It’s the Economy... Always (Internal Link)
CONTINUING THE DREAM | In March with Carol Censki of Local 269 (Council 4) at the council's Civil Rights Luncheon in Southbury, Conn. The affiliate has committed to raise the equivalent of one dollar for each of their 35,000 members to support AFSCME's efforts to help build the memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the National Mall in Washington, DC.
Photo Credit: Larry Dorman
Message from the Secretary-Treasurer
By William Lucy
AMERICA'S CURRENT ECONOMIC policy — catering to those who live on Wall Street, not Main Street — must change. Our economy must work for workers, not against them. Something’s terribly wrong when so many of us are plagued by debt in one of the wealthiest nations in the world. The current free-market, anti-worker economy not only encourages workers to go into debt by spending more than they earn, it’s put our country at risk by increasing the national debt to over $8 trillion.
Economic Chains
Let’s get the word out: Stagnant and shrinking wages mean stagnant and shrinking power — our power to form unions, bargain collectively and make a decent living. Meanwhile, employers have even more power, so they outsource work, deny and withhold pay increases, and refuse to provide bene- fits like health care and retirement security.
Any given night, on average, 15 percent of people who are employed are homeless — in some places, it’s higher. That’s an outrage! No one who works in America should be homeless in America. We should not live in economic fear. That is not freedom. That’s enslavement.
In the March/April issue of AFSCME WORKS, I discussed how moving to a high-wage strategy, rewarding workers for their labor would benefit everyone. Before it’s too late, we must create a strong grassroots movement to provide activists with tools to change America’s unfair economic policies.
Road to Recovery
To counter the corporate agenda’s devastation, the AFL-CIO is developing an economics education program built on a Working Families Agenda:
The AFL-CIO’s program promotes fair trade agreements, a fair share of taxes paid by U.S.-based corporations, and a national strategy to invest in communications, transportation infrastructure and rebuilding manufacturing.
The National Labor College (NLC), the only accredited higher education institution solely for union members, will take the lead on developing training materials. In fact, our union offers NLC scholarships for AFSCME members. To learn more about NLC, go to: www.nlc.edu.
At AFSCME, basic economic education must be a core element of all our new Leadership Academy programs. Therefore, we’ll be creating an online economic workshop as part of the Academy’s Web Track, which you can visit atwww.afscme.org/academy.
Education will power up activists to end our current unfair economic system, and build one where wages and benefits rise along with productivity. Once we learn how to move money and benefits from the wealthiest few to the struggling many, we can achieve universal health care and secure pensions. By defending against corporate greed, we’ll gain union protection for any worker exploited by an employer and once more have a government that works for everyone.
Land of Opportunity
As we connect with the AFL-CIO program and build our own Leadership Academy, let’s remember that this period leading up to the 2008 elections offers an historic opportunity. At AFSCME, we are committed to do all we can to elect a President who will put workers first when it comes to the economy. Assuring that our government invests in a high-wage strategy may turn out to be the most important lesson of our lifetime.
