Metal Trades Department Concludes Solidarity Pacts With CTW Unions
Three of the four unions that withdrew from the AFL-CIO to form the Change to Win Coalition last summer have signed a Solidarity Charter Agreement with the Metal Trades Department to enable the disaffiliated unions to maintain active involvement in the Department’s operations. As of December 20, 2005, Carpenters, Teamsters and UFCW had returned signed agreements. SEIU was expected to sign the same agreement as the other three.
The agreement authorizes local units of the four disaffiliated unions to continue as active participants in local Metal Trades Councils and, with limitations, at the Department’s national level.
The agreement conveys authority to the Department’s local Metal Trades and Atomic Trades Councils to accept individual local unions from the disaffiliated unions as active participants—authorizing them to appoint stewards, participate in dues check off, and enabling representatives of those unions to vote and hold office in the local councils—conditioned upon the payment of appropriate representation fees.
“We recognize the importance of sustaining our local leadership, and maintaining the longstanding relationships supporting our bargaining units. We are particularly pleased that the local leaders and activists from the disaffiliated unions will be able to continue in their roles as a consequence of this action,” declared Ronald Ault, president of the Metal Trades Department.
Founded in 1908, the AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department is an umbrella organization that holds exclusive recognition, and organizes, negotiates and administers collective bargaining agreements on behalf of its affiliated unions at private and federal shipyards, petro-chemical plants, nuclear facilities operated by the federal Department of Energy and a number of Department of Defense facilities. It is the only AFL-CIO Constitutional Department with exclusive recognition and collective bargaining responsibilities.
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Metal Trades Department, AFL-CiO • 815 16th Street, NW •Washington, DC 20006
Phone: 202-508-3705 • Fax: 202-508-3706 • email: metaltradesweb@gmail.com
