NEA’s Van Roekel: This Is Our Time, This Is Our Opportunity

by James Parks, Sep 15, 2009

The changes in our country since the November elections have been dramatic and union members must be ready to take advantage of the opportunities for working people. In a powerful speech at the AFL-CIO Convention this morning, National Education Association (NEA) President Dennis Van Roekel said this is the time for working families to rebuild America’s working and middle class.

Making those changes requires power and power comes through unity, Van Roekel said.

We must find a way to change the country’s attitude towards the union movement and the middle class. We need the power to act.

AFT President Randi Weingarten, who introduced Van Roekel, pointed out that in the past year, NEA has walked the walk of worker unity, joining “shoulder to shoulder” with AFT on every major issue affecting public education and working families. So far, in four states, the NEA and AFT affiliates have merged, adding more than 650,000 members to the AFL-CIO. Another 26,000 NEA members have taken advantage of the AFL-CIO labor solidarity partnership with NEA that allows NEA locals to directly affiliate with the federation.

The nation needs unions, Van Roekel said.

You cannot have a middle class without a labor movement. In times of economic woes, labor unions are not the problem, they are the solution. We need the Employee Free Choice Act now. We need green jobs now. We need affordable health care now to build a different America.

If we want a better future for our country, Van Roekel said, workers must be dissatisfied enough over what is wrong to act to change it.

I hope when you leave this convention, you are so gloriously dissatisfied to do what you have to do to change the plight of the middle class. This is our time. This is our opportunity, our responsibility to make these changes.

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