For more than a dozen years, we have worked and struggled to create the environment and the political climate in which we could pass serious labor law reform to restore workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain collectively. We realized that we could not arrest the decline in living standards, nor save the middle class, nor lift working families from poverty until those freedoms were restored. And now our collective efforts to build support for the Employee Free Choice Act have brought us closer than we have been in a generation to ensuring the freedom of workers to form unions and bargain collectively for a better life.
The next few weeks are critical, as we fight to realize our long-held goal and the dreams of a better life for millions of working families.
We share with our new president, the congressional majority and America’s workers the essential goal of building an economy that works for all.
We know this is our time to win back these fundamental freedoms. We cannot wait, defer or equivocate. We must act with the urgency created by an historical opportunity for change.
We also know that those who have always opposed workers’ rights, freedoms and advancement—the radical right wing and corrupt, corporate bullies—will fight us with everything they have and every advantage they can employ. They have spent vast sums and will spend even more—up to $300 million.
But our determination, will and urgency to act will overcome their wealth.
We will:
- Raise the necessary funds for the Employee Free Choice Act media fund, so we can effectively counter the misinformation campaign of the corporations. AFL-CIO affiliates already have raised significant resources. We will endeavor to voluntarily contribute $2.50 per member to counter the corporate onslaught.
- Commit to ramp up a nationwide grassroots campaign. In each priority state we commit to release staff to work together to meet our ambitious member mobilization goals, coordinate with allies and reach senators in their home states.
- Build off our very successful Million Member Mobilization to move our members. We commit to engage and activate 1 percent of our membership each month in priority states to make calls and write letters to members of Congress to ensure their support for the Employee Free Choice Act. Executive Council members will reach out to our members and leaders in priority states through calls, letters and visits to achieve our goals.
- Continue our outreach to our employers to garner their support for the Employee Free Choice Act.