by James Parks, Dec 8, 2006

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As hundreds of union organizers and supporters attending the AFL-CIO Organizing Summit marched down New Jersey Avenue in Washington, D.C., heading to the Capitol this afternoon, we chanted: “Union power on the rise. Now’s the time to organize!”

Many of us—more than 1,000—carried signs and wore “Employee Free Choice Act NOW” stickers.

Said Jos Williams, president of the Metropolitan Washington [D.C.] Council:

This is what being in a union is all about—working together, marching together, winning together. I love this confidence. Union folks will not be stopped.

And when we reached the Capitol, we were joined by thousands more union members and long-time workers’ rights champion, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). He was joined by a broad spectrum of civil rights and labor leaders—Wade Henderson from the Leadership Council on Civil Rights and union leaders such as Electrical Workers President Edwin Hill; ACORN President Maude Hurd; AFT President Ed McElroy; AFSCME President Gerald McEntee; Jennifer Pae, president of the U.S. Student Association; Capt. John Prater, recently elected president of the Air Line Pilots; Fire Fighters President Harold Schaitberger; and National Education Association President Reg Weaver.

What made this rally different from others over the past six years is that this time workers are in position to really make a change in the direction of the country.

You could see it in the fact that in less than a month, Kennedy and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), another champion of workers’ rights, will become chairmen of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and the House Education and the Workforce Committee, respectively. And they intend to re-introduce the Employee Free Choice Act, which will allow workers to join unions through card-check and limit employers’ ability to stop workers from forming unions.

You could hear it in Communications Workers of America (CWA) President and AFL-CIO Organizing Committee Chairman Larry Cohen’s fiery remarks during the opening session of the summit:

It’s not about the size of our unions, it’s about our rights on the job, our bargaining rights. It’s about the squeeze on the middle class…the squeeze on every job…the squeeze on every worker…The election of Nov. 7 was a turning point for all of us and we’re going to continue turning it until we have justice for all of us.

You could sense it in the determination of organizers like Daniel DiTolla, co-organizing director for the Theatrical Stage Employees:

I’m here because the one critical change we must have is to change the law, which has been used to deprive us of our rights rather than help us gain them.

You could feel it when AFL-CIO President John Sweeney told the rally that we will pass the Employee Free Choice Act in the next Congress:

Brothers and sisters, this is a fight we will win because we have so many fighters and champions in every corner of our country….

Between now and the end of the year, we’re going to get recommitments from the 200-plus co-sponsors we lined up in the House last year and the 44 we persuaded to join us in the Senate. We’ll also be visiting with all the new members of Congress….so when they take up their work in January, we will have solid majorities in hand so we can proceed with speed.

All of our unions and our allied organizations will be working to educate and mobilize their leaders and their members and AFL-CIO unions will be training and activating 250,000 union stewards!

The Organizing Summit, meeting Dec. 8–9 in Washington, D.C., is bringing together organizers, leaders and union members from around the nation. Participants are focusing on successful grassroots organizing techniques and innovative campaign strategies that have enabled workers to join unions despite the anti-union decisions of the Republican-dominated National Labor Relations Board.

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