Monday, August 01, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

POLITICAL NOTEBOOK: National shake-up no big deal to local labor leaders

Head of Nevada AFL-CIO already discussing new organization for dissident unions

Danny Thompson, executive director of the Nevada AFL-CIO, speaks at the group's convention at Paris Las Vegas in 2001. Photo by John Gurzinski.

To hear local Democrats and labor leaders talk about the recent defection of the Teamsters and service workers from the AFL-CIO, you'd wonder why the big unions stuck with the umbrella organization so long.

"In many ways, it can be better this way," said Danny Thompson, executive director of the Nevada AFL-CIO.

That's quite a way to view the loss of a majority of your union's 165,000 members in the state.

Roughly 80 percent of the state's AFL-CIO members are Teamsters, members of the Service Employees International Union or belong to the powerful Culinary local 226.

In early press accounts about the disassociation of the Teamsters and SEIU from the national AFL-CIO, Thompson said a move would be made at the national convention to change bylaws and permit the local unions to stay with the AFL-CIO.

When that resolution didn't even reach the convention floor, the reality came into sharper focus. Thompson was losing lots of political muscle and money from union members within his organization.

Teamsters and SEIU members in Nevada are prohibited from affiliating with the AFL-CIO here. And, as of today, the AFL-CIO no longer reaps the benefits of their members' dues.

"There are some angry, hurt feelings on the national level, and those could percolate down here," said Steven Miller of the conservative Nevada Policy Research Institute. "I'm not sure how Danny Thompson will react when 80 percent of the people he's supposed to lead are in these dissident unions. He's got to go outside the AFL-CIO to keep his people."

Thompson believes the national shake-up will just change the mechanics. He's already talking about a new organization for the dissident unions, a Nevada Federation of Labor.

"And there's nothing to preclude me from running both," Thompson said. "In Nevada, everyone is committed to the state organization, and we are politically strong."

State Sen. Steven Horsford, Nevada's Democratic national committeeman and the president of the Nevada Partners' Culinary Training Academy, believes the overall impact to the local unions will be negligible.

But even Horsford worries about the impact of the disassociation at the national level.

"I think it sends a good message to the Democratic Party," Horsford said. "Democrats can't just rely on labor. They have to work and be accountable and answer the question, `What do you stand for' "

New parties bid for ballot

Nevada voters might have more choices in 2006 if new parties seeking to qualify for the ballot are successful.

Although a white separatist group has received most of the publicity recently for seeking to form the White Peoples Party, two other groups have filed paperwork to gain ballot access.

The Veterans Party, headed by Las Vegas resident Gregory Holland, and the U.S. Constitutional Political Party, headed by Marvin Frisbie of Reno, both have submitted paperwork with the secretary of state's office.

Holland said his group filed in June and is actively trying to win a spot on the 2006 ballot.

Proposed parties must collect 7,914 signatures by Aug. 11, 2006, to qualify as a party with a slate of candidates for the Nevada ballot.

But Steve George, a spokesman for the secretary of state's office, said the U.S. Constitutional Political Party does not appear to be active. The paperwork was filed in November 2003, and recent efforts to contact the organization have been unsuccessful, he said.

The proposed party's constitution includes an anti-abortion stand and the abolition of the Internal Revenue Service, among other issues.

Frisbie could not be reached for comment.

Holland, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Somalia, said his party is on the ballot in many states already and that it's not just concerned about veterans issues.

Holland said the party essentially stands for America first. The party is opposed to illegal immigration, foreign aid and international trade treaties, which he said have helped other countries at the expense of the United States.

The party supports the militarization of the country's borders to halt the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States, Holland said. It also supports maintaining the existing Social Security system, but not for illegal immigrants.

The war in Iraq is an illegal war and is not supported by the party, Holland said.

The Veterans Party Web site is: www.veteransparty.us.

In addition to the Democrats and Republicans other parties on the ballot in Nevada include the Green Party, Independent American Party, Libertarian Party and Natural Law Party.