As Labor Day approaches, the Christian Science Monitor, Politico and the Dallas Morning News reported on what delegates to the Texas AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention heard in July directly from AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka: The AFL-CIO has targeted Texas for organizing. It’s not just the Democratic Party targeting the Lone Star State for change. It’s labor as well. Speaking of change, the AFL-CIO will consider at its national convention next week proposals to expand labor’s relationship with other progressive organizations. Yesterday’s national Fast Food strike actions are a prime example of how a progressive coalition can speak with a larger voice. It’s hard to overstate the degree of change represented by the actions, which came together in a matter of weeks, drew widespread progressive support, sparked widespread media coverage and delivered a succinct message to the public. The events included AFL-CIO unions, unaffiliated unions, worker centers and a host of progressive organizations. Unions can’t afford to bide time. Traditional union organizing faces barriers in the law, growth in independent contracting, a global “race to the bottom,” anti-union campaigns by a bottomless-pockets right wing, and a resulting deterioration in the culture of traditional organizing. We can’t build numbers fast enough under these circumstances. Our friends and supporters have never gone away, but too many of them have no ready access to labor unions. Working America is one way to offer that access. The national convention is set to consider more ways. The Texas AFL-CIO finds itself working more and more closely with unaffiliated organizations. In case after case, that openness has produced results. A Texas targeted for new organizing has to develop a broader base and go well beyond the quest for collective bargaining. The Fast Food strikes are a mighty example of how that can occur. From the Christian Science Monitor (which, by the way, erred in using the 2011 number for union density in Texas. In 2012, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, the union density in Texas was 5.7 percent. Our state’s union membership grew more than 10 percent when overall U.S. membership was in a slight decline. The organizing drives here are well under way and what President Trumka is talking about at this stage amounts to reinforcement): As Labor Day approaches, here are some things on the mind of Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO: The union movement is in a period of crisis, it prefers Janet Yellen as the next chair of the Federal Reserve, and its 2014 political efforts will target Texas, where unions have historically been weak. Mr. Trumka voiced these views at a breakfast for reporters Thursday that was hosted by The Christian Science Monitor. The AFL-CIO is a federation of 57 labor unions with 12 million members. Trumka has been the organization’s president since 2009… The organization, he said, would be “playing in some states” where it had not been a major factor in the past. When pressed for an example, Trumka said, “We will be in Texas in a bigger way than we have in the past.” He explained, “Texas is a majority-minority state. Yet minorities are denied right now effectively the voice that they should be entitled to." He added, “We also think there needs to be more union people in the state of Texas, and so we are going to go and give that a try.” Just 5.2 percent of people employed in Texas belong to a union, less than half the national level, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. csmonitor/USA/Politics/monitor_breakfast/2013/0829/Can-AFL-CIO-make-inroads-in-Texas-Richard-Trumka-will-try From Politico: Trumka scoffed at assertions by Texas Gov. Rick Perry that his state’s impressive job growth numbers are a result of the absence of government involvement. “If you look at the quality of those jobs and the education, it’s just not true,” he said. “If you leave employers to own their devices, work sites get pretty nasty.” “[Texas] can’t say, ‘We don’t let anything happen,’ because they do,” Trumka said. “Laissez-faire work environments result in high cases of incidents and fatalities, and they have gone beyond the field of credibility in making that argument.” Asked whether he would be supporting Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, a possible gubernatorial candidate, Trumka demurred. Laying out plans for 2014, he said AFL-CIO would focus on taking on states where the immigration battle was most at play, and in doing so, branch into some new territory. “We’ll be involved at the state level, county level and district level, playing in some states where we haven’t in the past,” Trumka said. Read more: politico/story/2013/08/texas-richard-trumka-afl-cio-labor-96034.html#ixzz2dSyuA0eV From the Dallas Morning News:
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 00:40:20 +0000