Calling the labor movement in crisis, AFL-CIO President
Richard Trumka says he will push far-reaching changes at the federation's
convention next month, including forging closer partnerships and even accepting
as members such outside groups as the Sierra Club and the NAACP.
The changes, some of which will require amending the
AFL-CIO's bylaws, are part of a strategy aimed at reviving the labor movement's
falling clout and recasting it as a champion for American workers generally,
not just for the declining ranks of dues-paying union members.
In an interview Wednesday with USA TODAY, Trumka
acknowledged resistance within his organization and the possibility of
conflicts ahead.
"I think any time you do new things and you have
change, people are concerned about what it means," he said on the weekly
video newsmaker series, Capital Download. "Will it dilute us? Look, here's
the way I look at it: What we've been doing the last 30 years hasn't worked
real well. We need to do things differently."….. Trumka says combining
forces would strengthen the clout of progressive politics. "None of us are
big enough to be able to change the climate out there, whether it's economic,
political or legislative," Trumka says. "And all of us realize it
takes all of us working together to get it done." AFL-CIO unions now
represent 12 million workers....To Read More.....
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