Florida Activist Training Draws 200 Union Members

by Mike Hall, Nov 6, 2009

Signing up for spcial activist training are (L-R) Beverly Curphey (IBEW), Claudie Pouncey (president of the Space Coast AFL-CIO) and Marita Palmer (AFGE).

Joshua Anijar, a zone coordinator for the Florida AFL-CIO, sends us this report on a recent activist training session that drew more than 200 union members from Central Florida Labor Council unions in Orlando late last month.  

This was the Central Florida AFL-CIO’s first activist training and it will become an annual event to help equip union members with the skills and training that will help in organizing, political and other mobilizations. We had rank-and-file union members from more than two dozen unions and constituency and other labor groups. 

Fernando Redon from Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 606 says the daylong session with speakers and workshops 

gave my members a chance to get training on topics that can help them be more active in their local meetings or on the job site, while giving them a larger perspective and education of worker struggle, dignity and justice. 

After Florida AFL-CIO President Mike Williams opened the session, several members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) talked about their campaign to improve working conditions and wages for workers in Florida’s tomato fields. 

CIW’s keynote presentation described their successfully waged mobilizations against some of the nation’s largest fast-food corporations, including McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway and Taco Bell. They also spoke about CIW’s new campaign aimed at Publix, Florida’s largest grocery store chain. (Click for more on CIW’s most recent win). 

The union activists were also briefed on state legislative issues, labor law and workers’ rights and the role constituency groups such as the A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI), Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), Alliance for Retired Americans and AFL-CIO/United Way Community Service Project. 

The afternoon’s workshops included sessions on the current fights for health care reform and the Employee Free Choice Act, organizing strategies, labor law, communication and media relations and labor history. 

Josh LeClair from AFSCME Council 79 says the well-attended and successful training session 

is another example of how we have been building a strong and powerful labor movement in central Florida.

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