United & Fighting - new AFL-CIO leaders vow to revitalize and organize

by Fred Gaboury

This article was reprinted from the October 28, 1995 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

NEW YORK - Delegates to the 21st Convention of the AFL-CIO elected, on Oct. 25, a new leadership committed to revitalizing the labor movement and confronting corporate union busting, the export of jobs and the right-wing "Contract on America."

The Imperial Ballroom of the New York Sheraton Hotel reverberated with applause from the 2,000 delegates and alternates, as speaker after speaker fired salvos at the "Contract on America" and "corporate greed" during discussion of several convention resolutions.

"These resolutions will not count for anything if we use them to paper the walls," Ed Grystar, president of the Central Labor Council of Beaver County, Pa., said. "We have to convert them to action -- action in the streets or anywhere else action is called for."

Owen A. Marron, executive secretary-treasurer of California's Alameda County Central Labor Council, drew an ovation when he called for the convention to march on Wall Street in order to "show these guys we mean business. They are our enemy," he thundered. He added that despite differences on who should lead the AFL-CIO, "our enemy is not in this hall."

John J. Sweeney was elected president of the AFL-CIO in the first contested election in the federation's history. He told delegates the "secret to protecting" the labor movement lies in its "revitalization and in opening the AFL-CIO to debate. When we do that, the solidarity and unity that are at the core of our movement are tempered and trued and made stronger," he said.

Liz Bettinger, president of the Schuykill County, Pa. AFL- CIO was enthusiastic over Sweeney's promise of activism. She greeted Sweeney's call for "blocking bridges" with sit-ins in defense of the interests of working people, if that's what it takes to win. "When we came here, we said we were going to represent workers and that's what we are going to do," she told the World.

Sweeney, president of the Service Employees International Union, won election Wednesday afternoon when he defeated Thomas Donahue in a hard-fought campaign. Donahue had served as interim president since August 1 when he succeeded Lane Kirkland whose forced retirement opened the door for the challenge by Sweeney's "New Voice For American Workers" slate.

Sweeney's running mates were also elected, both with more than 55 percent of the vote. Richard Trumka, president of the United Mine Workers of America, is the new AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer. Linda Chavez-Thompson, a vice president of State County and Municipal Workers, was elected AFL-CIO executive vice president.

Chavez-Thompson told the convention she is ready to join in sit-downs and sit-ins. "I like to get arrested," she said. During the campaign she was arrested at a San Francisco demonstration in support of hotel workers.

The victory for the Sweeney ticket capped a hard-fought campaign in which the candidates crisscrossed the nation, walking picket lines and joining mass protest actions. A sign of the "New Voice" slate's potentcy was Donahue's "me- too" embrace of much of the "New Voice" platform -- including Sweeney's call for a powerful drive to organize unorganized workers.

There were two roll-call votes on constitutional amendments, a brutal test of strength on the convention floor, both won by Sweeney forces by a margin of two million per capita votes. As late as Tuesday night, many delegates told the World that although Sweeney had the votes to win, winning was "not enough."

"Sweeney and his team campaigned on the promise of change -- and we need change," Blair Bertaccini told the World while standing in line waiting to cast his ballot. "But we need unity to effect that change -- and that's the question we have to address now."

Bertaccini said agreement to Sweeney's proposal for an increase in the number of vice presidents to 51 and then to nominate a united slate was a "hopeful sign that unity would prevail after the convention." The agreement, which specifically called for setting aside 10 seats to guarantee diversity, came after Sweeney and Donahue representatives agreed to calm the rhetoric that the campaign had generated.

Douglas Dority, Food and Commercial Workers president, and a leading representative of the Donahue camp, and Gerald McEntee, president of the State and County Employee and spokesperson for the Sweeney coalition, shared the microphone to nominate the fusion slate. Both called for unity as delegates returned home to fight the common enemy.

Convention debate was dominated by calls for change from many of the more than 500 leaders of AFL-CIO central labor councils attending the convention. Alan Hughes of the Texarkana, Texas Trades and Labor Council told the World, "It's easy to see why we are the ones out front in this. We're closest to the rank and file and we are the ones that are called upon to lead when it comes to dealing with their problems."

Hughes said his trip was financed by donations from council members who felt this was an important convention. "People are demanding change everywhere you go," he continued, adding that Arkansas and Texas are both right to work (for less) states. "We need help from a national AFL-CIO that is committed to organizing the unorganized in the south," he said.

When asked to grade the convention on a scale of one to ten, Chavez-Thompson asked, "Can't I go higher? If we ever needed a united labor movement, we need it today," she told the World.