By Tom Chamberlain, Oregon AFL-CIO president
Most of us know that for the American union movement to remain a vehicle for change, we as a movement must change.
Great change begins with how we define our workers’ movement. A union movement that only represents unionized workers, or that narrowly focuses on workplace issues, is outmoded and not reflective of the mission of an evolving workers’ movement.
21st Century unionists understand that our focus must be on a new definition of workers’ issues: education, job creation, the environment, a redistribution of wealth to begin our way back to a strong and vibrant middle class, comprehensive immigration reform, housing, and any other issue that impacts workers and our families.
Our change must recognize that workers come from all backgrounds, races, and ethnicities. We are Catholic and Muslim, gay and straight, sister and brother.
We must wrestle with how we build power beyond the traditional boundaries of trade unionism, while at the same time evaluate the very structure of our unions to ensure they are effective, accountable, transparent, and deliver the right services in accessible ways.
With a will for change as our foundation, the 2013 national AFL-CIO convention was the most significant convention in five decades. For the first time, educators, researchers, and activists participated in pre-convention committees drafting resolutions. They then sat on the floor of the convention where they were able to debate and set the future course of the American labor movement. Delegates passed resolutions that created performance evaluations for state federations and central labor bodies that will create accountability and transparency, and result in better programs.
Resolutions were passed that welcomed every worker into the union movement, and began the process of developing new types of membership to better meet the needs of workers in a 21st century economy.
Resolutions developed community engagement programs and set in motion a new, broader social movement that speaks and advocates for all workers. It was nothing less than transformational.
Oregon was one of five states selected to be reviewed under the new performance evaluation resolution. The team reviewing Oregon was made up of leaders from the National Association of Letter Carriers, United Food and Commercial Workers, IFPTE, the California Labor Federation, and the Chicago Labor Federation.
The review team spent a day in Oregon earlier this month. They arrived at the Oregon AFL-CIO office in Southeast Portland at 8:30 a.m. for a meeting with union leaders. They attended our Executive Board meeting, interviewed staff, and met with our community partners and central labor council leaders. They concluded the day with a 90-minute debrief of the day’s events and mapped out the next steps for our state. It was almost a 12-hour day.
Team members have reviewed strategic and campaign plans, and analyzed the state fed’s and CLC’s budgets to determine whether we are really able to carry out our strategic plan and campaign priorities. They have learned about every piece of our work.
They will report directly to AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka on Oregon’s programs and our performance, and they are empowered by the national AFL-CIO Executive Board to make recommendations on how to improve performance and participation in our local organizations.
It is a weighty process.
Our state labor federation has used this process as an opportunity to embrace the change set in motion by the 2013 national resolutions. We have the opportunity to change our workers’ movement. It is time for us all to step up our game. We must invest our limited union dollars in programs that build a movement. We must bring in like-minded organizations. Most importantly, we must build power for workers. It is time to transform our movement.
