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AFL-CIO Activists to Discuss Ways to Make Movement Truly Diverse |
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Almost half of union members are women, and one of five is a person of color. To better represent all workers, the AFL-CIO is working to increase diversity at all levels in the AFL-CIO union movement. We cannot meet today’s organizing and political challenges and opportunities until all our members are engaged and contributing to our struggle.
At its 2005 convention, the AFL-CIO adopted Resolution #2, a sweeping plan to increase the diversity of union leadership at all levels. Federation President John Sweeney called approval of the resolution
one of the most important landmarks for the union movement in our generation
and said it will change the face of the union movement.
Resolution #2: “A Diverse Movement Calls for Diverse Leadership,” calls for:
- AFL-CIO convention delegations to reflect the diversity of their unions;
- Central labor councils and state federations to implement plans for diverse leadership; and
- Job, training and promotion opportunities.
The resolution reads, in part:
We will not allow women, people of color, gay or lesbian workers or brothers and sisters with disabilities to be denied the fruits of their labor in the workplace. We cannot be less vigilant and demanding of ourselves. Building a stronger union movement to improve the lives of working families will require all of us, working together. If we fail to hear every voice and to speak for every worker, we all are weakened.
Recognizing that now is the time to open wide all the doors of leadership and full inclusion, the AFL-CIO is holding four regional discussions in June and July on the “Power in Diversity.”
These diversity dialogues will provide local and regional union members, elected leaders and activists, members of constituency groups and central local body and state federation leaders with information about Resolution #2 and other programs. Participants also will identify problems that exist in attaining diversity and highlight best practices in the areas of full participation and diversity.
The first Power in Diversity dialogue will take place June 9 in Atlanta. The others are set for Philadelphia (June 16), Detroit (June 23) and San Francisco (July 14). Click here for more information and here for a registration form for the Power in Diversity dialogues.
In a letter to AFL-CIO state federation and local central body leaders, Sweeney writes:
We now have to make Resolution #2 real. We have to make sure that our movement is strong. There is power in diversity. These dialogues will provide an opportunity for union members, union officers, constituency group members, and state and local leaders to come together to discuss full participation and inclusion for all members, examine best practices and strategize ways to implement Resolution #2.
6 Comments
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Now it is more than ever time that we all stick together. Men, Women, Black and white. No matter race religion. We need to be united and let the politicians know we will no longer stand for the favoring of the rich over the working poor or working middle class. If Bush gets his way their will be no more middle class.
I’m all for diversity. With the obvious exception. That exception being those who think they have a right to live in MY country ILLEGALLY!
diversity causes division
In this day and age, we shouldn’t have to bring diversity to the table—it should have been there all along. Better late than never!
One of the earliest criticisms of the labor movement was the absence of people of color and women—it was run primarily by “old white guys”. If our leadership doesn’t reflect the membership—who does that help?
We can revitalize our unions by embracing our differences, and moving forward as workers united for a single cause—rights at work. Human rights, where global companies are concerned, on the job—if you are hired, and a union member, you should have rights. And if you are here illegally, those employers shouldn’t be able to take advantage of your status to low-ball your compensation.
That people are not able to become citizens is a problem. That they are exploited as workers is another, different problem—because it directly affects our ability to earn a living wage. Invisible jobs, and wages paid under the table, only help the greedy employers who care nothing about the consequences.
The government has no problem accepting income tax and social security tax from some of these workers, by the way. I have never had the government turn down any witholding from a worker with a shaky I-9 profile.
I have to totally agree with No Amnesty and find all those in Congress that support any form of allowing illegal aliens any right of US citizens are anti Union and anti American. We as Union members need to let them know we won’t support those that offer support for those that are stealing our jobs and reducing our wages.
Well, I don’t agree with No Amnesty, not ever, and personally believe that the labor movement should be making every outreach to these workers, and bringing them into our ranks. Why? Because you know scab employers are going to be recruiting them as union busters. Therefore, we counter organize. That’s the first thing.
The second thing, as Sivanandan of the Race and Class Institute used to say, is that “illegal immigrants” are here, because our political system through programs like the so-called “free trade” agreements” is allowing giant corporations to use their pressure and act as a world government that dispossess the poorest workers in the part of the world that the so-called “illegal immigrant” is from. They’re up here, because our so-called “partners in production” among the coporate elite are outsourcing our jobs to their countries, where scab employers flount the law and use death squad style government to protect the rights of so-called “corporate citizens”.
I say let them come up, give them full amnesty, and conduct a massive outreach to get them organized and with us. Those who would shut them out, like our friends No Amnesty and Timber Hunter, are helping the richest investor classes in this nation create a vast reserve army of labor to break our unions. Labor first. All of labor. If capital is allowed to speak so glibly about “globalism”, it’s time labor rebuilt our commitment to globalism. But let it be a global movement led by the working class majority of every country, and across borders.