Trumka: AFL-CIO Strongly Committed to Diversity
 |
| At the AFL-CIO Diversity Conference today, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka pledged the AFL-CIO will recommit to embracing diversity at every level. |
The union movement is becoming more diverse and the new leadership of the AFL-CIO is committed to working harder to reach out to young workers, people of color, women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka said today at the AFL-CIO National Summit on Diversity. Trumka told the more than 500 participants the federation’s commitment to diversity is on its way to becoming a reality:
I’m here to tell you that we must change. That is why we’re seeking out and encouraging young people, people of color, people of all backgrounds and beliefs and sexual orientation. These are the labor leaders of tomorrow.
Diversity Summit: Future of Unions Depends on Including All Workers
 |
| 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. |
 |
| More than 500 participants took part in the standing-room only AFL-CIO Diversity Conference. |
 |
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.
AFL-CIO Convention Meeting in City Rich with Labor History
 |
||||
|
||||
The 26th AFL-CIO Convention, Sept. 13-17, will convene in a city rich with labor history. Pittsburgh is the birthplace of both the AFL and the CIO, as well as the United Steelworkers (USW), the Ironworkers and the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM). It also is the site of two legendary strikes—the Homestead steel mill strike in 1892 and the U.S. Steel strike in the 1930s.
Labor historian Charlie McCollester writes in The Point of Pittsburgh:
[Pittsburgh's] workers and industries had produced incalculable volumes of coal, iron, steel and glass. Its inventors and laborers had been the first to refine oil, manufacture aluminum and create some of the primary mechanisms of electrical generation and distribution. In a stupendous effort, its mills and factories had been the arsenal of democracy, providing much of the muscle that made the United States of America the world’s most powerful nation.
Coalition Concerned About Effect of Pulte-Centex Merger on Homeowners
 |
||||
|
||||
Robert Masciola, deputy director of the AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Research, shares this recent action by workers and their allies at Pulte Homes and Centex Corp. shareholder meetings.
In Pontiac, Mich., and Dallas yesterday, workers, community leaders, homeowners and other supporters of the Building Justice campaign came together to voice their concerns about the merger between Pulte Homes and Centex Corp. The merger will create the largest homebuilding company in the United States.
Building Justice is a partnership of the Painters and Allied Trades union (IUPAT), the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA), the AFL-CIO, Pulte homeowners, community members and elected officials to improve conditions at Pulte developments. Members of the coalition staged rallies in Pontiac (Pulte) and Dallas (Centex) to coincide with shareholder meetings in each city to approve the merger.
5,300 Employees at Southwest Airlines Reach Tentative Pact, and More Bargaining News
Some 5,300 employees at Southwest Airlines reach a tentative pact, and more updates from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
IAM, Southwest Airlines: Some 5,300 customer service and reservation agents at Southwest Airlines, represented by the Machinists (IAM) District 142, reached a tentative four-year agreement. The agreement, which still needs ratification by workers, is retroactive to last year and runs through October 2012.
