Candidate Harry Kelber Proposes:
Issue Call to Our 13,000,000 Members to Join Campaign To "Save Our Unions! Save Our Jobs!"
The real crisis in the labor movement is what's happening to working people everywhere. The good-paying jobs are disappearing. Hewlett Packard is going to lay off 14,500 employees; IBM is eliminating 13,000 jobs. Many major employers are considering reducing their work force, while pressing their employees to work harder and longer.
Nor is that all. The outsourcing of U.S. jobs to low-wage regions is accelerating. Multinational corporations are expected to move about 3.3 million white-collar service jobs overseas in the next 15 years, with a loss of $136 billion in wages for American workers.
Health care costs are rising steadily, with employers insisting that their workers pay higher insurance premiums and co-payments. Many thousands of working families have had to drop their health-care insurance because they can no longer afford the cost.
Many major companies (the airline industry is a grim example) have slashed the pensions their employees expected to receive on retirement, including elimination of payments into their pension funds. They are also pushing to reduce the benefits they once pledged their retirees.
Surely, working people ought to be given the opportunity to fight back against aggressive employers who are trying to take away benefits they've enjoyed for decades. It's their livelihood and economic future that's at stake in the current crisis of the labor movement.Yet, neither AFL-CIO President John Sweeney nor SEIU President Andy Stern and his dissident partners have made any tangible move to rally the 13 million union members who have the most to lose in the current anti-labor environment. The issues Sweeney and Stern have been fighting over-- restructuring and the percentage of rebates for organizing--have no direct relevance to the plight of workers, who have difficulty in surviving under the down-pressure on wages.
One of the most important actions the AFL-CIO convention can take is a call to the 13,000,000 union members to join in a nationwide campaign to "Save Our Unions! Save Our Jobs!"If both Sweeney and Stern would agree to be co-chairmen of the campaign as a visible expression of labor unity, they could arouse a fight-back mood in the labor movement to replace the cynicism and passivity that now exists. Labor's public image would improve dramatically.
There are many useful ways by which union members can be involved in the campaign in the cities and towns where they work and live. Working in teams, they can serve as volunteer organizers; canvass non-union worksites; publicize labor's campaign in the local media; develop ties with leaders and residents in their communities; hold workshops on the economy; conduct year-round political activity and find other ways to get the message to Americans everywhere about what greedy corporations are doing to the nation's working people.
AFL-CIO members have the experience and know-how to persuade the millions of unorganized workers to join a union. They know how to talk to non-union workers because they were once one of them. They can cite the benefits of having a union card, as well as how to overcome the difficulties of dealing with the boss.
A campaign to "Save Our Unions! Save Our Jobs!" provides a golden opportunity for the AFL CIO to act as a united force to inspire and involve every union member in a struggle that will affect their economic future. It's one of the best ways of revitalizing the labor movement. And it can be a major factor in organizing campaigns.
Will Sweeney and Stern endorse and support the proposed campaign?
The real crisis in the labor movement is what's happening to working people everywhere. The good-paying jobs are disappearing. Hewlett Packard is going to lay off 14,500 employees; IBM is eliminating 13,000 jobs. Many major employers are considering reducing their work force, while pressing their employees to work harder and longer.
Nor is that all. The outsourcing of U.S. jobs to low-wage regions is accelerating. Multinational corporations are expected to move about 3.3 million white-collar service jobs overseas in the next 15 years, with a loss of $136 billion in wages for American workers.
Health care costs are rising steadily, with employers insisting that their workers pay higher insurance premiums and co-payments. Many thousands of working families have had to drop their health-care insurance because they can no longer afford the cost.
Many major companies (the airline industry is a grim example) have slashed the pensions their employees expected to receive on retirement, including elimination of payments into their pension funds. They are also pushing to reduce the benefits they once pledged their retirees.
Surely, working people ought to be given the opportunity to fight back against aggressive employers who are trying to take away benefits they've enjoyed for decades. It's their livelihood and economic future that's at stake in the current crisis of the labor movement.Yet, neither AFL-CIO President John Sweeney nor SEIU President Andy Stern and his dissident partners have made any tangible move to rally the 13 million union members who have the most to lose in the current anti-labor environment. The issues Sweeney and Stern have been fighting over-- restructuring and the percentage of rebates for organizing--have no direct relevance to the plight of workers, who have difficulty in surviving under the down-pressure on wages.
One of the most important actions the AFL-CIO convention can take is a call to the 13,000,000 union members to join in a nationwide campaign to "Save Our Unions! Save Our Jobs!"If both Sweeney and Stern would agree to be co-chairmen of the campaign as a visible expression of labor unity, they could arouse a fight-back mood in the labor movement to replace the cynicism and passivity that now exists. Labor's public image would improve dramatically.
There are many useful ways by which union members can be involved in the campaign in the cities and towns where they work and live. Working in teams, they can serve as volunteer organizers; canvass non-union worksites; publicize labor's campaign in the local media; develop ties with leaders and residents in their communities; hold workshops on the economy; conduct year-round political activity and find other ways to get the message to Americans everywhere about what greedy corporations are doing to the nation's working people.
AFL-CIO members have the experience and know-how to persuade the millions of unorganized workers to join a union. They know how to talk to non-union workers because they were once one of them. They can cite the benefits of having a union card, as well as how to overcome the difficulties of dealing with the boss.
A campaign to "Save Our Unions! Save Our Jobs!" provides a golden opportunity for the AFL CIO to act as a united force to inspire and involve every union member in a struggle that will affect their economic future. It's one of the best ways of revitalizing the labor movement. And it can be a major factor in organizing campaigns.
Will Sweeney and Stern endorse and support the proposed campaign?
posted by T. Scott Brineman at 10:13 PM
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