Two years ago, in the first major split in organized labor in 50 years, the Change-to-Win (CTW) Federation broke away from the AFL-CIO. The AFL-CIO federation lost about one-third of its membership to CTW, including the Service Employees International Union, Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Carpenters, Laborers, Farm Workers and UNITE-HERE (Needletrades and Restaurant employees).

Change-to-Win unions protested the direction of the AFL-CIO, especially its inability to grow America's unions and the spending of dues money on political action, rather than organizing, among other grievances.

The AFL-CIO Building Trades Department is also dealing with its own breaking of ranks: The Carpenters, Laborers and Operating Engineers all severed ties with the department in 2006. "I'll be perfectly blunt, I don't hold out any hope that they are coming back into the building trades," said William Hite, general president of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipe Fitters, to the Construction Labor Report.

The grievances by the breakaway building trades unions dealt mainly with issues on an International Union level - including how votes within the Building Trades Department are counted, jurisdictional issues, and budget, staffing and personnel grievances.

Hite said the building trades unions that stayed with the Building Trades Department have acquiesced to the important issues raised by the Carpenters, Laborers and Operators - but they chose to form their own group, the National Construction Alliance, and as 2007 comes to a close, remain split.

Into this environment comes Mark Ayers, who hails from the IBEW and was elected president of the Building Trades Department on Sept. 6, 2007. In a Dec. 5 message to state and local building trades councils, Ayers comments on the breakaway unions in the building trades. His message follows: