Sweeney-Backed Resolution and Budget Approved by a 2-to-1 Margin, Advances Next to Executive Council and Convention

The AFL-CIO Executive Committee—a 24-member advisory group made up of top union leaders—overwhelmingly approved a plan put forward by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney today to dramatically shift the work of the labor federation and unite unions for the twin goals of increased organizing and more member mobilization for politics and legislation.  The group also approved a new two-year budget that funds the program. 

“Working people are under attack as never before by corporate and political forces, and today’s plans will help the union movement fight back with all our united strength,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.  “Union movement growth and workers’ political power are fundamentally linked and we must strengthen both simultaneously.”

The leaders, by a 17 to 7 vote, voted to send to the Executive Council the updated plan, a version of which was first introduced at an Executive Committee meeting in early March, where it passed by a 16 to 8 vote.  The resolution will be voted on by the Executive Council, a 54-member constitutional leadership body, at its meeting at the end of June.  If approved, the resolution will be presented to the AFL-CIO convention at the end of July.  The Executive Committee vote on the budget today was also 17 to 7.

“Without growth, we cannot sustain wins in the policy debates and political contests that determine the future for working people,” asserts the resolution.  “And without a more hospitable, pro-worker political environment, we cannot grow as fast as we must.”

The resolution, entitled “A Plan to Help Workers Win: Uniting our Power to Build a Stronger, Growing Labor Movement,” points to “30 years of corporate assault and government complicity” as a key factor in the erosion of unions’ strength.

Yet more workers than ever say they want unions, the resolution points out.  Fifty-three percent of non-union, non-managerial workers say they would join a union tomorrow if given the chance, according to Peter D. Hart Research Associates—the highest percentage recorded since Hart began collecting this data in 1996.

The new plan emphasizes unity among unions and union movement-wide change, rather than change only at the Federation level.  “Every union in every sector must change and work to build a stronger movement in the spirit of solidarity, mutual support and mutual accountability that defines us.”

The plan calls for increased resources for helping more workers form unions, or organizing, through (1) a ramped up effort to change public policies to help restore workers’ freedom to form unions and (2) an accelerated initiative to help more unions increase their capacity to organize, especially outside the deeply-flawed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) process.  Specific changes include creating a $22.5 million Strategic Organizing Fund, establishing industry coordinating committees for more strategic organizing, changing provisions of the AFL-CIO constitution (Articles XX and XXI) to support these committees’ work, training 100,000 worksite stewards by 2008 to defend workers’ freedom to form unions, encouraging and actively promoting mergers of unions, and supporting a major global campaign against Wal-Mart.

The plan also calls on unions to unite to win legislative and political change in the face of the Bush and congressional leaders’ “crusade to eviscerate worker protections, dismantle the New Deal social compact and enrich its corporate and affluent base.”   The leaders said their goal is to “lay the groundwork and build steadily over the next several election cycles to ensure that by 2012—when the next period of redistricting takes place—a pro-working family majority takes power.”  They asserted that their focus is not on political party, but on supporting elected leaders who support workers.

Under the new plan, the AFL-CIO will move from a focus on biannual Get-Out-the-Vote work to building year-round capacity for mobilizing members for politics and legislation.  The federation will fund this work by increasing the Member Mobilization Fund for legislative and political action by approximately $7.5 million per year.  None of the fund will go to contributions to political candidates.

The plan also calls for building on the initial success of Working America, the AFL-CIO’s new community affiliate for non-union workers, by increasing members to two million by the end of 2006.

The resolution prioritizes grassroots movement-building and calls on the AFL-CIO to strengthen state and local labor movements by requiring strategic planning and budgeting, and consolidating local labor federations.  The AFL-CIO will expand leadership development with grassroots union organizations, and work to ensure diversity of representation at every level of its structure.

To fund the shift in resources to organizing and political mobilization, the federation has already begun a review of all programs and a reorganization of its staff, which will be reduced by 25 percent.

Contact: Lane Windham or Suzanne Ffolkes 202-637-5018