Chicago
AFL-CIO Executive Council statement
The vast majority of America’s workers are struggling to maintain their living standards in the face of massive job loss, stagnating wages, rising economic insecurity, eroding health care and retirement benefits and mounting debt. The economic policies that have dominated our nation for the past 30 years are the direct result of choices made by those in power. At the richest moment in our nation’s history, the American Dream is fading for most of us—but it doesn’t have to be this way. We can, and must, do better. We can begin to restore the promise of America by fundamentally rethinking our country’s economic policies so the economy works for all.
The story of today’s economy is the story of a growing imbalance of power between workers and employers. If we are to balance the power of employers and allow workers to share the prosperity they help create, our union movement must become stronger. To become stronger, we must organize millions of new members into unions and bargain aggressively to defend our members’ living standards. We must elect worker-friendly politicians who will support our efforts to restore the freedom to form unions and the Employee Free Choice Act, to put in place comprehensive health care reform, and to fight for good jobs. Just as important, we must engage in a “war of ideas” and directly challenge the Corporate Agenda—those policies that inhibit union growth and weaken our bargaining power.
As a first step, over the next 90 days, the AFL-CIO will lead a labor movement-wide campaign to train 1,000 activists/presenters to mobilize for “An Economy That Works for All.” These activists will engage thousands of union members in their communities, at their workplaces and in their union halls on the federation’s campaign for economic justice.
Our goal is to build workers’ power by informing and mobilizing union members around a common analysis of the economic problems facing America’s working families, and a critique of the Corporate Agenda and the set of policies that is undermining the bargaining power of workers and their unions. We will lay out a proactive alternative Working Families Agenda that will balance power and rebuild an economy that works for all. We want union members to understand that these problems can be addressed, and that our political leaders must commit to implementing policies that support workers and their families—setting the stage for tens of thousands of union members to become active in Labor’s 2008 political program.
The education will focus on three key policies in the Working Families Agenda: 1) restoring workers' freedom to form and join unions by calling on Congress to enact the Employee Free Choice Act, 2) solving America’s health care crisis by working for comprehensive health care reform and 3) protecting good jobs through trade and industrial policies that support the creation of good jobs in America. We will connect these issues to electing pro-worker candidates who agree with our Working Families Agenda in the coming year and beyond.
The national AFL-CIO, along with the National Labor College, will conduct a series of “Train-the-Trainer” sessions around the country working with national unions, state federations, central labor councils and constituency groups. The first wave of trainers will then train the front-line union member activists who will be responsible for engaging other union members directly in the “Economy That Works for All” education campaign.
The AFL-CIO and the National Labor College will work with our affiliates to develop the curricula and materials needed for this effort, and will provide these materials to national unions, state federations, labor councils and constituency groups.
Union activists who participate in the training will be asked to commit to holding at least six education sessions at the local level over the next six months and also will be recruited to become active in the Labor 2008 political program and to become involved with state and local legislative issue work.
The American labor movement is the most effective organization fighting for economic justice in our country’s workplaces, in the streets and at the polls. But we must also fight, and win, the war of economic ideas on behalf of working families. We have a significant opportunity to build on the victories of 2006. The momentum we build through this education effort can help elect worker-friendly candidates in 2008 and beyond to put us on a path to getting Congress to enact a progressive economic agenda for working families today and in the future.
Educating, organizing and mobilizing thousands of new voices for change will help us redeem our country’s promise, restore the American Dream and build an economy that works for all.