the UFCW (which boycotted the AFL-CIO convention). They encouraged us to come to the meetings anyway as long as we're with central labor bodies. If the national AFL-CIO decides they don't want us, at that time we'll be stepping down as presidents and executive board members. . . I've been talking to Steve Hunter and Ray Waldron. At this point, we are still going to work together as much as we possibly can over the next few months until some decisions are made one way or the other. I've got a good working relationship with them and I want that to continue."

For more information
Watch our our video report, Minnesota union leaders speak out
See the Workday Minnesota special section, Labor's Future