AFT joins discussion of labor’s future

The AFT has outlined a broad vision for a more effective and vibrant labor movement in response to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney’s request for international unions to submit proposals for possible changes at the federation. Our proposal, “Joining Voices: Inclusive Strategies for Labor’s Renewal” is one of several submissions the AFL-CIO executive board will consider in February as it prepares for the AFL-CIO convention in July.

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.” Union membership included more than 35 percent of the workforce 60 years ago; today, just under 13 percent of all workers belong to unions, notes the AFT.

The labor movement must refocus attention on its core values to re-establish the AFL-CIO as “the people’s lobby” and not just another special interest, says the AFT. Labor’s agenda must include more than gaining union shop, removing obstacles to organizing and stiffer employer fines. “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. The union also outlines ideas to expand organizing in both traditional and nontraditional venues and occupations.

The report 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 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.”

The full text is available at www.aft.org/2005/joiningforces.htm.