Portland, OR
The Committee on Workplace Democracy's mission is to help strengthen the American labor movement by providing leadership, policy recommendations and support to the AFL-CIO President and Executive Council in their efforts to help unions gain more power in the workplace for our members (both individually and collectively) -- particularly in areas of decision-making which have traditionally and legally been management's prerogative. We seek that power in order to change the way America works.
WHAT WE MEAN BY WORKPLACE DEMOCRACY
Specifically, we want to assist our unions to have increased and integrated influence in the following areas:
the essential business strategies and policy decisions on which our employers will compete and operate so that we might assure a decent and improving standard of living for ourselves and our families; employers' resource commitments which support and influence the long-term security of our jobs and our communities; quality standards of the goods that we make and the services we provide so that we can both help our employers succeed while taking greater pride in the quality of our labor and helping to win union allies for our unions among the customers and users of those goods and services; the way we work so that we may benefit from more secure, satisfying and safe jobs; the design, introduction and utilization of technology so that it may serve not only to improve productivity but also to enhance our job skills and satisfaction; the education and training needs and systems that prepare us both to perform our current jobs and to seek meaningful career advancement. It is the struggle for -- and exercise of -- that power to improve our workplaces that we term workplace democracy.
Genuine workplace democracy rests on a foundation of collective bargaining. We want American employers to prosper by benefitting from workers' insights and knowledge through creating good union jobs for American workers, their families and communities.
WHAT WE MEAN BY INCREASING UNION STRENGTH
In order to accomplish this mission, the Committee will develop a comprehensive view of how the struggle for--and exercise of-- workplace democracy can be used to:
enhance the economic security and quality of life of union members both on and off the job; re-invigorate members' relationships and commitments to their unions; strengthen the union's ability to execute a unified, strategic program (bargaining, organizing, political action, and "shop floor" representation) vis a vis particular employers and particular industrial sectors; direct resources to better serve the needs of both current and future union members; and demonstrate to unorganized workers the full potential of unionism and thereby assist the labor movement's growth.
The Council hereby adopts and endorses the definitions and policies incorporated herein.