Search

Search

Convention Resolution

Resolution 17: Building Power for Working People In the Global Economy

… supply chains, threatens the rights of workers, citizens and communities worldwide. Corporations use global supply chains to subcontract many of their key functions and further distance themselves from direct employment responsibilities. This strategy undermines workers’ ability to increase their collective power, because often their direct employer has little power within the supply chain. This model … Action Steps: Support research into new and expanding technologies and occupations that help unions meet the future of work with proactive plans that lead to collaboration on multicountry, comprehensive worker organizing campaigns at firms that …
Blog

Women's History Month Working Women Profiles: Kara Sheehan

… the values of solidarity and intersectional movements. "Kara is eager and enthusiastic about changing the face of labor to be more inclusive and representative of the demographic in Texas," said Lee Forbes, her colleague at the Texas AFL-CIO. "Her unwavering passion and dedication to elevate young workers, and especially women, is not only admirable, but quite awe-inspiring." In January, under Kara’s … gathering; they took to the streets on Jan. 20 to stand for their values. Julia Kranzthor says of Sheehan, "Through her work with the AFL-CIO, Kara is a champion of worker's rights, women's rights and immigrants’ rights. What she can't fit into …
Blog

How We Should Rewrite the Rules of NAFTA for Working People

… their economies. Those rules give global corporations strong rights and privileges but don’t contain a single provision to ensure more jobs, better wages, clean air and water, affordable medicines, or any of the other benefits trade is supposed to bring. … By any measure important to working people, NAFTA was a failure . It didn’t raise wages. It didn’t help protect the environment or ensure that people …
Blog

Working Women Play Key Role In Nationwide Women's Marches

… … On Saturday, millions of women and men took to the streets across the country in support of women and in opposition to a growing tide of anti-women policies coming out of Washington, D.C., and state capitals. Working families, led by working … events around the country: . @AFLCIO on the front lines of the #WomensMarch fighting for equal rights! Good jobs & the right to form a union is #WhyWeMarch #1u pic.twitter.com/wF9Zxt7GLx — Liz Shuler (@lizshuler) January 21, 2017 The …
Blog

New U.N Report: Working People's Freedom to Stand Together Is Under Attack

… from asserting their most basic human and workplace freedoms. … Maina Kiai, former U.N. special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, led a mission to the United States in 2016 and documented the obstacles … freedom of people to join together in union and ability to exploit working people.   In addition, 28 states have enacted “right to work” laws, which are deliberately crafted to take away people’s freedom to join together and negotiate. By weakening …
Blog

From #MeToo to a Global Convention on Sexual Harassment at Work

… Labor unions around the globe are participating in the International Labor Conference to demand a new global standard to end violence and sexual harassment in the workplace. This epidemic of unwanted touching, … workforce benefit from a formal union or worker association. The most vulnerable workers are those who lack unions and who work in precarious arrangements with little or no oversight or accountability. We can help more workers address violence in … #yotambien, #quellavoltache and other campaigns to improve the safety of all workers in all workplaces. The time is right for a new International Labor Organization (ILO) global standard aimed at ending violence and sexual harassment at …
Speech

Shuler at International Women's Day Event: Our Work Is Essential

… of Labor Union Women. Through so many challenges, the tremendous loss of life and jobs through this pandemic, threats to our communities and democracy, women are carrying the heaviest burdens. We are withstanding so much. But we are not alone … telling it. Because it’s about our strength and it is about our collective power. In the U.S., long before women had the right to vote, women organized unions. Many were young, immigrants, poor and discriminated against. They worked in garment … the Middle East, Africa and Asia. International Women’s Day is a recognition of ALL of us. And today we recognize that our work is essential and that our progress continues. In the U.S., we elected Vice President Kamala Harris— the first Black …
Convention Resolution

Resolution 8: Working People Will Lead the Fight for A Global New Deal On Trade

… and globally—are failing working people. They are corporate-driven and have reduced the share of national income going to working families, as corporate and Wall Street interests capture an ever-greater share. 1 Beginning with the North … to lower wages and reduce the ability of America’s working class to join in unions and negotiate a fair return on their work. 2   For years, the AFL-CIO and its affiliates and allies in the environmental, human rights, faith, small business, … adoption of international labor standards, including but not limited to fair pay for North America’s working families, the right to join together in a union and negotiate with employers, and freedom from discrimination and exploitation of any kind; …
Speech

Our Days, Our Lives: Working Women Need a Voice on the Job

… AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler delivered the following keynote address on women and work: Shirley Chisholm broke ground as the first African-American woman elected to Congress. But back in 1970, she knew her story was the exception, not the rule. Speaking during a debate on the Equal … quote: “Discrimination against women, solely on the basis of their sex, is so widespread that it seems…normal, natural and right.” Normal, natural and right. With three simple words, Chisholm captured just how pervasive gender discrimination had …
Speech

Trumka: The Survival of Democracy Anywhere Depends on Working People To Defend It Everywhere

… AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka delivered the following remarks to the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas: Toni Moore, thank you for that introduction. And more importantly, thank … have the power to shape policies and our collective future, we ensure our political, economic and social systems actually work for working people. Working people demand and deserve that power. In Argentina. In Brazil. In the United States. … agenda we are counting on President Biden and the U.S. government to deliver—is democracy reform. Since January, right-wing lawmakers have introduced legislation that would make it harder to vote in 43 of our 50 states. You see, democracy …