Winning for Working Families
By John J. Sweeney

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In 1893, AFL President Samuel Gompers asked and, with homespun eloquence, answered that question with a vision of America with “more schoolhouses and less jails.”

Today, many people outside and inside the union movement are asking the same question. Union members, progressive activists, the public and the people and groups attacking working families all are watching as some union leaders threaten to split the union movement and play out internal disputes on a national stage.

This is a disservice to the 13 million hard-working women and men we represent. It’s a gift handed to the White House, Tom DeLay, the Chamber of Commerce, the National Right to Work Committee and others whose attacks on working families are in high gear.

What does labor want today? We want a better future for working families. We want to rebuild the strength of America’s union movement to take on whatever is in our way so we can win for working families. And we all can agree on that.

Working people and their unions are under attack from every direction—from a harsh, globalized and corporate-driven economy, and from elected ideologues who put corporate profits over people and embrace the shredding of America’s safety nets to create an “ownership society.” Never has there been a greater need for a strong and unified union movement.

It’s essential that we debate how to build the strength we need and how to make far-reaching change, but we should commit to work this out together, with mutual support and unwavering focus on our common goals.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson and I recently proposed the most significant reorganization of the AFL-CIO in its 50-year history, building on the many proposals and comments submitted during a five-month process. In “Winning for Working Families,” we call for significantly increased investment in organizing and in legislative and political mobilization. We propose strengthening state and local union movements, increasing member and leadership diversity and providing affiliate unions a larger role in federation governance.

The AFL-CIO itself does not organize workers into unions—we support that work by affiliated unions. Some unions invest heavily in helping workers win union membership—but not enough unions invest enough. Our proposal calls for financial incentives to unions that meet tough standards for organizing and building the union movement to leverage massive new action to reach new members. We want to create Industry Coordinating Committees so that unions create global strategies together and implement joint bargaining, legislative and political programs. We also propose creating a fund to support strategic campaigns to bring workers’ rights and justice to employers such as Wal-Mart that are lowering working and living standards across the country. And we increase AFL-CIO investment in member education and mobilization efforts to give workers a greater voice in public policy and politics at the local, state and national levels, all year, every year—not just at election time. Not one penny of that money goes to candidates running for office.

Our proposals follow more than five months of reviewing and discussing recommendations from national unions, constituency groups, allied organizations and nearly 7,000 comments from rank-and-file union members. Recognizing the urgent need to shift more federation resources to organizing and member education and mobilization, we have restructured the AFL-CIO, requiring painful job cuts. We are certain these changes will help strengthen America’s unions so we can build that better future for working families.

Generally, our proposals have been received thoughtfully and debated vigorously but respectfully and productively. Unfortunately, not every voice has engaged in principled discourse. Some are focusing on details about which we disagree rather than the broad areas of concurrence—and threatening to tear apart our union movement, the voice for America’s working families, as a result.

Dividing and weakening our union movement does not help one single working person.

Now is the time to come together, to pull our load in one direction, to combine our strength. Union members and all working people are counting on the leaders of today’s unions to work together in good faith for a strong, united union movement that can win for working families.