Change to Win Denies Report of Rift 2007-03-28

WASHINGTON -- Change to Win, the coalition of labor unions that broke off from the AFL-CIO two years ago, downplayed a report of internal division within the organization published in Tuesday‘s Los Angeles Times. “There‘s nothing that threatens the viability of the organization. We intend to go through with our stated goals,” T.J. Michels, a spokeswoman for Change to Win, told SN yesterday. The Times report, based in part on internal correspondence obtained by the newspaper, suggested that Joe Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers, feared that Change to Win was drifting toward “autocratic and less productive” aspects of the AFL-CIO, and that Hansen had withheld a $200,000 contribution toward a Change to Win program aimed to put pressure on Wal-Mart. UFCW officials were not immediately available for comment. Change to Win was formed by the UFCW and four other unions in 2005 to focus on recruitment and organizing and less on political activities. -- Jon Springer