Good morning, and let me add my welcome to each of you to this weekend conference—Building Power for Working Families—and to our opening session .... this national “summit” on diversity in the union movement.
We're here from every corner of America and every part of the movement on a mission that's absolutely vital.
Today is the first of four sessions we’re having before our convention gets underway on Monday … and in each session we’ll be laying the groundwork .....not only for the next four days, but for 13 million brothers and sisters next year … and the next decade … and the next generation.
In this opening diversity summit, we’ll be talking in a practical, nuts-and-bolts way about reaching out and including minorities and women at every level of our movement, from top to bottom.
Tomorrow morning we will be discussing ways to change our movement to help millions more working women and men organize...and about the AFL-CIO's campaign to reform the law and restore the freedom that all workers deserve to form unions.
Then we’ll focus on how we strengthen our movement and build it at the state and local levels…the arenas where most of our biggest struggles are going to be...and finally we’ll concentrate on the global level—building global unions … running campaigns that go across national boundaries …and asserting workers' rights in a global economy.
All these sessions have one thing in common—they’re about CHANGING TOGETHER and GROWING TOGETHER.
In EACH of these four different areas … we must CHANGE … and WORK … and STRUGGLE …. to make the MOVEMENT we LOVE … STRONGER and more EFFECTIVE.
Each of the areas of concern is critical—each is a major challenge—and each is a huge opportunity for us.
This turnout is AMAZING –––– I'm pleased that you are all part of the diversity summit … and I also hope that all of you will be part of tomorrow’s sessions.
YOUR ideas—YOUR talent—YOUR contributions are important to the ENTIRE union movement.
And I want you to know that I’m very PROUD of EACH of you for the part you’ve ALREADY played in making the past few years part of one of the MOST POWERFUL SUCCESS STORIES in the modern HISTORY of our movement.
In the last 10 years—in a period when the union movement has been up against some of the BIGGEST OBSTACLES and fighting some of the MOST VICIOUS ENEMIES it's EVER BEEN UP AGAINST –
—We've gone against the odds … we've come together … and we've TRANSFORMED the AFL-CIO.
As a result of YOUR work …. our work TOGETHER … people of color—women—LGBT people—people with disabilities—and immigrants ALL have a PLACE in our movement … a VOICE in our movement … that they NEVER had before.
I’m sure a lot of people at our merger convention 50 years ago believed in equality and inclusion—but the truth is that the changes you've brought to our movement are LARGER and DEEPER than ANYONE in 1955 would have imagined.
Because of YOU …. THOUSANDS of women and minorities have been trained at the Organizing Institute …. and LOTS of them have gone on to the hardest and most important job in our movement—ORGANIZING.
Because of YOU …women and minorities have ORGANIZED UNIONS as NEVER BEFORE ….
…. ASBESTOS WORKERS in New Jersey and residential ROOFERS in Phoenix ... HOME HEALTH CARE WORKERS in Los Angeles County ...... DAY CARE workers here in Chicago ..... MEAT PACKERS in Nebraska ..... WASTE WORKERS in Atlanta .... IRON WORKERS all across the WEST ..... and GRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANTS at Michigan State and DOZENS of other colleges and universities.
In EVERY ONE of those campaigns, the great majority of workers have been WOMEN … or MINORITIES … or BOTH.
Because of you, we've TURNED AROUND our position on immigration … and we’re DEFENDING their rights and WELCOMING them into our movement more than ever.
Because of all of YOU and YOUR hard work … we have a woman of color as an executive officer in our Federation, and we have MORE women and minorities on the Executive Council than EVER before.
So I thank you for ALL you've helped accomplish … for fighting to transform the AFL-CIO ... you deserve a lot of CREDIT .... WE deserve a lot of CREDIT.
But I also come here with another message—WE CAN’T TAKE THAT CREDIT TO THE BANK because what we’ve achieved for minorities and women so far isn't NEAR ENOUGH.
We're NOT EVEN CLOSE to where we need to be.
We BOTH see this every day … and it's confirmed by a couple of powerful reports.
The report put out by the Working Women's Committee last year told us about the terrific potential of women in our movement.
…. 55 percent of all new workers who organize into unions are women ... and union election campaigns are more likely to succeed if the work force is mostly female or the lead organizer is a woman.
ONE working woman in Baltimore who isn't in a union told us …. "If they're in a UNION, then they're probably getting GREAT benefits and they're probably getting GREAT salaries and—you know—EQUAL PAY for everybody for the job."
But ….. and this is a BIG “But” …. many working WOMEN think unions are for MEN.
A woman in Atlanta said ….. "You know, when I think of LABOR UNIONS, I think of OLD MEN with GREASE under their nails" !!!
She went on to say that she KNOWS it's a STEREOTYPE …..
….. but WE KNOW that behind that stereotype, there are REAL problems.
At every level of leadership in our unions—from the LOCALS to INTERNATIONAL headquarters—WOMEN are badly under represented ...
and TOO MANY UNIONS have NO REAL PLANS to increase the number of WOMEN LEADERS.
That's what we learned from the FIRST report.
The SECOND report—a study of PEOPLE OF COLOR in unions by Dr. Silas Lee—tells a SIMILAR story.
A big MAJORITY said they are union activists because they want to make a DIFFERENCE—they want to make a CHANGE.
As one put it, they want to "ACHIEVE EQUALITY and BE A VOICE."
But they STILL run up against too many OBSTACLES.
….. 55% said their union does NOT offer a supportive environment for PEOPLE OF COLOR to move into LEADERSHIP …
…. 64% say there are BARRIERS to people of color becoming LEADERS.
There's no way this is acceptable—and I know that the story would be just as bad with LGBT activists in the union movement.
These reports DRAMATIZE the choice before us.
We can SHAKE OUR HEADS …. TELL EACH OTHER how BAD things are …. and then stick the reports in the BACK of the FILE cabinet where NO ONE WILL EVER SEE THEM.
… We can tell ourselves the progress we've ALREADY made is enough for now.
… Or we can recognize the TRUTH—we need to go a lot, lot further to make our movement as diverse and open as it can be—and we need a ROAD MAP that shows where we go from HERE.
The good news is that we NOW have that road map.
It's a statement called "A Diverse Movement Calls for Diverse Leadership."
It was APPROVED by the Executive Council last month—it's going to the FULL CONVENTION for a vote along with constitutional AMENDMENTS that lay its foundation.
It will PASS …..
…. and it will not only INCREASE our leadership development programs …
… it will REQUIRE our international unions … our executive council … the Federation to develop, implement and report regularly on AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PLANS.
It will REQUIRE DELEGATIONS to our next convention in 2009 to REFLECT THE MAKE-UP OF THEIR UNION MEMBERSHIP when it comes to WOMEN and MINORITIES ….
…. AND if they DON’T … their delegations WILL ….. NOT ….BE …. SEATED.
Let me close on a personal note.
The union movement has been my life.
And I believe that the promise of our movement WILL NOT BE FULFILLED until EVERY member of our movement is HEARD …..
…. EVERY member
….. black or brown or white ….. female or male ….. LGBT or straight ….. immigrant or native-born ….. WITH disabilities or WITHOUT.
And so I promise you that as long as I have the honor to serve as president of the AFL-CIO …..
…. I will work alongside EACH of you to make that vision come TRUE.
To echo Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ….. let's FINISH the work we've STARTED …..
…. CARRY it FARTHER ….
…. and make EVERY part of the AFL-CIO FREE at last …
…. OPEN at last ….
…. FAIR at last …
…. DIVERSE AT LAST.
Thank you very much ...
God bless you and your families ..... and God bless America.
