Related Articles

AFL-CIO Organizing Summit

March 2003 IBEW Journal

IBEW delegates to the first ever AFL-CIO National Organizing Summit held January 10-11, 2003, in Washington, D.C. included: Construction Organizing Director Ron Burke, Special Projects Director Fred "Rocky" Clark, and I.O. International Representatives Rick Ellis and Alan Freeman.

More than 250 top organizers from dozens of unions met in workshop sessions to discuss ways to educate union members about the obstacles workers face when trying to form unions, to mobilize community and political support for organizing, and to train a new generation of union organizers. Organizers exchanged strategies on approaches to: large multi-site campaigns; identifying and using leverage; financial and capital resources for organizing; moving elected officials to support organizing; and non-board organizing.

Plenary session topics included: Strategies and Approaches to Reduce Employer Opposition; Central Labor Councils, State Feds, and Allies with Unions in Organizing Partnerships; and Building a Union Movement.

"For working families, forming and joining unions [is] the only way they can fight back against the political thugs who are stealing their chance at a better life and the corporate criminals who are mugging them in their workplaces," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney told the summit. "The challenge is to find ways to organize despite the obstacles that have been placed in our way by the corporate forces that have seized control of our workplaces, our capital markets and our government.

"Workers and their families are fed up and ready to fight back," Sweeney said. "More workers than ever say they’d like the chance to vote for a union."

Also at the summit, the AFL-CIO presented the inaugural Wellstone Award to Vermont Governor Howard Dean and California State Senator (and former U.S. Congressman) John Burton for their exceptional support of workers’ efforts to form unions. The award is in honor of the late Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota.

<BACK