Edwards, Miller Honored at AFL-CIO Organizing Summit

by James Parks, Dec 9, 2006

Former Sen. John Edwards (top) and Rep. George Miller receive the AFL-CIO Paul Wellstone Award from AFL-CIO President John Sweeney (bottom, right).

Last night, the AFL-CIO Organizing Summit took a break from strategy sessions to honor two men who have been stalwarts in the fight for workers’ rights: Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and former Sen. John Edwards. The two received the Paul Wellstone Award, named in honor of the late senator from Minnesota, which the AFL-CIO established to highlight elected leaders who take a strong stand for workers’ freedom to form unions and who fight for social and economic justice.

For summit participants, this was a good chance to unwind, relax and get to know other organizers. During the hour-long reception before the dinner, hundreds of us talked about organizing and what has been happening at the summit, which ends today.

Luella McQueen, an AFSCME member from Jacksonsville, Fla., said the summit should have been even larger than the more than 600 organizers who are here:

We need to bring more people to these kinds of meetings. It’s been very interesting. We ought to get those volunteers who walked door-to-door, not just the leaders and top organizers. There’s still a lot to be done and we need everybody to be a part of it.

One brother from the Office and Professional Employees said this summit is different from some of the meetings he’s attended over the past 15 years:

I like that we are able to speak our minds and they [summit leaders] are listening. Usually, they just talk and we listen. This time it’s a dialogue. They’re listening.  

The banquet itself was also a step away from the usual. Edwards, who arrived early, mingled with the participants at the reception, shaking hands and talking with the organizers.

I spoke with Edwards before the banquet and he said receiving the Wellstone Award was a special honor:

I have great personal admiration for Paul Wellstone and the way he courageously stood up for workers’ right to organize. The right to organize is essential if we are going to save our middle class.

Emceed by comedienne Jackie Guerra, the host of “Workin’ It,” a national radio show sponsored by American Rights at Work (ARAW), who kept the program moving along with jokes and her obvious enthusiasm for workers.

David Bonior, chairman of ARAW, outlined why we were honoring Miller and Edwards.They both have stellar workers’ rights records:

• Miller, the incoming chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, has spent his entire 32-year career in Congress fighting to create better jobs and a more secure workplace for America’s workers. He is the chief sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act and a major backer of an increase in the minimum wage.
• Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina and Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004, is now director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina. During the campaign he spoke constantly about the “two Americas” that exist today in our country, one for people at the top who have everything they need and one for everybody else who struggle to get by. Over the past two years, he has campaigned to raise the minimum wage and supported workers’ rights, particularly the right to form unions.

As one of the summit participants from the Machinists said:

They are both great men. They care about what happens to the little people. If we had more leaders like them, our country wouldn’t be in this mess.  

The two-day Organizing Summit 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.

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article |Comments (0)