Obama to Address AFL-CIO Convention
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President Barack Obama will address our AFL-CIO Convention in Pittsburgh on Sept. 15, marking a major shift in the relationship between the union movement and the White House. For the past eight years, the Bush administration waged war on America’s workers, and union members took a big step toward taking back America by playing a major role in electing Obama and a Democrat-controlled Congress.
Obama will address a convention that will make history by electing a new leadership team. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney is retiring after 14 years at the helm.
Along with Obama, the Sept. 13-17 convention will hear from many prominent political and union leaders, including Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Caroline Kennedy and NAACP President Benjamin Jealous.
NAFTA Has Failed; New Development Plan Needed
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The governments of the United States, Canada and Mexico must take serious and comprehensive measures to address the dual impact of the global economic recession and the 15-year legacy of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), labor leaders of the three countries said in a joint declaration.
The “Tri-National Labor Declaration on Social and Economic Prosperity for North America” points out that the Leaders Summit in Mexico City earlier this week was an opportunity to lay out a new agenda for North America, one that could make our region competitive, sustainable and just.
NAFTA did not create thousands of promised good jobs—the jobs it did create were less stable, with lower wages and fewer benefits, the leaders said. Increased trade largely benefited the corporate elite in all three countries, and income inequality has also grown in the region, they said. And the economic crisis has only exacerbated the problems.
