Employee Free Choice Act Tops Agenda at Organizing Summit

Stewart Acuff, the AFL-CIO’s organizing director, explains how the union movement plans to commemorate International Human Rights Day with an Organizing Summit to plan strategies to organize and restore workers’ rights.

International Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, is less than two weeks away. The AFL-CIO and its affiliates are preparing to commemorate the day with renewed vigor, resolve and hope that we can restore fundamental workers’ rights in America.

Restoring American workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain collectively is the AFL-CIO union movement’s top political and legislative priority. During the recent election, Politics and Field Director Karen Ackerman repeatedly said political action must generate organizing. The first step in winning true workers’ rights in America would be passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

The Employee Free Choice Act would amend the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to allow private-sector workers to form unions by simply signing a card or petition. The act also would impose real penalties on employers who violate the law and allow for arbitration to settle first-contract disputes.

The chances of passing the Employee Free Choice Act increased dramatically after the stunning victories Nov. 7 by Democratic congressional candidates. There now is a pro-worker and pro-worker rights majority in the House and a Senate that is much more supportive of workers. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney asked state federations and central labor councils to make sure endorsed candidates were either already co-sponsors or that they pledged to co-sponsor the bill if elected.

Over the past three years, the AFL-CIO has commemorated International Human Rights Day with a nationwide grassroots demand to restore human rights in America’s workplaces. This year, the union movement will commemorate the day with an Organizing Summit. The summit will bring together 500 of the nation’s best organizers, union activists, union allies and national and grassroots labor leaders to plan the next stage of the campaign to win workers’ rights and pass the Employee Free Choice Act. The summit will showcase the best organizing campaigns that succeeded without going through the flawed and broken National Labor Relations Board election process.

The summit will begin Dec. 8 in Washington, D.C. President Sweeney and Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Larry Cohen, who chairs the federation’s Organizing Committee, will frame the challenge and issue the charge for the summit. At noon, the 500 summit participants, along with Sweeney and Cohen, will join 2,000 union activists, the incoming chairmen of the House and Senate Labor Committees, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), AFT President Edward McElroy and National Education Association President Reg Weaver to call for the rapid passage of the Employee Free Choice Act and the restoration of human rights in America’s workplaces.

Friday afternoon, three of America’s best organizers will talk about their campaigns to organize tens of thousands of workers outside the strictures of the NLRA. Ed Sabol, organizing director of CWA, will talk about the union’s efforts to sign up 20,000 high-tech workers at Cingular Wireless. Jim Schmitz, organizing director at AFSCME, will discuss its campaign to organize 10,000 health care workers at Resurrection hospital in Chicago. Leticia Zavala, organizing director and vice president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), will share background on FLOC’s historic campaign enabling 7,000 Mexican workers who work in North Carolina’s fields to gain a voice on the job.

Summit participants will then return to work on creating strategies to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and a plan to develop an army of 250,000 grassroots worksite leaders to push the legislation in this Congress and to elect a president who will sign and enact it.

On Friday night, the summit will recess to a banquet to honor and present the Paul Wellstone Award to Rep. Miller and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.). Radio host, actor and comic Jackie Guerra will emcee the banquet.

On Saturday, AFSCME President Gerald McEntee, who chairs the federation’s political committee, United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard and a panel of union and political leaders will discuss the links between politics and organizing.

Late Saturday morning, the organizers will break into eight workshops to focus on how to run and win strategic, non-NLRB organizing campaigns. Organizers will share what has worked for them, what to avoid, how to better work together and build the internal capacity to organize in the most difficult environments.

Patricia Friend, president of the Flight Attendants-CWA will lead a discussion on global organizing featuring Violet Seboni of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), Peter Olney of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Sharan Burrow, president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

For more information on the 2006 AFL-CIO Organizing Summit, contact Katrina Blomdahl  at kblomdah@aflcio.org or 202-637-3921.

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