The national labor movement suffered a new split yesterday when two major construction unions ? the laborers and the operating engineers ? announced that they were quitting the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO. The unions also said they would soon announce the creation of a rival building trades group, the National Construction Alliance, that would include the carpenters, the bricklayers, the iron workers and the Teamsters.
See "2 Major Construction Unions Plan to Leave A.F.L.-C.I.O. Unit.", Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times, February 14, 2006