Public Employee Press

Labor leaders answer the challenges ahead

"The question is not, 'Is the labor movement losing its power?' The question is whether we - in our community - regain the power." – Lee Saunders, AFSCME President

Collective bargaining rights are under attack. Lawsuits aim to cripple unions financially by taking away their right to collect dues from nonmembers who receive services. Public employee pensions are on the chopping block. And workers continue to struggle to support their families after decades of stagnant and falling wages.

"We are in a time where the labor movement cannot do it on its own - not anymore," said Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which is DC 37's parent union. "This has got to take a community effort to stand up, stand up tall, and speak truth to power."

Saunders was among a group of national labor leaders who spoke April 13 on a panel titled, "Has the Labor Movement Lost Its Way?" at the annual convention of the National Action Network in the city.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka addressed the need for unity and forceful action to turn back the rising right-wing attacks on labor across the nation.

Trumka recalled that unions created the middle class in the consumer-driven economy of the post-World War II era. That progress is now in jeopardy, he said.

Over the last several decades, an antiworker neoliberal economic philosophy has taken hold. It is a belief that the "market is all-knowing." Any forces that affect the economy negatively - public employees and unions - must be eliminated, according to neoliberals, Trumka said

"In the 1970s things began to change," Trumka said, describing the assault on the American Dream unleashed by conservative interests. "Wages fl attened, stagnated, and then regressed," he said.

Other panelists included Diane Babineaux, general vice president of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers, President Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers, and Elizabeth Powell, secretary-treasurer of the American Postal Workers Union. They echoed Trumka, saying the labor movement must respond Labor leaders answer the challenges ahead aggressively to attacks.

Closing out the discussion, Lee Saunders, said, "The question is not, 'Is the labor movement losing its power?' The question is whether we - in our community - regain the power. This is the question we must ask for ourselves," he said.

"I am really excited right now," said Trumka, commenting on labor's fightback. "We are becoming more and more of a movement every single day."

— Mike Lee