July 25—Meeting in Chicago, delegates to the 25th AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention committed to taking major steps forward to build a stronger union movement by approving key measures that require increasing diversity at every level of the federation.
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| Delegates to the AFL-CIO Convention approved a resolution protesting CAFTA, which is up for consideration in the U.S. House this week. |
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In the afternoon session of the Convention’s opening day, delegates approved Resolution 2 and constitutional amendments 1 and 3 that add representatives of the AFL-CIO’s six constituency groups and allied retiree organization to the General Board and require the AFL-CIO Executive Council and state and local union movements to develop plans that increase diversity by the next AFL-CIO Convention in 2009. In addition, Constitutional Amendment 3 adds vice president slots to the council to increase racial and gender diversity.
In his keynote address, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said Resolution 2 “Will clear a path to power by addressing one of our most serious shortcomings as a movement...our actions towards achieving diversity just don’t match our words.”
Fighting CAFTA
Delegates also approved resolutions 3 and 4 that reaffirmed the values on which the union movement was founded—economic security, opportunity and equality. The two resolutions recommit the federation to fight for programs and policies that reflect those fundamental values, such as family-supporting jobs, secure retirements, affordable health care coverage, educational opportunity and the freedom to form a union.
After delegates approved a resolution opposing the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the nearly 2,000 delegates and guests waved signs demanding Congress stop the unfair trade deal, which may get to the House floor this week. Many delegates also took the opportunity to phone and e-mail their members of Congress through Working Family Network kiosks set up adjacent to the Convention hall.
Nation’s Top Champions for Workers’ Rights Address Delegates
Three of the nation’s top champions for justice and equality issued calls for the union movement to fight passionately for its beliefs. “We have a stronger country and a more just country and the reason is just six letters: A-F-L-C-I-O,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). “We have shed too much blood, too much sweat and too many tears to turn around now.”
Former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards challenged delegates to “speak up with strength and passion about our convictions—and if we do that we will take back the courthouses and the statehouses and four years from now, we’ll take back the White House.”
NAACP Chair Julian Bond reminded the Convention that the fortunes of the nation’s minorities and the disadvantaged are inevitably tied to those of workers. The Bush administration is carrying out a class war from the top down that is hurting workers and minorities, Bond said. “They believe in trickle down economics and I’m tired of it trickling on me.”
Throughout the first day of the Convention, delegates passed resolutions 2, 3, 4, 50, 52 and as a group, 17, 18, 19, 20, 27, 28, 29, 30 and 47.
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