For Immediate Release
Friday, January 07, 2005
AFSCME Weighs in on Labor Movement's Future
Washington —The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) yesterday sent AFL-CIO President John Sweeney its first contribution to the discussion of the labor movement’s future, a paper entitled Labor's Main Challenge: Increasing Political Power for Working Families.
The paper deals solely with politics and with the changes Labor must make in order to win elections.
"Winning or losing in politics is what will make the difference in whether our members and all working families have health insurance, good jobs and a secure retirement," AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee said. "Just as important, winning in politics has everything to do with whether the labor movement grows, and that must be our greatest priority."
Key AFSCME proposals include:
- Invest the resources to build a permanent volunteer army of activists, starting with the hundreds of thousands of members who volunteered in the 2004 election, to regularly mobilize on issues that impact working families and create a larger and more effective volunteer force for the 2006 elections.
- Mobilize union members where they live and not just where they work, so Labor can reach out to like-minded and swing voters in the suburbs, exurbs and rural areas where there is broad support for Labor’s issues, such as protecting Social Security and stopping the outsourcing of jobs beyond our borders. This means setting up a visible AFL-CIO operation in exurban and other areas where we currently do not have one.
- Create the necessary resources for politics at the national level by replacing temporary funding measures with a substantial and permanent portion of the per capita tax paid by national unions.
"Issues such as union merger policy, jurisdiction and federation structure ought to be addressed — but on their own merits — and without dramatic claims that the movement’s life or death depends on them," McEntee said. "A union-free America is contemplated by powerful reactionary forces and they have achieved temporary advantage in the elections. It is in the political arena that we can and must defeat them. Let us not make their task easier by dividing the movement when it needs unity, more than ever."
A copy of the AFSCME paper and letter to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney are attached.
