Rift Splitting Big Labor Lingers Over Election, Picket Line Wins

Just when the AFL-CIO regained some political momentum through wins at the ballot box and on the picket line, it’s running into internal division about whether to prioritize broader progressive causes over core workplace-policy issues.

That’s not necessarily a new debate within the world’s largest worker group, which includes relatively conservative building trades and unions at the left end of the spectrum. But officials at some of the federation’s member unions say the conflict has reached a crescendo coming off a November election in which Democrats took control of the House and a number of state governor’s offices.

In Pennsylvania’s ...