The withdrawal of the SEIU and Teamsters from the AFL-CIO has led to intense debate, not only amongst the top brass of the labor movement, but down to the delegates on the floor of the AFL-CIO convention and union members across the country. Delegates have been left to ponder whether the division of the labor movement will lead to an upswing in organizing similar to the 1930s, when the CIO was born out of the AFL, or whether a divided union movement will only hasten labor's decline on a national level.
See "Labor Debates the Future of a Fractured Movement", Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times, July 26, 2005