Executive Council Report • 2001
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Executive Council Executive Report A FL-CIO• TWENTY-FOURTH BIENNIAL CONVENTION• 2001 Contents President’s Report 4 Secretary-Treasurer’s Report 8 Executive Vice President’s Report 12 Executive Council Report to the Convention 16 Winning a Voice at Work 17 People-Powered Politics 25 A Voice for Workers in the Global Economy 31 Building a Strong Union Movement in Every State and Community 38 Trade and Industrial Departments 48 Building and Construction Trades Department 49 Food and Allied Service Trades Department 54 Maritime Trades Department 57 Metal Trades Department 62 Department for Professional Employees 66 Transportation Trades Department 72 Union Label and Service Trades Department 78 Deceased Brothers and Sisters 83 Union Brothers and Sisters Lost to Terrorism 91 President’s Report photo box Most important, we have the strength that comes of solidarity— of shared values and priorities that make us one movement, united. JOHN J. SWEENEY 4 EXECUTIVE COUNCIL REPORT photo box hen we last gathered two years ago, at relief centers, in hospitals and at the ghastly none of us could have guessed what the mound of rubble that had been the World Trade Wfuture had in store for us—as workers, as union Center. A 30-year firefighter sobbed on my shoul- leaders, as a nation. der. A nurse simply laid her face in her hands and Although its bounty did not extend to all cried. Like their brothers and sisters responding working families, our economy then was robust. to the tragedy, they were devastated—but they The presidential administration generally was were strong. receptive to our working families agenda and They were heroes. As were the hundreds of blocked many attacks on working families by firefighters, police officers, janitors, state employees, congressional extremists. dishwashers, carpenters, engineers and others who But our economy began to slow. Working perished, and the thousands of workers in every families were deprived of their choice in the presi- walk of life who responded in the days and weeks dency. We were beset by an anti-worker assault that followed, each in his or her own way. from a hostile administration and corporate-spon- When I felt the strength in the handshakes sored lawmakers. It seemed the worst of times. and embraces of rescue and recovery workers, it Then came Sept. 11. was clear to me they were living their values in When terrorists attacked working men and much the same way union workers do every day, women in New York City and at the Pentagon, but on a massive scale. they attacked our way of life—our sense of Our movement is founded on the bedrock security, our economy, our values. principle of working together for a common good A week after the attacks, I visited New York. that transcends our individual interests. That’s I spent the hardest two days of my life there, what our courageous members did on and after meeting dozens of rescue workers and volunteers Sept. 11. It’s what our members do each day. EXECUTIVE COUNCIL REPORT 5 Paramedic Carlos Lillo, an AFSCME Local 2507/ chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists; District Council 37 member, was a hero when he treasurer of Jobs with Justice; and an active mem- gave his life rescuing workers at the World Trade ber of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, NAACP, Center. Bill Hein had no part in those rescue Southern Christian Leadership Conference, efforts, but he was the kind of everyday hero that Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and several other groups. makes our movement what it is. The Brewery Noemi Balinth, a member of the New York Workers Local 9/UAW steward from Milwaukee State Psychological Association/AFT, was heroic as was an occupational safety and health activist she offered psychological help to rescue workers in before his death at 48—less than six weeks after he the days after Sept. 11. And Sheet Metal Workers accepted his college degree from the National Local 17 member Dennis Gionet is a hero, too, Labor College, in a wheelchair with nonstop drugs still promoting year-round member education and pumped into his veins to fight the pain mobilization after 30 years of political activism. of his cancer. What got me through the weeks after my Dr. Toko Morimoto, a Committee of Interns September visit to New York was being reminded and Residents/SEIU member, was a heroine when that the scale of the horror was matched by the she entered the dust and smoke near Ground Zero scale of the goodness of working men and women. to lend medical help. Martha Dickerson-Blackman We are skilled at putting solidarity to work for is a heroine, too. The Church of God in Christ massive, positive change. We know how to persist minister from Little Rock, Ark., whose Machinists through patient struggle as well as urgent action. Local 2907 stewardship led to a Seminary Summer The history of our movement proves our capacity internship, has mobilized religious leaders to to triumph over seemingly impossible challenges— support organizing workers and plans to spend and to emerge stronger. the rest of her life helping workers improve their lives by winning a voice on the job. I From the injunction era, when America’s courts Pat Mahon, a Laborers Local 79 member, acted as agents of business striving to limit our was a hero, working around the clock to clear power with employers, we learned we must debris of the fallen World Trade Center. Willie mobilize working people to vote in their own Lucy is a hero, too. The retired civil rights director best interests. for UNITE’s central region is a dynamo in his com- munity: vice president of the Kentucky I From the Depression, we learned how to marry politics and organizing—to build support for workers’ freedom to form unions through political leverage—and we emerged stronger than ever. I photo box From segregation and state- sponsored racism, we learned to mobilize communities and work closely with allies—and the result was a civil rights revolution. 6 EXECUTIVE COUNCIL REPORT I In the postwar years, we learned to build an I Commit new resources to organizing so economy that worked for all Americans, and 1 million additional workers each year can today we continue the struggle to ensure economic gain the economic security and voice on the justice for all against those bent on establishing job that comes with a union contract; engage privilege for the few. communities and political leaders in supporting organizing as never before; and begin to reduce Working men and women have turned travail the political, legal and other barriers that make it into triumph throughout our history and will harder for workers to form unions. do so again—whatever is required. Working men and women will rebuild our torn cities, heal I Make legislative and political activism priorities battered communities, nurture frightened families every day so America’s leaders cannot continue to and carry the rifles and pilot the warships and turn deaf ears toward workers and open hands planes defending our country and the world from toward business and the rich—as so many have terrorism. done since Sept. 11 in bailing out industry and It’s a job only working people can do and only cutting taxes for the wealthy but refusing to aid by working together. unemployed workers. As union leaders, it is our job to lead these efforts and to ensure that work is respected and I Build our movement in states and communities safe, that it enables workers to care for their throughout the country through the Union Cities families and that the economy works for working and New Alliance initiatives so all working fami- families rather than just for corporations and the lies—whatever race, ethnicity, religion or immi- wealthy. grant status—enjoy social and economic justice. We gathered two years ago in a time of peace and prosperity. Now, in the aftermath of terrorist I And make the national and global economy barbarism, hundreds of thousands are losing their work for working families everywhere by demand- jobs and still more job cuts are projected. Our job ing full employment, rebuilding our manufactur- has never been harder—and America has never ing sector, improving service jobs and investing in needed us more. Through the strength, resilience America’s infrastructure while strengthening the and perseverance of our members and the solidari- international solidarity of working people every- ty of our movement, we will prevail. where and rejecting trade agreements and policies We must leave this Convention with more that subjugate workers to the tyranny of global than a redoubled sense of commitment, a deter- capital. mination inspired by 13 million everyday heroes We are well-suited to do this, as the Executive and heroines to face down our challenges and Council’s report to the Convention illustrates. re-stitch the torn fabric of America with our We have in place the tools we need—from the values. We must leave here with concrete plans Organizing Institute that trains new organizers backed by the solidarity of the entire union move- to a Web-based system for creating localized ment to get America’s workers back to work in workplace fliers on legislative issues, and from the types of jobs heroes and heroines deserve, to the Center for Working Capital’s efforts to organ- create a real voice for working families in every- ize workers’ assets in their best interests to the thing we do, to build a stronger movement and broad coalitions of activists supporting workers to make America stronger in the process.