By THOMAS HARTLEY
Business First

In the beginning, the 2005 split in the AFL-CIO that created a new 6 million-member international organization called Change to Win was a non-event locally.

Some say that is still true.

"It was a national event that I don't think has made any perceptible difference in Western New York," said Richard Lipsitz, business agent for Local 264, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of seven unions that formed Change to Win.

The stance of organized labor is echoed by Kevin Donovan, assistant regional director of the United Auto Workers union, who says, "It's like a family. Everyone has problems, and you work it out in the family and don't advertise it outside your house."

There is some evidence, however, that the three-year-old intra-union dispute might now be having a trickle-down effect.

Under the former set-up, in which Change to Win unions were part of the AFL-CIO, each was bound not to raid the other's territory for new members. If a conflict arose, a mechanism existed to arbitrate the differences and settle the issue. Usually, one union agreed to back off.

However, that might be changing, said one Buffalo-area union spokesman.

Example: A recent organizing effort to represent the 165 employees of an area nursing home, Absolut of Orchard Park, pitted an AFL-CIO affiliate union, Local 1168 of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), against a Change to Win union, 1199 SEIU.

The case was handled by National Labor Relations Board Region 3 in Buffalo, which conducted an election on Feb. 8.

SEIU won handily. Employees now represented by the union include certified nurses' assistants, rehabilitation aides, housekeepers, licensed practical nurses and dietary employees.

The same two unions also butted heads in a recent organizing effort at an area industrial laundry. And elsewhere in Region 3's jurisdiction, the Teamsters and Machinists unions also vied for the same employee group in the Cortland area.

Despite those examples, however, there is no indication that turf battles are becoming widespread or turning ugly.

"Aside from those cases, we haven't seen any indication of unions (from the separate labor federations) opposing each other," said Paul Murphy, assistant to the NLRB Region 3 director.

It would not be surprising, though, if other cases arise in the future. Change to Win signaled as much at the national level in 2006 when it said it was prepared to aggressively recruit millions of new members by launching a massive organizing campaign targeting major industries in more than 35 cities.

Operating under the slogan "Make Work Pay," the campaign aims to form cooperative, cross-union campaign teams made up of organizers from the seven Change to Win member unions - UNITE HERE, UFCW, the Teamsters, Laborers, SEIU, Carpenters and United Farm Workers.

Change to Win was formed when four of those unions broke away from the AFL-CIO. The main reason was a stated disagreement over the AFL-CIO's focus on national politics and the desire of the breakaway unions to shift the major focus - and funding - to stemming the decline in union membership through aggressive organizing, primarily in the form of "corporate campaigns."

The targeted industries include transportation, distribution, retail, construction, leisure and hospitality, health care, property services, laundries, food production and processing and other services.

At the Western New York level, however, there is still scant evidence of the split, which left the old, established AFL-CIO with 10 million members and Change to Win with 6 million.

Change to Win representatives still sit on the Buffalo Labor Council and the Western New York Area Labor Federation with AFL-CIO union reps, and the president is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, a Change to Win affiliate.

The creation of different labor federations has created a dilemma for the members of the legal community. Since the split, some law firms and attorneys find themselves representing unions in both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win.

It's a hot-button issue and some lawyers, acknowledging that they have to be aware of potential conflicts of interest that could require their removal from a case, hesitate to speak too openly about specific issues and cases.

Mark Pearce, a lawyer specializing in labor issues with the Buffalo firm Creighton Pearce Johnsen & Giroux, said that with the new arrangement, labor lawyers must mediate differences between unions more often than was previously necessary.

"There are new organizational opportunities that come up in Western New York that have been attractive to Change to Win and to the AFL-CIO. Heretofore, these unions might have sat down with each other, come to an understanding and struck a compromise," he said.

"There has been less opportunity or less willingness for such compromise now. This is distressing, because it creates scenarios where unions are publicly divisive," he said.

Robert Boreanaz, a lawyer with the Buffalo firm Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria LLP, represents construction and industrial-sector unions in both labor federations.

He acknowledged that in the last six to 12 months, the national split has made itself felt in the Buffalo region.

"Jurisdictional disputes in the construction industry are on the rise, and that is unfortunate, because the labor movement should focus on organizing the non-union sector rather than competing with each other," Boreanaz said.

"But historically, we've gone through cycles - periods and cycles when unions have challenged each other's jurisdiction. We're going through a cycle right now. I wouldn't call it an ugly situation at all."

Lipsitz, of the Teamsters, takes a conciliatory position.

"There are 300 million people in this country, and we don't have to raid," Lipsitz said. "The pot is big enough. That's true in Western New York as well as nationwide."