The roomful of union professionals appeared virtually giddy with power: pleasant heckles, inside jokes, loads of laughter. They had been gathered for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Civil and Human Rights Convention, held this yr in Austin, TX.
The press announcement had come already on Wednesday: The AFL-CIO and the Service Workers Worldwide Union (SEIU) have joined forces. Two million SEIU members will be a part of 13 million AFL-CIO members to create a coalition of 15 million staff to “push again on union busting,” the announcement mentioned.
Every of the 2 unions, which break up again in 2005, oversee faculty chapters that characterize instructional staff and unionized graduate college students. And each often associate with the American Federation of Lecturers, a significant union which represents 300,000 increased schooling staff.
Their merger has largely been thought of a type of reunification of the bigger AFL-CIO union.
Now, the 2 organizations had been holding a livestreamed roundtable with organizers within the union house and the 2 organizational presidents, moderated by Melissa Harris-Perry. Earlier than the dialogue, SEIU President April Verrett addressed the viewers first, then AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler.
SEIU President: Higher futures for North American staff
Matching the joyous power of the viewers, Verrett expressed optimism on the mixture of each advocacy teams.
“Right now, I’m extra hopeful than I’ve ever been about the way forward for our labor motion. Right now, I’m extra dedicated than I’ve ever been to develop our solidarity and our energy. Right now, I’m extra resolute than I’ve ever been to unleash a brand new period of employee energy,” she mentioned, acknowledging the wide selection of industries that SEIU members occupy within the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada.
“We’re decided to develop our union and each union, as a result of each single employee ought to have the prospect to affix a union, regardless of the place they work,” Verrett added.
A trigger Verett highlighted was the purpose of elevating the ground for wages.
“It’s time for a minimum of $25, if not $30 an hour or extra. It is previous time, and we wish each single employee to have the ability to be a part of the union and to discount — not simply worksite by worksite, however throughout whole industries,” Verett mentioned. “It is time to elevate requirements and create alternatives as a result of good, secure jobs, work that we are able to all be pleased with, that helps our households.”
AFL-CIO President: A thread via historical past
In the meantime, Shuler famous the poignancy of celebrating the mixture throughout an MLK convention.
“We come collectively yearly to speak about how related our labor motion is to the civil rights motion and the struggle for racial justice,” she mentioned. “I believe it is very becoming that we’re down right here within the south for this historic announcement.”
She added: “Dr. King spoke lots concerning the makes an attempt that had been being made by large enterprise — perhaps sure politicians — to divide working class individuals, to divide us by race, to divide us by faith, by orientation, by what we did for work. And for a very long time that technique succeeded, did not it?”
A notable second for the long run
The union mixture announcement comes two weeks earlier than President-Elect Donald Trump takes the Oval Workplace. An enormous level of dialogue was whether or not this administration would help unions, in addition to the query mark surrounding union management, on a regular basis members and their respective sentiments towards Trump.
Whereas Teamsters president Sean O’Brien spoke on the Republican Nationwide Conference, the AFL-CIO has beforehand condemned Trump for his anti-labor monitor file.
Notably, the Nationwide Labor Relations Board continues to be a battleground for workers, employers and staff’ rights advocates.
Independents and Republicans blocked Lauren McFerran’s bid to stay a NLRB board member in December. President Biden picked Gwynne Wilcox to exchange McFerran as chair, although Trump will seemingly nominate a substitute chair when he takes workplace.