For Immediate Release
Friday, August 02, 2002
AFSCME President to Latino Labor Activists: We Need Each Other (Spanish/Español)
Labor's political leader calls for harnessing Hispanic power in elections and workplace
Detroit, MI —Gerald W. McEntee, President of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), told delegates to the annual meeting of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) today that his union is expanding its efforts to attract more Latino members, train and elect more Latino leaders, and work with the community to educate and mobilize more Latino voters in the 2002 and 2004 elections.
"AFSCME is seriously committed to the future of the Latino community. We need you — and we believe you need us. Because all workers deserve a seat at the bargaining table, and all workers deserve decent pay and good benefits and job security and job safety," McEntee said.
McEntee is not only the leader of AFSCME — the largest public service and health care union in the country, with 1.3 million members — he is also Chair of the AFL-CIO's political arm. He sharply criticized the Bush administration and the Republican leadership in Congress for their anti-worker and anti-Latino policies and asked the Latino activists to work closely with AFSCME to elect officials at all levels who support their common agenda — good jobs, education, health and safety, housing, immigration, and civil and voting rights.
"We must find a way to tilt the balance of power in our favor so that workers who need better jobs, economic growth policies, better schools, and increased health care get them," he said, adding, "And the Bush administration should be praising the heroism you displayed in both World Wars, in Korea, in Vietnam, in Desert Storm and now in Afghanistan, not persecuting you in the name of 'homeland security.'"
AFSCME is one of the fastest-growing unions in the labor movement, and much of its growth is a result of the large numbers of Hispanics who have joined over the last few years. Recent organizing victories for the union include 20,000 university employees and home health care workers in California, 4,000 employees at 11 University of Maryland campuses, and 20,000 public servants in nine agencies of the Government of Puerto Rico.
At the union's 35th International Convention in June, AFSCME delegates recognized the fast-rising numbers and clout of the Hispanic community and its importance to the labor movement's future growth by unanimously approving resolutions supporting Latinos, immigrants, and Colombian trade unionists
