Good Jobs * Strong Communities * A Just Economy
In Wake of Katrina, Workers Forced to Rebuild Their Lives on Minimum Wages

Top AFL-CIO leaders today announced a major new initiative under the banner of “America Needs a New Direction,” laying out a plan to strengthen communities here at home, starting in the hurricane-swept Gulf Coast, and to work for good jobs and a just economy across the nation.  AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka were joined by a dozen national, state and local union leaders to announce the initiative.

“We are committed to rebuilding the Gulf Coast and restoring our country as one where everyone has a genuine chance at the American Dream,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.  “We can’t do that exploiting workers by suspending prevailing wage standards and affirmative action requirements.  Not by awarding no-bid contracts …Not by cronyism in appointments.” 

The leaders pointed out the tragedy of workers who have lost everything being forced to rebuild their lives on minimum wage.

“Our top priority in the Gulf Coast and in our nation has to be restoring fair play to Americans in every walk of life, rather than catering to the rich and the big corporations,” said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka. “The AFL-CIO is committing our resources and the energies of our unions and their members to a campaign to move our country in a new direction and we’re going to start with making sure we invest in the real priorities in Gulf Coast communities,” 

The AFL-CIO’s “America Needs a New Direction” program -- as laid out in a new AFL-CIO Executive Committee statement -- has a dual focus.  At one level, it describes a massive coordinated effort among unions to respond to the crisis in the Gulf Coast region, and call for good jobs and attention to community needs in rebuilding the area.  On another level, it lays out a new national union program to push for major shifts in national priorities. 

In the Gulf Coast, the union movement responded immediately to the needs of the victims of Katrina - - it donated more than $10 million, set up seven workers’ center throughout the South, and put teams on the ground to help survivors.

“America Needs a New Direction” lays out a plan to ensure that the Gulf is rebuilt fairly and with good jobs. 

The plan in the Gulf Coast includes a call to:

1) Coordinate all union responses and fight for real support for families through unemployment compensation, quality education, job training and other public services;

2)  Convene a panel made up of former Secretaries of Labor and HUD and union and community leaders to call for fair wages and good priorities for reconstruction;

3)  Make sure the Gulf is rebuilt with good jobs, and work to over-ride Bush’s suspension of the requirement that federally funded projects pay average community wages to prevent exploitation and ensure high standards;

4)  Marshal the power of more than $400 billion dollars in union-sponsored pension funds behind new capital investment in the region;

5)  Demand transparency and accountability in all contracts;

6) Reach out to working families in the area through our community affiliate, WorkingAmerica.

Nationally, the union leaders laid out a plan to call on the nation to invest in new priorities for America.  “The same public policies that left working people and the poor to fend for themselves in the Gulf can be found in every state,” said Sweeney.  “We will lead a renewed struggle for good jobs, a fair economy and a just society.”

Nationwide, unions plan to:

1) Host town hall meetings in dozens of cities this Fall and Winter to debate our nation’s priorities ;

2) Sponsor a mass national “Community Walk for Change,” and contact a million households;

3) Call on elected leaders not to cut programs for working people in order to finance the Gulf coast rebuilding;

4) Push for a special windfall profits tax on oil companies, and use the revenue to help working people handle higher energy costs;

5) Mobilize behind an increase in the minimum wage, guaranteed health care for ALL our families and the creation of good jobs;

6) Increase efforts to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which guarantees working people the freedom to improve their lives through unions;

7) Sponsor campaigns in states to pass affordable health care legislation, raise the minimum wage, to pass laws to break the cycle of fear that employers create on the job when they use the workplace to force their viewpoints on workers - including their views on politics, religion and labor organizing, and to establish living wage ordinances.

8) Launch a multi-union Solidarity Campaign in which unions of the AFL-CIO join with and support each other on large, strategic organizing drives. 

The “America Needs a New Direction” program will be discussed and implemented by the full AFL-CIO Executive Council on October 6. 

Contact Lane Windham 202-637-5018