2026 Resolution

Approving this resolution would establish the AFL-CIO’s support for federal tax incentives aimed to increase American production and bolster opportunities for film and television workers in the United States. We must make America more competitive in the global production marketplace and bring jobs back from overseas.

Working people everywhere are living through a defining moment in history, shaped by a stark choice about whose interests and values will govern the world.

Across much of the world, a powerful vision is being pushed that concentrates power at the top, treats democracy as an obstacle and reduces workers to costs to be controlled. In this vision, corporations are unaccountable, unions are attacked, migrants are scapegoated, public goods are stripped away and economic growth for the few is celebrated even as most of us, working families, fall further behind. A vision where workers, their families and communities are threatened by violence and war and international law is disregarded. It is a vision promoted by political strongmen, unaccountable billionaires and corporate elites who use race to divide us and seek to enrich themselves through domination, division and fear.

The AFL-CIO reaffirms its strong support for the Jones Act.

For too much of American history, workers risked their health and safety just by stepping onto the jobsite. It was a given they would be subject to injury, illness and harassment, and have to pay for their own health care—simply because the bosses didn’t want to pay. But the labor movement changed all that. Workers organized unions and collectively bargained for contracts that protected their health and safety on the job, guaranteed comprehensive health insurance, and provided for workers’ and their families’ fundamental needs. Today, corporations, billionaires and their political allies are threatening to erase that progress and once again sacrifice working people’s health and lives to grow their bottom line. Our federation refuses to give up these rights and protections workers fought and died for. Public policy and medical research rooted in science, not misinformation, is the backbone of advocating for safe workplaces and the health of our communities. We resolve to not just defend these rights but to expand them. 

Racism, sexism, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, religious intolerance, ageism, ableism and other bigotries turn working people against one another. It weakens our collective fight for a better deal at work, a better life at home and a better world to live in. It is incumbent upon the labor movement to confront hate and bigotry wherever they are and to uproot bias in all of its forms to prevail in our fight for economic justice for all workers. The commitment to rooting out bias must be central to our work to promote dignity, respect, inclusion and solidarity.

All workers deserve a life where we are not simply surviving but thriving, where we have time with our families, enjoy the benefits of our hard work and retire with dignity. But an economy rigged by corporations, billionaires and their political allies has put that life increasingly out of reach for too many. Working people are being robbed of access to health care, retirement and the ability to care for family members with dignity. Simply put: life is too expensive, and our wages aren’t keeping up. We will fight for policies that make it possible for working people to get ahead.