The prospect of a divided national labor movement is a serious concern for Democratic politicians. The leaders argue that a split could hurt their candidates because it could keep unions from coordinating their political efforts as well as they did before and could mean that unions devote less energy to politics and more to fighting among themselves. Some union leaders note that the schism could hurt Democrats most at the local level by undercutting the effectiveness of state AFL-CIO's and central labor councils in dozens of cities.
See "Democrats Concerned by Prospects of a Labor Schism", Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times, July 24, 2005