The union that represents more than 4,000 Inland Southern California construction workers has rejoined the AFL-CIO, five years after breaking off from the umbrella group to join a rival organization.

The Laborers International Union of North America announced Monday it will renew its affiliation with the AFL-CIO as of Oct. 1. The union was one of five major labor groups that joined the Change to Win federation, formed in 2005.

Change to Win was formed because some unions believed the AFL-CIO, an organization whose roots go back more than 120 years, was not doing enough to advance the labor movement by organizing. The Teamsters, the United Food and Commercial Workers and the Service Employees International Union were among the unions that initiated the split.

The Laborers are the second union to go back to the AFL-CIO. UNITE HERE, which represents textile, hotel and restaurant workers, left Change to Win in 2009.

In a statement, Terry O'Sullivan, general president of the Laborers union, said the union was looking to promote unity across the labor movement.

"A united union movement can better focus Congress -- and particularly the U.S. Senate -- on helping to leader our nation, rather than being locked in inaction," O'Sullivan said in the statement.

At the time of the split, the unions said the AFL-CIO was not putting enough of its resources into organizing.

While Change to Win has helped its unions become more sophisticated and aggressive in organizing drives, critics say it never became a viable challenger to the 55-year-old AFL-CIO as a new model for organized labor.

"It's an organization that never really got off the ground," said Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor historian at UC Santa Barbara. "Everything Change to Win did could have been done inside the AFL-CIO."

John Smith, secretary-treasurer and business manager of Riverside-based Local 1184 of the Laborers, said the union's national office had been critical of the AFL-CIO's leadership and its direction when it split in 2006, but the organization is focusing better on the issues now.

Kent Wong, director of UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, said Change to Win was the brainchild of Andy Stern, who had been the influential president of SEIU. But Stern retired early this year, Wong said.

"Essentially Change to Win has never developed an intensive alternative infrastructure to increase union organizing," Wong said.

Several leaders of Inland-based unions affiliated with Change to Win also hold key positions on the California Labor Federation, the AFL-CIO's statewide body. Connie Leyva, president of the UFCW local that represents grocery workers in Western San Bernardino County, is the federation's president, and Wong said that's not uncommon.

"Even though there was a split, on the state and local level there really wasn't a split," Wong said. "It's really a disagreement among labor leaders in Washington."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

By JACK KATZANEK
The Press-Enterprise