AFT Civil Rights Conference: Help Turn America Around
Public school teachers must work hard to make the nation’s schools places where the suffering of the nation’s children is alleviated. In her keynote address to AFT’s Civil, Human and Women’s Rights conference, Oct. 23-25 in Miami, union President Randi Weingarten said teachers can help turn America around by advocating for change inside and outside the classroom.
Building on the conference theme, “Rise, Advocate, Collaborate, Educate: Our Civil Rights,” Weingarten urged the hundreds of union members and allies to fight for health care reform, affordable housing and after-school activities for students, as well as for tools and resources in the classroom.
Said Weingarten:
We know that it takes a village to raise children. We have to pull in partners and fight to ensure that parents and children get the services they need.
Taking the Next Steps to Build Strength Through Diversity
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The diversity of the union movement is its strength. Building on the success of the historic Resolution 2 passed in 2005, the AFL-CIO Convention adopted a far-ranging policy to create more inclusive unions and a more diverse leadership.
The resolutions, “A Diverse and Democratic Labor Movement” and “Unions Should Give People with Disabilities a Voice and a Face,” call on unions to reach out at every level to build diversity.
The resolutions require every state federation and central local bodies to establish concrete goals for expanding diversity in their leadership. We also will increase our commitment to include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers and workers with disabilities at all levels. And to secure the future of the union movement, we will actively recruit, train and include young workers in all activities and programs and provide opportunities for leadership.
AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy said the union movement stands on the threshold of a crusade to rebuild the middle class. The progress made in including new workers in union leadership has chipped away at one more source of divisiveness in our movement. He praised the unions for successfully carrying out the mandate of Resolution 2 to make convention delegations more inclusive—43 percent of delegates are women or people of color.
‘Fair Pay for Air Play’ Won’t Hurt Black Radio Stations
The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) and the A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI) have joined with the NAACP to put to rest the false claims that legislation to give fair pay to performers whose music is played on radio would hurt black radio stations.
If enacted, the Civil Rights for Musicians Act (H.R. 848), dubbed “Fair Pay for Air Play,” would protect the rights of performers by ensuring that they get paid a fair wage when their music is played on the radio. The bill would close a loophole in copyright law that allows AM and FM stations to duck royalty payments to performing artists.
Big Radio conglomerates have pulled out all the stops to derail the bill. In an all-too-familiar scenario, corporate executives are resorting to personal attacks against the bill’s supporters, especially the bill’s sponsor, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.). They also have launched a misinformation campaign led by black-owned mega-company Radio One, which claims the legislation would hurt African American radio stations.
AFSCME Preparing Next Wave of Union Leaders
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AFSCME is hard at work preparing the next generation of union leaders. Last month, more than 500 AFSCME members, age 35 and under, met in Chicago for the union’s first national Next Wave Conference—three days of activism, strategizing and learning about the union movement.
During an electronic town meeting, the young AFSCME members talked about their goals and expectations as union activists and ideas on how to promote participation in their local unions.
At workshops, attendees learned how to address the media, conduct local union meetings, develop leadership skills and understand the country’s financial crisis. There even were some sessions for “older and wiser” activists and leaders who are playing a role in mentoring new and young activists.
Biden to AFSCME: America’s Workers Should Get a Union If They Want One
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The Obama administration is committed to leveling the playing field for workers and giving them the bargaining power they need to rebuild the middle class. That was the message Vice President Biden and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis brought to the 2009 AFSCME legislative conference in Washington, D.C., this week. Biden said current labor law isn’t protecting workers’ critical freedoms:
You’ve got to climb up a hill with so many roadblocks on the way to organize that it’s just out of whack.
If a union is what you want, then a union is what you should get. Labor built this country and labor should get a share of the benefits.
On the economy, Biden said the Obama administration will not consider itself a success simply by restoring the gross domestic product (GDP), a benchmark of economic growth.
From 2001 to 2008, the economy grew, but middle class Americans-they actually lost over that period $2,000 in income. If we’re not creating good, sustainable jobs, we’re not meeting our obligations.
