WASHINGTON – In a new sign of dissatisfaction within organized labor, two national trade unions broke away yesterday from an alliance affiliated with the AFL-CIO after complaints about declining membership and misplaced priorities.

The Laborers International Union and the International Union of Operating Engineers, representing more than 1 million members, are breaking away from the umbrella group known as the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO as of March 1. The umbrella group still has 11 unions representing about 2 million workers.

The Laborers and Operating Engineers will join with four other unions in the construction business – the Teamsters, Carpenters, Iron Workers and Bricklayers unions – to form the National Construction Alliance, a confederation aimed at expanding union membership in the construction field. The new alliance will focus heavily on building union strength in almost 30 states where the construction business has low union membership.

“While the construction economy has grown, living and work standards for construction workers have fallen,” said Terence O’Sullivan, Laborers’ president. Union representation among construction workers has fallen to 13% from 40% in 1973, he said. O’Sullivan and Operating Engineers President Vincent Giblin said they were frustrated with the umbrella group’s lack of action to reverse declines in membership, outdated rules and priorities more focused on Washington politics than membership recruitment, workplace safety and job security.