For Immediate Release
Wednesday, August 26, 1998
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney Addresses AFSCME Convention
Honolulu, Hawaii —In his address today to the 33rd International Convention of the Amercian Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney praised not only the commitment and hard-work of public employees, but the willingness of AFSCME members to embrace change to reenergize their own union and the Labor movement.
"In these troubled times when bullets seem to be ricocheting upward from our local public schools into our most protected national public institutions. When bombs that once were destroying small black churches in the Deep South are now exploding in the parlors of our most powerful government installations. And when the power of nature seems to be overwhelming the frailty of man from California to Florida, public employees are more than ever the sturdy wall between a civilized and an uncivilized society," said Sweeney.
Sweeney went on to state that, "...in these times when truth and justice seem to have taken a holiday from American public life, this union [AFSCME] is more than ever a beacon of hope for the poor, the oppressed and dispossessed..."
Mr. Sweeney credited AFSCME and the leadership of AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee for the change in the Labor movement which swept him, Richard Trumka and AFSCME’s own Linda Chavez Thompson into power at the AFL-CIO in 1995.
"Thanks to your hard work and the hard work of tens of thousands of dedicated women and men across this country, we not only jump-started a stalled movement, we have it roaring around the track at record-breaking speeds," said Sweeney.
Sweeney praised delegates for the work they are doing at this convention to prepare AFSCME and the Labor movement for the challenges presented by the 21st Century. "The bold changes you are making in AFSCME are inspiring similar changes at the AFL-CIO and across our movement. We’re changing the way we do organizing and the way we do politics -- so we can organize despite opposition and lawbreaking by employers, and so we can make new laws that give workers a better chance at joining unions to better their lives."
