For IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
AFSCME Delegates Pass 21st Century Initiative
Bold reform plan will power public union’s political action program, fund new organizing drives, open leadership institute, mobilize 40,000-member activist army
CHICAGO —
Delegates attending the International Convention of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), AFL-CIO, today approved the key components of a sweeping, top-to-bottom strategic overhaul of the union by passing an ambitious reform agenda known as the 21st Century Initiative.
One year after a highly publicized fracture within the U.S. labor movement in Chicago last summer, the nation’s largest public service union (and the largest in the AFL-CIO) is back in town this week for its biennial conference. On Tuesday, delegates voted to create a $60-million war chest to expand worker power and reclaim rights under that are assault by President Bush and the Republican-led Congress.
“In the last six years, we have seen a newfound audacity from anti-union business leaders and the politicians they bankroll,” said AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee. “They have become shameless in their attacks on working people. As a result, our wages are stagnant. Our jobs are being privatized. Our health costs are ballooning. Our pensions are disappearing. Our contracts are getting tougher to negotiate. Our middle class is shrinking. Even our basic rights to join a union and bargain collectively are now being taken away.
“Today, AFSCME members took an enormous step in fighting back against the forces aligned against working people. The 21st Century Initiative is how our union will become stronger and hold politicians accountable for this unmitigated assault on our economic security and basic workplace rights.”
The convention is being attended by 6,000 delegates, alternates and guests. On Tuesday, 3,446 delegates overwhelmingly approved the 21st Century Initiative reform agenda, which has been in the grassroots planning stages for two years. It will:
- Create a 40,000-member army of volunteers to register 90 percent of AFSCME members to vote and turn out on Election Day. AFSCME has set a goal of signing up 25 percent of the
union’s 1.4 million members to each give $100 or more annually to the union’s PEOPLE political action committee, one of the 10 largest PACs in the country. - AFSCME will also launch a new national legislative campaign to comprehensively reform the U.S. health care system and make affordable care universal. Last year AFSCME formed a coalition, Americans United to Protect Social Security, which led the nationwide effort to defeat President Bush’s signature domestic policy initiative: the privatization of Social Security.
- Fund new organizing drives to expand union membership and increase AFSCME’s power at the bargaining table, at the ballot box, and in the corridors of government. Under the 21st Century Plan, AFSCME is committed to win representation rights for 70,000 new workers per year.
- Open a Leadership Institute to train union leaders and activists at every level. The Institute will show AFSCME members how to use field skills and online tools to fight for fair contracts, elect pro-worker politicians, and beat back efforts to privatize public jobs.
To execute the 21st Century Initiative reform plan, delegates to the AFSCME Convention approved a dues increase of $3 per member per month, which will be phased in over the next three years. The plan will raise $60 million in additional resources from 2007 to 2009—and an additional $60 million annually thereafter beginning in 2010.
Of the $60 million in new resources, $24 million will go directly to AFSCME grassroots affiliates. The other $36 million will fund priority national campaigns, “get out the vote” political efforts, and legislative battles to defeat measures that seek to privatize public services.