Pretty big news out of the Labor movement yesterday as the AFL-CIO, Change to Win, and the heretofore unaffiliated National Education Association are coming together to form the National Labor Coordinating Committee, a mega-federation led by David Bonior. Harold Meyerson broke the news in his Post column, where he also explained that this is a partial repudiation of Change to Win's belief that the movement should focus relentlessly on organizing. The new federation will focus primarily on lobbying and political action because the union movement as a whole now believes that major membership gains are impossible without legislative action mitigating employer power to break organizing drives. The structure, however, is a closer echo of Change to Win, with large union leaders holding more power than the Federation's president. I'm not exactly sure what that means in practice, however. Meanwhile, over at Tapped, Tim Fernholz scored a quick coup by netting an insta-interview with David Bonior.
