The AFT has outlined a broad vision for a more effective and vibrant labor movement in response to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney's recent request for international unions to submit proposals for possible changes at the federation.

This proposal, "Joining Voices: Inclusive Strategies for Labor’s Renewal" is one of several submitted by unions that will be considered by the AFL-CIO executive board next month as it prepares for the AFL-CIO convention this July.

"Joining Voices" advances ideas and themes brought up by the AFT executive council, in discussions with and written comments by AFT state federation presidents, in the work of AFT's organizing committee and in longstanding AFT policy. The document is designed to help stimulate discussion and to reflect a point of view that emphasizes union democracy, social and economic justice for working families, the need to make unions relevant to both professionals/new economy workers and labor's traditional base, and international solidarity in defending labor rights, freedom and democracy.

In "Joining Voices," the AFT notes that despite innovative and often successful initiatives to expand the union movement's reach to working Americans, "the labor movement as a whole has been unable to reverse the slide of union membership and representation." Sixty years ago, union membership stood at over 35 percent of the workforce; today, just 12 percent of all workers (8 percent in private sector employment) belong to unions, notes the AFT.

The labor movement must refocus its attention on its core values to reestablish the AFL-CIO as "the people's lobby" and not just another special interest, says the AFT. The labor movement's agenda must include more than union shop, removing obstacles to organizing and stiffer employer fines, says the AFT. "We must speak immediately, consistently and convincingly to the values and interests of all working families"--union members or not.

The labor movement must be a voice for a broad agenda that includes dignity for employees at work and in retirement, healthcare coverage, quality public education and child care, civil rights, decent housing and public services and universal labor rights as a human right, says the AFT.

"These are the enduring values that define what we stand for and who we are, and we need to make certain we lead with them," says the AFT.

The union also outlines ideas to expand organizing in both traditional and nontraditional venues and occupations, industry/occupation "labor centers" and new organizing outside collective bargaining.

That AFT also makes recommendations to streamline the governance and administration of the AFL-CIO, achieve better coordination among state AFL-CIO and local central labor bodies, and foster more cooperation, not competition, among affiliate international unions. Past initiatives to eliminate interunion competition "have had exactly the opposite effect by promoting claim-staking, place-holding and exclusionary alliances rather than strategic cooperation," says the AFT.

"If labor is to regain the strength and influence necessary to advocate effectively for our members and advance a comprehensive agenda for all working people and their families," the union concludes, "we need to move from an organizing culture of internal competition to one of unprecedented  cooperation."

• Read the executive summary for "Joining Voices"

• Read the entire "Joining Voices" document

• View other union and state and central labor bodies' proposals at http://www.aflcio.org/aboutaflcio/ourfuture.

January 4, 2005