A New Generation of Unions: Voices and Stories from the Diversity Summit
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At the Diversity Summit, voices from across the union movement said time and again that we as a union movement need to look out for justice and fairness for every worker—on the job, in the community and in the union structure itself.
That includes not just race and gender, but also national origin, ability, sexual orientation, age and gender identity. And it doesn’t just mean talking with workers from various backgrounds—it means making sure that the leadership and the decision makers in unions reflect the members they represent.
One panelist who is an example of diversified leadership is Lorena Gonzalez, the secretary-treasurer of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Counsel. Gonzalez, who is a Latina under 40, offered her experience as a model for how to create a more diverse leadership: the central labor county’s previous leadership cultivated her as an organizer, then a political director, before asking her to run for secretary-treasurer. Now, she’s looking for ways to get more young, diverse and multilingual members and staff into the movement.
Holt Baker, Shuler: Diversity Critical to Future of Workers and Unions
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| AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker says it’s the responsibility of everyone in the union movement to help advance new leaders and get the voices of women and minorities involved in making decisions. |
To build a strong, fairly treated workforce and a sustainable union movement, we need to reach out and focus on diversity. That was the message of AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer candidate Liz Shuler to the hundreds of participants at today’s Diversity Summit.
Holt Baker said she was inspired by the people in the room who were making substantive, positive changes at the local level, the national level and in their communities to help lift up those who had been too often left behind in our nation’s history. But although the AFL-CIO and its unions have made gains in diversity and equal opportunity, there is still a long way to go, she said.
Recognize that while our early building blocks established a firm foundation, and that bricks and mortar are going into place regularly and with some scope, we still have a long way to go.
Diversity Summit: Future of Unions Depends on Including All Workers
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| UAW Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn (center), Nat LaCour, recently retired AFT secretary-treasurer, and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney were among speakers at the AFL-CIO Diversity Conference today. |
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| More than 500 participants took part in the standing-room only AFL-CIO Diversity Conference. |
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The future of the union movement depends upon our ability to recruit and promote people of color and women, the fastest growing groups of union members. Today, at the AFL-CIO National Summit on Diversity, more than 500 union activists celebrated the progress made since passage of the historic adoption of Resolution #2 at the 2005 AFL-CIO Convention, which set goals to make the movement more diverse. They also mapped strategy to increase diversity at every level in the future.
In a strong and emotional speech, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the priority on diversity in his leadership may well become the biggest legacy of his 14 years leading the federation.
“If we are to have equal educational opportunity, and equal job opportunity, and equal economic opportunity in America, then we must also have equal union opportunity in America.
“We are motivated by our moral imperatives but we also are moved toward our goals by practical persuasions. Simply put, we cannot expect more from our younger and women and minority members unless they can expect more leadership opportunity from our federation.
“Brothers and sisters, we don’t have one dues rate for African American, or Hispanic, or Asian Pacific-American members, and another rate for the rest of our members. Our women members don’ t pay lower dues than our male members. We don’t have lower dues for our gay and lesbian and transgender members or for members with disabilities. So why should they get fewer opportunities to lead and to learn?”
Sweeney’s message resonated with the audience, which interrupted his speech about a dozen times with applause and gave him six standing ovations.
UAW Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn and former AFT Secretary-Treasurer Nat LaCour, co-chairs of the Executive Council Committee on Diversity, praised Sweeney for his leadership and determination to bring diversity to the union movement.
