Ever feel you just can’t believe what you are seeing or hearing? Many of us felt that way when a Wal-Mart executive stood proudly beside Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich as he vetoed legislation requiring companies like Wal-Mart to spend just a modest amount on employee health care. Is this our country? How much more blatant can corporate control over our government get? Many of us felt that way, too, when President George W. Bush told us May 31: “Our economy is strong.” Is he living in the same economy we are? The one that added a feeble 78,000 jobs last month—about half of what was forecast? The one in which 20 percent of jobless workers have been unemployed for six months or more—the highest level in history? The economy that has allowed the super-super-rich to double their share of income since 1980, according to The New York Times, while the share earned by 90 percent of us fell? The one that has given the really wealthy a hot $18,000 for every $1 of income growth we in that bottom 90 percent got between 1990 and 2002? Corporate special interests have taken over our government—and much of the world—to lower wages and erase worker protections. Their goals: To extricate themselves from the American social compact and abandon all responsibilities for their workers’ health care and retirement security—and to be free to do business anywhere and any way that will maximize profits for the few. The corporate special interest agenda has been abetted and embraced by the Bush administration, which gives it the friendly-sounding name “ownership society.” More like “you’re-on-your-own-ership society.” We’ve got to take back this country for working families. That means we have to go toe-to-toe with corporate power. And there’s only one way we can do it: Together. To take on corporate power and win, the union movement must do two related things: We must grow bigger and we also must become a stronger political and legislative force. We have to enable more workers to form unions and gain the good contracts that make good jobs. We have to increase political and legislative muscle to build pro-worker majorities at every level of government. We need the strength to replace any president who can’t see the crisis afflicting working families today and any governor who fights for Wal-Mart instead of for working families. For months now, the unions of the AFL-CIO have been talking and listening and debating how to grow and gain political strength. As a result, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson and I recently proposed significant changes that will increase AFL-CIO investment in organizing as well as in legislative and political mobilization so we can win for working families. Our proposal has widespread support throughout the union movement. Four unions have submitted a proposal that is very similar to ours but has important differences. Some of these unions have threatened to leave the solidarity of the AFL-CIO if they do not prevail. The AFL-CIO Convention, representing all 13 million members of AFL-CIO unions, will act on these proposals in July. Meanwhile, I invite you to take a look at a comparison between the two proposals and to participate in this debate by sharing your ideas online. We are committed to hearing every voice on these crucial issues. Taking back America for working families is not a choice—it’s our mission. And we need the strength of a united union movement to do it.
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