In what some are calling the biggest rift in labor since the 1930's, four of the country's largest labor unions announced on Sunday that they would boycott this week's AFL-CIO convention, and officials from two of those unions, the service employees and the Teamsters, said the action was a prelude to their full withdrawal from the federation on Monday. The rift could hurt the labor movement badly by redirecting its focus and energies to internal battles instead of bedrock issues like fighting for wage increases and extending health care to more workers.
See "4 Major Unions Plan to Boycott A.F.L.-C.I.O. Event", Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times, July 24, 2005