AFL-CIO Unites Labor as Diverse Political Force

By Jim Cavanaugh, SCFL President

Part entertainment and part John Sweeney lovefest, the AFL-CIO Convention, held in Pittsburgh in mid-September, also conducted some serious business.

The Convention

As with most conventions these days, it was heavily scripted, speakers were welcomed with Academy Award type music, issues were introduced by videos, and most floor speakers were recruited, though not scripted.

The headliner, President Obama, interrupted multiple times by standing ovations, reiterated his support for the Employee Free Choice Act and health care reform with a public option. Others speakers included Caroline Kennedy (filling in for her recently deceased uncle Ted), both Pennsylvania Senators, footballer Franco Harris, NEA president Dennis Van Roekel, and many others.

Significant actions included unanimous support for single payer (“Medicare for All”) health care reform, in response to seven resolutions on the subject presented by dozens of central labor councils (including SCFL), several state federations (including the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO), and five international unions. The convention also passed a resolution in support of the half-way measure currently under consideration in the Congress, provided that it meets certain criteria, such as including a public option, requiring all employers to participate financially, assistance for pre-65 retirees and other aspects.

The Convention also passed a strong resolution in support of basic rights for Iraqi trade unions and called on the Secretary of State to deliver that message, a “speedy” withdrawal of U.S. forces from that country, and stronger U.S. measures against the military coup in Honduras. In total some 70 different resolutions were acted on by the Convention dealing with the economy, civil rights, foreign policy, issues specific to particular unions, recognition of individuals, continuation of the Solidarity Charters which allow non-AFL-CIO unions to affiliate with state and local central bodies, and a host of other issues.

Many speakers and a couple resolutions called for labor unity, in response to the exit of several unions four years ago at the last Convention. Indeed, one of those unions, UNITE HERE, announced on the last day of the Convention that it was returning to the AFL-CIO. On the other hand, another resolution gave the Building Trades Department authority to form a Carpenters Organizing Committee if the Carpenters union didn’t return to the fold or at least stop raiding the jurisdiction of other unions.

And finally, the Convention elected new executive officers – President Rich Trumka (UMWA), Secretary-Treasurer Liz Schuler (IBEW), and Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker (AFSCME). In both remarks during a question and answer session at the labor council/state federation conference the day before the convention and in his inaugural address, Trumka promised more organizing; an emphasis on younger workers, the “new economy” (including contingent and contract workers), women, minorities, and immigrants; and modernized, two-way communication with labor councils and state federations, as opposed to the more traditional pronouncements and one-size-fits-all orders from D.C.

A couple of Trumka's pithier comments: “We need global unions for a global economy. The corporate agenda doesn't end at water's edge, and neither should ours.” “Tradition should always have a vote, but it should never have a veto.”

John Sweeney

Every speaker at the Convention began their remarks by lauding retiring President John Sweeney's fourteen years at the helm of AFL-CIO. And the Convention also had not one, but two, special tributes to Sweeney, each accompanied by a video. It is therefore appropriate at this time to assess the Sweeney years.

When Sweeney won a contested election for the presidency in 1995, the AFL-CIO was accurately described as male, pale and stale. Sweeney set out first to address the “stale.” He emphasized organizing, devoting thirty percent of the AFL-CIO budget to organizing and urging the international unions to do the same. But years of throwing money and bodies at organizing produced minimal results. With the laws stacked in favor of management, union membership over those years barely held steady. Everyone agreed that a fundamental change in the law was required; hence, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). EFCA, in some form, will probably become law. If unions are able to capitalize on that and organize large numbers of workers, EFCA may well, in the long run, define Sweeney’s legacy.

Think Global, Act Local

The other major attack on the “stale” was an effort to revive the activism and role of central labor councils and state federations. This effort, while certainly not an unqualified success, was in fact pretty successful. Union Cities, the New Alliance, Solidarity Charters, a Solidarity Fund, the Union Leadership Institute, and central body advisory councils all aimed to boost the effectiveness of these locally-based organizations.

A Diverse Political Force

Within the AFL-CIO, as evidenced especially by their prominent role at the last couple conventions, the significance of labor councils and state federations, both much closer to the grassroots than the East Coast-based international unions, was greatly elevated. And their status elevation was crucial in helping the AFL-CIO create the most impressive political machine in the nation, with endorsed candidates for office benefiting from tens of thousands of union members visiting their fellow union members’ homes, millions of phone calls, and millions of pieces of literature. The resurrection of organized labor as a serious political force is clearly one of Sweeney's most significant accomplishments.

Sweeney was also quite successful when he turned his attention to the “Male and Pale” problem. He brought the “constituency groups” – organizations of minority, female, and LGBT union members – into labor councils and supported their work in any way he could. Ditto for Worker Centers and Day Laborer organizations. He launched for union retirees the Alliance for Retired Americans, which now claims four million members. Under his leadership Working America created a home for workers who do not have the benefit of a union at work. With mainly youthful canvassers recruiting door-to- door, Working America now claims three million members in just six years of existence.

Sweeney's diversity efforts could be seen clearly at this Convention where forty-three percent of the delegates and alternates from international unions were women or people of color. And those efforts are evidenced in the new leadership team, which consists of a white male, a black female, and a white female who is under the age of forty.

I am sure Sweeney is disappointed that he was not able to lead a large membership growth spurt, but he should be proud of the structural changes that he made in a hide-bound institution. And hopefully the new leadership of the AFL-CIO will be able to use those structures in the years ahead to assist the affiliated unions’ efforts to increase the numbers of union members.