AFL-CIO launches nonunion group Working America is for workers who agree w

[Kolesar]

They are hiring canvassers in Seattle and Cleveland. 216-650-7221 in Cleveland.

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/2003/08/29/business/6643145.htm
AFL-CIO launches nonunion group Working America is for workers who agree with labor issues
BY STEVEN GREENHOUSE
New York Times

Hoping to increase its political clout, the AFL-CIO announced on Thursday that it was creating a novel organization for nonunion workers who agree with the labor movement on many issues and want to campaign alongside labor on those issues.

Federation officials said they hoped the new organization, to be called Working America, would attract more than 1 million members to lobby Congress and to join demonstrations on issues from raising the minimum wage to stopping the privatization of Social Security.

"There are millions of working people who would like to be part of the AFL-CIO's efforts for social justice and want a voice to speak out and work to change the direction of this country," John Sweeney, the federation's president said at a news conference on Thursday. "Working America will give them this chance."

Labor unions plan to send hundreds of people door to door in working-class neighborhoods to ask sympathetic nonunion workers to join and to contribute some money.

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations has begun pilot projects for the new group in Seattle and Cleveland. In Seattle, three people working for seven weeks signed up 1,200 nonunion workers to join Working America, with each canvasser enlisting almost 15 new members a day. About half of the new members made contributions, labor leaders said, with those who contributed giving an average of $16.
....snip............

[cprise]

1. If support for ANWR drilling is an example

...then I really have to wonder about them.

[tokenlib]

2. This is a great idea!

For those of us who live in non-union wastelands--or have fellow workers too scared to unionize--we finally will have a chance to make a difference. Since the union movement is responsible for the improvement in wages and benefits over the years in many areas of society.

Now that the irresponsible anti-worker corporate monster Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in America--examples are being set in terms of worker treatment and benefits that should alarm all of us. Unless the unions and working people become powerful again and fight the republican "big lies" that threaten the well being of workers--we will really be screwed.

I can't wait to join.

www.workingamerica.org