Answering the challenge

By Randi Weingarten
AFT President

I AM HONORED to have been elected to lead our great union, and I am humbled to follow people whom I have revered so long. Al Shanker led the fight for collective bargaining. Sandy Feldman never let us forget what public services mean for families striving to get ahead. Ed McElroy built our membership strength, our political clout and our leading role in the labor movement. We stand on their shoulders and on those of all the pioneers of public sector unionism. Because of them, our union is capable of great things.

The society that we serve, the institutions where we work and the workforce we represent are all changing at speeds we never envisioned. I am proud that the AFT has always been about making change work—for us and not against us. While we continue to make advances that benefit our communities and our work lives, we are confronted by numerous challenges that could have a completely contrary effect.

As a union of public service employees, for example, we are Public Enemy Number One for those who take potshots at public institutions, the labor movement, and the very concept of government serving a greater good. And public service, which is so central to our democracy, is being challenged by those who contend that the business of America is business and that the best thing government can do is nothing.

The AFT has been called a "special interest," a characterization I will not apologize for because our "special interests" are the people we serve, our ability to do our jobs well and our desire to make a decent living doing so. These things are worth fighting for, using everything in our arsenal as a union of professionals: The power of a growing membership. The power of collective bargaining. The power of the political process. And the power of our ideas for improving the institutions where we work.

But if we really want to make a difference for the people we serve, if we really want to lead the change that is needed, then we have to strengthen the strongest force there is for improving their lives, and that is our union.

Our union is growing, but signing up new members isn't enough. We need to expand our membership, and we also need to energize it. We need political activists who will reach out to their colleagues, their friends and their neighbors to explain why issues matter. We need grass-roots lobbyists who will work with their elected representatives at the local, state and national levels. We need activists to organize and lead the kind of professional development that helps our colleagues hone their skills and shows them that their union cares about their professional growth. And we need to be heard, both at work and in the public, which means we need to turn out big-time at rallies, phone banks, picket lines and public hearings.

You belong to a union of professionals, serving in many different sectors and professions. Although there is terrific diversity in our ranks, we are tied together by meaningful common bonds. State employees struggling against cutbacks and contracting out share a connection with teachers concerned about lowering class size; with nurses fighting for adequate staffing levels; with college faculty members trying to prevent more good, full-time positions from becoming dead-end, part-time jobs; and with school aides seeking respect as part of the team in their school. We all share important values, and we all have a natural home in the same union—the AFT.

We also share a core belief that the professionals who serve the public have an essential contribution to make toward ensuring that public services are delivered better than ever. Because the people who do the work care more than anyone else, know more than anyone else, and can do more than anyone else to improve the public services that Americans count on.

So let's proudly present our vision of an America in which all children have a fair start in excellent public schools; every family has access to high-quality, affordable healthcare; higher education and career training are accessible to all Americans; and a strong and growing labor movement empowers every worker and dignifies all work.

I am grateful to those who built this union and passed it along to us. And I am mindful that the AFT is not an inheritance. It is an achievement that every generation of members and activists must renew in response to the challenges of their times. I am honored to lead our charge.