August 1, 2000
Chicago, Illinois
Building The Union Movement: A Four Point Program

By joining together in unions, American working men and women improve their lives and gain a voice at work. Union membership is the single most effective means for working families to gain a voice on the job, in the political life of our nation, in the global economy and in our communities. And when workers have a voice, our democracy is stronger and America works better.

That, in fact, is why unions exist: the mission of the AFL-CIO is to improve the lives of working families and bring social and economic justice to our nation.

To deliver on our mission, we must build our movement. We must exert our best and most united efforts to do so. We must increase the number of union members nationwide, and we must increase union membership as a percentage of the workforce.

Without real growth and growth in union density, the American labor movement cannot represent our current members reliably and effectively, we cannot secure the interests of working families in our nation, and we cannot enable millions upon millions of unorganized workers to share in the gains of union membership.

Many obstacles exist — fierce employer interference and wholesale economic shifts chief among them. That's why we are leading a crucial effort to build broad community and public support to stigmatize and neutralize employer hostility - our Voice@Work initiative. And that's why we are working aggressively to shape progressive economic policy that maintains the strength of well-paying sectors of the U.S. economy and counters the move from good union jobs to low-paying, insecure jobs.

Even as we conduct these critical activities, we must take the most important step of all: we must dramatically expand our campaigns to help working men and women organize into unions. Many of our unions have taken strong steps to increase organizing in recent years, and we are proud of the progress that has been made. But the pace today is still not sufficient.

The unions of the federation recognize our shared stake in the growth of the union movement in the United States. To build our movement and improve the lives of working families across our nation, we commit to join together in a four-point program:

• We will set a goal of achieving, as soon as possible, a one-million-member-a-year organizing pace, or roughly 80,000 newly organized workers, on average, each month.



• National affiliates will strive to set and achieve higher numeric organizing goals, as part of the effort to achieve the million-member pace. The AFL-CIO will also support the efforts of the national unions by organizing mid-year and year-end meetings at the local/regional level so that local union leaders can evaluate, plan and collaborate on organizing programs that will increase the pace in their area/region.



• The Organizing Committee of the AFL-CIO Executive Council will regularly assess how the federation Organizing Department and other departments can best assist in achieving these increased goals. Specifically, over the next six months, national unions will suggest ways that the 2001 Organizing Fund may best be applied to move the million-member program. For each affiliate, the Organizing Department will provide consultation and assistance on possible ways to improve their organizing operations in order to reach their specific organizing goals. The Organizing Department will also bring together various affiliates to provide training and information-sharing on internal organizing, first contract campaigns, political strategies to win bargaining rights and union security in the public sector, and other issues that are identified as we move forward.



• National affiliates will participate in tracking and reporting all organizing results and are encouraged to share information about planned and ongoing campaigns that can assist in the overall advancement of our Voice@Work offensive.