AFL-CIO head focuses on unity

Roberta Wood

Just one week after the disappointing outcome of the November 2 
election to which the American labour movement had committed 
unprecedented money, troops and passion, leaders of the AFL-CIO 
gathered in Washington, DC, for a one-day meeting to draw lessons 
and plan for the difficult battles ahead.

The council met November 10 with defeated Democratic presidential 
candidate John Kerry, who came to thank labour for its support. 
To huge applause, Kerry pledged to continue battling. He vowed to 
raise his profile on workers' causes such as overtime pay, trade, 
health care reform, and raising the minimum wage.

While expressing disappointment that Kerry did not win, AFL-CIO 
President John Sweeney focused most of his attention on the 
political potential of the network that labour built. "Never 
before have so many different unions done so much", he said.

"Never have we been so unified, moving forward together. We built 
a lasting force to continue the fight against attacks on working 
families, the fight for economic justice."

The meeting also set up a process and timeline to consider much-
discussed changes to the federation's structure at the next 
regular meeting of the 54-member executive council in Los Angeles 
in February. The council is not only faced with the inevitable 
dismay at the electoral defeat.

There is long-simmering frustration at the fact that big 
membership losses, due to outsourcing and technology-driven 
productivity gains, especially in the manufacturing sectors, have 
not been matched by organising victories. Sweeney appeared to be 
going to great lengths to preserve unity of the 59-union 
federation in the face of these challenges.

Sweeney announced the formation of a "committee for change" 
composed of the federation's 25-member executive committee, which 
he will chair. He said the committee will reach out to all 
unions, state federations, central labour councils and 
constituent organisations as well as to rank-and-filers for 
proposals.

One of those pushing most aggressively for structural changes is 
Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International 
Union. Prior to the meeting, Stern issued a 10-point program for 
major change in the structure of all unions, including merging 
smaller unions into larger, more powerful ones.

Leo Gerard, president of the Steelworkers Union, put his focus on 
the continuation of campaigns that could broaden the base of the 
labour movement. Gerard proposed that a massive campaign for 
national health care should be used to keep in place the national 
structure that was constructed for this year's election campaign.

"In the private sector, we need to have a huge focus on health 
care to rebuild our manufacturing base", Gerard said, alluding to 
the large number of manufacturing workers in the US who lack 
basic health insurance.

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People's Weekly World