Fitzsimmons and Reuther offered the AFL-CIO a no-raid pact as a first step toward building a working relationship between the competing trade union centers, but the offered was rejected.Flint, Jerry M. "No-Raiding Pact Offered Meany." New York Times. November 24, 1968. AFL-CIO President George Meany denounced the ALA as a dual union, although Reuther argued it was not. The ALA later passed a resolution permitting ALA members to raid AFL-CIO unions or organize in jurisdictions claimed by AFL-CIO unions if the AFL-CIO-affiliated union was not doing enough to organize workers into union. Although Reuther had a lengthy list of unions he hoped would join the ALA, few did so. In September 1968, the 110,000-member International Chemical Workers Union (now part of the United Food and Commercial Workers) affiliated with the ALA, and was expelled from the AFL-CIO a year later."Chemical Workers Join Reuther Group." United Press International. September 19, 1968; Stetson, Damon. "A.F.L.-C.I.O. Expels the Chemical Workers for Ties to Reuther." New York Times. October 4, 1969. Ten of the largest local unions (representing 40,000 members) belonging to the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union disaffiliated from that international union, formed a new union (the National Council of Distributive Workers of America), and joined the ALA.Stetson, Damon. "Local Union of Retail Workers Is Near Split With Parent Body." New York Times. March 21, 1969; "New Union Is Formed." Associated Press. May 25, 1969. Although the United Rubber Workers and the Glass Workers both expressed official interest in joining the ALA, neither did so.Stetson, Damon. "Alliance of Teamsters and U.A.W. Poses Key Test for Reuther." New York Times. May 25, 1969. The ALA's founding split the American Federation of Teachers, which debated joining but never formally considered such an act.Dewing, Rolland. "Is An NEA-AFT Merger Imminent?" Peabody Journal of Education. 47:1 (July 1969).
