Labor Leaders Ratify Historic New Alliance Initiative In New York State
(Organizing, Political Action And Diversity Top Priorities)

The following Is a statement by New York Rate AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes:

On June 5th, labor leaders from across the state and country joined together and voted to ratify the historic New Alliance initiative that will strengthen and clearly define the priorities of the organized labor movement in this state.

At the New Alliance convocation, labor leaders voted unanimously to restructure the labor movement in this state. This landmark action will allow us to have a more mobile, active and aggressive movement that places an emphasis on organizing new members, strengthens our political action network and ensures diversity amongst our leaders.

New York State is the first state in the country to ratify the New Alliance initiative.

The labor movement in New York State has a rich and proud history. Our position of greatness flows from high union density and the political and economic power that comes from strength in numbers. However, that strength is under attack here as it is across the nation. Our membership numbers have stagnated at two million, while the labor force continues to grow. Even with our status as the most unionized state in the country, we still lose some four out of every 10 organizing campaigns, and many others never make it to an election or recognition.

Nationally, the AFL-CIO has set an ambitious goal of helping one million workers organize every year in order to regain our voice and power in our workplaces, our communities, our governments and in the global economy. Under the New Alliance, New York's share of that goal is 130,000 new members per year.

We set as our broad goal the building of a unified movement for the working families of New York, one powerful enough to bring entire communities together when employers interfere with the freedom of workers to join unions, one strong enough to take on corporate interests and to help control the excesses of the global economy.

To reach that goal, we decided we needed a plan to increase the scope and effectiveness of our movement's organizing, political action and legislative efforts and to make them the central focus of everything we do. We wanted to make sure the face of our unions reflects our members and that union membership is attractive to the new workforce by taking aggressive steps to put more women and people of color in union leadership positions. And we decided to take a hard look at how our central labor councils are organized and recommended ways of increasing their power and efficiency.