Labor Must Lift America
In separate Convention addresses, AFL-CIO Pres. John Sweeney and Exec. Vice Pres. Linda Chavez-Thompson praised AFSCME members for embracing change and urged delegates to continue to work hard to improve living standards for all Americans.
“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,” Sweeney said.
Sweeney credited AFSCME and the leadership of AFSCME for the change in the Labor movement that 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 preparing 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.”
CHAVEZ-THOMPSON. The highest-ranking woman union official in the country Chavez-Thompson, told the Convention that despite the Labor movement’s considerable organizing, political and legislative successes, there is still much work to be done.
“You know in your heart how much we need to lift America up,” she said.
Chavez-Thompson spelled out what needs to be done: “Lifting America up means raising the living standards for everyone who works for a living ... making life more secure and fair ... winning health care and a safe retirement. Lifting America up means making paychecks more equal for women and people of color. Building our state and county and local governments, strengthening our communities and boosting our local economies so we can all have more libraries, greener parks, cleaner water, and safer streets.”
A former AFSCME International vice president who organized workers in Texas, Chavez-Thompson asserted that Labor organizing is an American right equal to civil rights, freedom of speech, a fair trial and freedom of religion.
Chavez-Thompson, the highest-ranking Latino in Labor, said that she understands the struggle to earn respect. “As a double minority person — a woman and a person of color — I know that the AFL-CIO helps in our struggle to be included, to be at the table helping make decisions, providing leadership for our communities.”
