Washington, D.C.
The decision by the AFL-CIO to establish a mechanism for locals of recently disaffiliated national unions to remain affiliated with state and local central bodies was an historic decision, and in the past year, that decision has demonstrated its importance to all the affiliates of the Federation.
The creation of the Solidarity Charter program has resulted in more than 1,300 local unions re-affiliating with state federations, central labor councils, and local councils of trade departments. More than 2,500 of these state or local charters have been issued since the program was launched in August 2005.
During this past year, maintaining unity at the grassroots level has enabled our local central bodies and state federations to remain strong voices for the union movement – in our communities and in our state governments.
The alternative – a movement divided from top to bottom – would have left us weakened and perhaps permanently fractured.
Instead, we were able to rally support for organizing and bargaining campaigns and work together on important legislation.
The value of a united movement was seen clearly in the recent elections. In state after state, in community after community, local unions that would have not been able to participate in labor’s mobilization instead were key partners in a stunning set of labor-led victories. While not every local pulled their weight, it is clear that the participation of Solidarity Charter locals was critical in race after race.
Still, the program is not without its problems.
The national AFL-CIO and the unions of the Change to Win coalition have still not reached agreement on the payment of a "fair share" contribution by these unions toward the costs of supporting our state and local organizations. Because of this, unions of the AFL-CIO are bearing this burden alone.
And while the no-raid requirements for obtaining a Solidarity Charter has greatly reduced local union raiding, there have been some instances of raiding, both by locals of the Change to Win unions against AFL-CIO local unions and raids by AFL-CIO locals against Change to Win locals.
In addition, during the past year, while Change to Win locals have established a few organizations at the state level, these organizations have functioned mainly as coordinating bodies among the locals in that state, and have not attempted to act as a rival organization to our state federations.
Obviously, if there were a change in this pattern, and the Change to Win unions took steps to establish rival organizations in any state, that would completely undermine the intent of the Solidarity Charter program and could not be tolerated.
Despite the continued challenges of fair-share support of our state and local central bodies, and the complicated issue of raiding, the value of this program to the unions of the AFL‑CIO and to the Federation’s ability to build and maintain strong, unified state and local organizations is substantial.
For this reason, the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO hereby extends the Solidarity Charter program through the end of 2008, and the national elections of that year, with the understanding that steps will be taken to seriously address, in discussions with these national unions, these issues of concern.
The Executive Council will continue to monitor this program and review the reports from the officers of these discussions.
We urge the unions of the Change to Win coalition to seriously address these concerns and discuss in good faith ways to insure that the grassroots solidarity we have built in the past year can be sustained.