This is the third installment of the AFL-CIO convention report.
As 1,600 union bosses and their Marxist allies meet in Los Angeles through Wednesday to focus on rebuilding union power, one of the resolutions passed has been Resolution 26–to “Develop a Southern Organizing Strategy.”
This, of course, is by necessity, as most Southern states have workforces that are ninety-five percent (or more) union-free and companies, fed up with unions and their tactics, have been moving South for decades.
As the North Carolina AFL-CIO stated on its website to its national AFL-CIO delegates:
…Given the region’s culture and laws, unions have not invested heavily in organizing the region. And so, it’s no surprise that voters in the South keep electing state and federal officials who vote time and again against workers’ interests.
The anti-worker culture of the South has an impact far beyond the Mason-Dixon line. Southern Tea Party conservatives block progressive policies in Congress. Companies are increasingly moving to the South in order to lower labor costs and avoid union contracts…
…If unions grow this movement by investing in southern states, we can change the South and by doing so, we can change the nation. [Emphasis added.]
At the AFL-CIO convention in Los Angeles, delegates amended Resolution 26, which states (in part):
WHEREAS, organizing and campaigning in the South have been localized and not connected to a Southern or national movement, thus discouraging sustained efforts to organize unions in the South; and
WHEREAS, a successful Southern organizing strategy must include Southern people familiar with local culture and customs; and
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the Twenty- Seventh (27th) Convention of the AFL-CIO adopts as one of its top priorities a Southern Strategy that will include a long-term commitment to organize the South; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That the AFL-CIO strongly impress upon every one of its affiliates to adopt the same long-term commitment necessary to sustain a strong and viable workers’ movement in the Southern Region of the United States. [Emphasis added.]
While no formal plan has emerged yet, that the AFL-CI0 is committing to develop a strategy should serve as a warning to employers and their employees in the South: You’re on the union hit list.
Related:
- AFL-CIO Convention Report #1: Union Bosses Call For Radical Overhaul of U.S. Labor Laws
- AFL-CIO Convention Report #2: Trumka’s Right-Hand, Ex-NLRB Member Craig Becker At Convention Keynote Address
- You’re Not Welcome: ‘Union-friendly’ employer Kaiser kicked off AFL-CIO convention schedule
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“Truth isn’t mean. It’s truth.”
Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012)
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