March 3, Las Vegas—Meeting in Las Vegas March 1–3, the AFL-CIO Executive Council tackled core issues critical to the future of America’s union movement and working families.
The meeting was part of a process the union movement has been undergoing to evaluate current challenges and determine how to respond to strengthen the movement for the future.
The AFL-CIO Executive Committee, with representatives of the AFL-CIO’s largest unions, has recommended a program that combines raising new resources for organizing with urgently needed investment in long-term political mobilization.
Throughout the three-day meeting, which included vigorous debate about changes the union movement should make to become a more effective advocate for working families, council members emphasized the link between politics and enabling workers to form unions.
“Unless we change the anti-worker policies that are destroying good jobs and stop the forces that are rolling back workers’ rights, we can’t win gains for workers,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. “A long-term plan for greater political and legislative mobilization is essential to strengthen and build the labor movement.”
AFL-CIO Executive Council Recommends Strategies for Organizing, Political Action
The Executive Council recommended the July AFL-CIO convention adopt a historic plan to improve the ability of state labor federations and local labor councils to carry out organizing and political mobilization. The plan calls for establishing state strategic planning and budgeting systems; setting accountability standards for state and local councils; ensuring support from affiliate unions; amalgamating central labor councils where needed to form larger labor bodies with greater political mobilization capacity; and maintaining or establishing local councils as a political voice for workers in communities.
The council also awarded Mikhail Volynets, president of the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine, the 2004 George Meany–Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award; supported New York City’s bid to host the 2012 Olympics; endorsed a bill of citizens’ media rights to ensure competitive, diverse and independent media; and adopted resolutions supporting full inclusion and equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers.
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