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AFL-CIO General Board Says Employee Free Choice Campaign ‘Top Priority’ |
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The top priority for the AFL-CIO union movement is passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, the AFL-CIO General Board agreed today at its annual meeting at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md.
The General Board is made up of the AFL-CIO’s three executive officers, 44 Executive Council members, chief officer of each affiliated union, heads of the industrial and trade departments and four regional representatives of state federations.
Meeting in the new Lane Kirkland Center (click here to read about today’s dedication ceremonies), the General Board issued a statement honoring the late AFL-CIO President Kirkland for his work and dedication to the National Labor College and its education and training mission.
The board also heard form Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), a supporter of the Employee Free Choice Act that is awaiting introduction in the Senate. The House version (H.R. 800) was introduced this week and has 232 co-sponsors. (Click here, here and here to read about today’s House hearings on the bill.)
The Employee Free Choice Act would level the playing field for workers and help rebuild America’s middle class and restore the freedom of workers to choose a union by:
- Establishing stronger penalties for violations of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations,
- Providing mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes, and
- Allowing employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney outlined the tough fight ahead to educate lawmakers and the public about how the Employee Free Choice Act is a key building block in reviving the nation’s middle class.
It’s our job in the coming months to connect the dots for our elected officials and the American public. We must explain how the Employee Free Choice Act means helping workers bargain for a better future for their families…how stronger families and stronger unions mean shared prosperity and how shared prosperity means a stronger America.
The General Board’s statement notes that not all members of unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO are covered by the National Labor Relations Act (which the Employee Free Choice Act would amend) but says:
We all have a stake in enacting the Employee Free Choice Act and rebuilding our union movement. Without a strong and thriving labor movement, there will be no construction unionism, no public employee unionism, no transportation unionism and no professional employee unionism. …
…To restore the freedom of every worker to bargain for a better life…every national and international union and every part of our federation can and will play a unique role.
Dorgan recently authored Take This Job and Ship It, which slams the Bush administration’s free trade policy and the corporate-led race to the bottom that has cost millions of U.S. jobs. He told the General Board he has two priorities: pass the Employee Free Choice Act and stop fast-track trade authority that would allow Bush to win even more job-killing trade deals.
Dorgan said it’s time to reverse globalization’s branding of free trade as “good” and labor as “bad,” as well as reverse working families’ lowered expectations that globalization and Bush’s economic policies have nurtured.
Our job is to fight back and score. You don’t score on defense; you score on offense. We’ve been on the defense too long…If we do these two things [Employee Free Choice and fast track], we will send a tidal wave saying, “We’re back!.”
In the statement honoring Kirkland and dedicating the center, the General Board said:
Lane Kirkland was a passionate leader and a powerful force who dedicated his life and work to transforming the lives of working people, building a strong labor movement and promoting social justice throughout the world.
The AFL-CIO and the Board of Trustees of the National Labor College recognize Lane Kirkland’s long history of service to the labor movement and unwavering support of education and training for working men and women and deem it appropriate that this newest campus facility be named in his honor.
In March, the AFL-CIO Executive Council will meet to discuss in further detail mobilization efforts to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
In addition, the council will examine other worker-related congressional legislation, discuss a 2008 presidential endorsement process and hear updates on campaigns for fair trade, immigrant workers’ rights, making workers voices heard in the corporate bankruptcy process, and the state-level workers’ agenda.
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When I saw the huge demonstrations of Hispanic-Americans last year I immediately thought, “Why can’t American workers do something like that?” The AFL-CIO is doing a great job in identifying issues that affect workers and developing a rhetoric that could mobilize frustrated and angry workers nationwide; however, I’m concerned that the extremely tight hierarchical structure of the AFL-CIO simply won’t allow for creation of the spontaneous, popular, and local organizations necessary for a truly mass movement. As the piece on the Kirkland Center shows, right now the AFL-CIO leadership is too immersed in itself. Moreover, the mobilization that the AFL-CIO is organizing for this week is intended to strengthen the hand of union leaders in hierarchy-to-hierarchy. union officer-to-legislator negotiations. Most aggrieved workers are not union members and have no interest in hitting the streets to enhance the authority of union officers in their negotiations with politicians. We want a chance to express ourselves, find solidarity with our fellow-workers, and develop networks of activists who are both inside and outside the union structure. The AFL-CIO would do all workers a service - and enhance its prestige with non-union members - if it would help organize a mass movement without trying to control it.