A glance through this newspaper reveals a thriving union at the peak of its strength. DC 37 has a lot of heart and muscle. We care for members in need as we provide for the needs of all members. We fight every grievance to win justice for workers who have been cheated by management.

Our education programs and health benefits are the best in the labor movement. When soaring drug and medical costs threatened to close down members’ access to cancer and asthma medicines and to force huge pay deductions for basic health coverage, we fought back. By allowing for some increases in co-pays that have not risen for years, December’s agreement between the city and the Municipal Labor Committee saved the benefits.

The health pact has cleared the path toward intensified wage negotiations. This has renewed my optimism that in the New Year we can move rapidly toward an economic contract with the pay increases we need.

We are also a union with that old time labor religion — solidarity. We recently rallied with community activists and doctors against Harlem Hospital layoffs and demonstrated for a contract for daycare workers in AFSCME DC 1707.

But, to paraphrase the poet John Donne, “No union is an island.” Our fate is tied to the rest of the working people in this country. And our national labor movement has been losing strength, organizationally and politically, for decades.
The results have been devastating. Since George W. Bush and the Supreme Court hijacked the presidential election, he has waged relentless war on workers. Almost 3 million jobs have been killed, 9 million are officially unemployed, and the administration has blocked a Christmas extension of unemployment insurance. In the largest pay cut in history, the White House is about to cancel overtime pay for 8 million employees.

The minimum wage remains frozen at $5.15 an hour, and health coverage and pensions are shrinking nationwide. The inadequate new drug plan has opened the door to total destruction of Medicare (see page 9), and Social Security could be next. Mouthing “No child left behind,” Bush slashed funds for education and children’s health as he handed out massive tax cuts that tilt toward the rich. In the world’s wealthiest, most powerful nation, poverty is growing again.

Polls tell us that 42 million Americans would like to join a union, but the right to organize has been shredded by employers who regularly get away with stopping union drives with threats and firings
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No matter how strong we make DC 37, we cannot save Medicare and Social Security ourselves. We cannot protect the environment, repair the economy and restore the safety net without revitalizing our labor movement.

Organize, educate, vote
The good news is that the constant attacks from the right on all we hold dear are raising the consciousness of working class people and poor communities. People want to fight back. The answer is to organize, educate and vote. Our national union, AFSCME, and the AFL-CIO are leading the way.

DC 37 and many locals have already hooked up with the national Voice@Work organizing campaign (see page 7). I was proud of the members who demonstrated with me at Wall Street and Federal Plaza Dec. 10 in a nationwide labor action that said, “Workers’ rights are human rights.” We will be backing other organizing drives and intensifying our internal organizing this year. From now to November, we will be educating members about what’s at stake on Election Day.

In the 1960s, I led the way as DC 37 became a powerhouse by organizing tens of thousands of members, starting with hospital workers and clericals. In 2004 we must work with AFSCME and the AFL-CIO to spark that kind of spirit throughout the union movement. Strength in organizing will add to our political power, and power at the polls will let us pass legislation to improve the conditions for more organizing.

Mr. Sweeney said it’s “organize or die” for the American labor movement.

I for one do not intend to see my life’s work and all we have accomplished for the members of DC 37 wiped out by George W. Bush or anyone else. In the battle for labor’s human rights, the American union movement can count on District Council 37 to participate to the maximum.