Labor Fightback Network
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P.O. Box 187, Flanders, NJ 07836 • www.laborfightback.org
• conference@laborfightback.org • (973) 944-8975
Open Letter to AFL-CIO Convention Delegates
From Concerned Trade Unionists & Labor Activists
On June 10, 2013, the San Francisco Labor Council
adopted a resolution on “Building an Independent
Labor Movement” that was submitted for a discussion
and vote at the 2013 National AFL-CIO Convention in
Los Angeles.
We, the undersigned trade unionists, believe that this
important resolution needs to make it out of Committee
to be discussed on the convention floor. The issues it
raises are central to the strengthening and survival of
our labor movement. It states, in part:
“Whereas, we are an independent labor movement
and as such should never subordinate the interests and
needs of the working class to the dictates of politicians
of either major party, as these politicians all too often
defer to the corporate class.
“Whereas, labor has been diverted from the struggle
for an independent labor movement by the countless
calls for ‘shared sacrifice’ promoted by the employers
and politicians in their service. Having accepted the
framework of ‘shared sacrifice’ has led labor to water
down our demands and make compromises that have
impeded us from mounting a powerful independent
fightback movement, in alliance with our community
partners, capable of rolling back the anti-worker
assault and wresting concessions from the corporate
class. ...
“Therefore be it resolved that, the AFL-CIO convention affirms the urgent need to build an independent
labor movement, rejecting any and all calls for ‘shared
sacrifice’ and drawing a hard, unmovable, line in the
sand when it comes to promoting the demands and
interests of our members and the working class majority.”
[The full resolution can be found at:
http://sflaborcouncil.org/resources/resolutions/2013-resolutions ]
Does this not apply to all too many arenas of our
activity as a labor movement — from the bailouts of
Wall Street and Detroit, to healthcare reform, to the
fight for jobs for all, or even most recently to immigration reform?
Wall Street was bailed out to the tune of $12 trillion,
while Main Street got shafted. GM and Chrysler
received $90 billion in bailout funds, while UAW
members, in the name of “shared sacrifice,” were
forced to take major cuts in jobs, wages, and pension
and healthcare benefits for retirees. Now the automakers’ profits are way up, but Detroit is bankrupt, and the
government is refusing to bail out Detroit’s public
workers, who risk losing their pensions.
Shouldn’t the labor movement, following the example of the San Francisco Labor Council, demand, “Bail
Out Main Street, NOT Wall Street?” Shouldn’t labor
demand that the government provide the $3.5 billion it
would take to make the workers’ pension fund whole to
ensure them the retirement security they deserve and
are owed.
Later, labor was told that the Affordable Care Act
was the only thing on the healthcare reform table.
Instead of fighting and campaigning for what we want
and need, Single Payer healthcare / Medicare For All,
labor dropped the ball. Now we are saddled with a corporate reform that keeps the private insurance companies in the driver’s seat and threatens our union healthcare plans. We may not have won Single Payer, but by
sticking to our guns we could have won the Public
Option, salvaged our union plans, and opened the door
to Single Payer.
Then we were told to go along with the Obama plan
on “job creation” — which would provide at most 2
million new jobs — at a time when unemployment and
underemployment are at 27 million. Shouldn’t the
labor movement, instead, be fighting independently for
its own full employment program?
And now we are being told to rally behind the
Senate’s Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill as a
way to win a path to citizenship for up to 11 million
undocumented immigrants. This is a bill that would
exclude more than half of the applicants for citizenship over the 13-year application process, increase the
militarization of the border by $45 billion, heighten
the repression of undocumented workers on the shop
floor (E-Verify, employer sanctions) and maintain a
slightly revised, but no-less objectionable, “guest
INITIAL ENDORSERS
[Note: All titles below
are for identification
purposes only.]
Karen Lewis
President
Chicago Teachers Union
(AFT)
Donna Dewitt
President Emeritus
South Carolina AFL-CIO
Traven Leyshon
Secretary-Treasurer
Vermont AFL-CIO
& President
Green Mountain Labor
Council
delegate to the convention
Erin McKee
President
South Carolina AFL-CIO
Al Rojas
Vice President
Sacramento (CA) Labor
Council For
Latin American
Development (LCLAA)
Steve Early
TNG/CWA Local 39521
Richmond, California
Dennis Serrette
Former Director of
Education
CWA
Baltimore, MD
Alan Benjamin
Exec. Bd. member
San Francisco Labor
Council;
OPEIU Local 3
San Francisco, CA
Chris Silvera
Teamsters Local 808
Long Island City, NY
Jerry Gordon
Retired, International
Representative
UFCW
Cleveland, OH
Ron Kaminkow
Brotherhood of Locomotive
Engineers & Trainmen
(BLET) #51
General Secretary,
Railroad Workers United
(RWU)
Reno, NV
Fred Hirsch
Vice Pres. UA Local 393
San Jose, California
Carl Finamore
Former President (ret)
IAM Lodge 1781
& current delegate
SF Labor Counci
San Francisco, CA
David Walters
Retired, IBEW 1245
Pacifica, CA
Dante Strobino
UE Field Organizer
Durham, NC
Mark Demming
National Lawyers Guild
Oakland, CA
Laurence H. Shoup
UAW 1981 (ret)
Oakland, CA
CT Weber
Past Exec. Director
CSEA District Council 784
Sacramento, CA
worker” program. These are all points that labor has
strongly opposed in the past.
Shouldn’t we as labor be fighting for what we want,
as opposed to what we are told is “realistic” and “feasible?”
We call on all convention delegates to push for a
full discussion of this San Francisco Labor Council
resolution on the convention floor. The issues raised
here cannot and must not be brushed aside. They are
too crucial to our future as a labor movement!
Dr. Jack Rasmus
AFT Local 1474
Richmond, CA
Francesca Rosa
Delegate
San Francisco Labor
Council
Bill Balderston
Oakland Education
Association, retired
Issues Chairperson
NEA Peace & Justice
Caucus
Oakland, CA
Bennet Zurofsky, Esq.
General Counsel
NJ State Industrial Union
Council
Newark, NJ
Carol Gay
President
NJ State Industrial Union
Council
and CWA Retiree
Newark, NJ
Eduardo Rosario
NYC-LCLAA Executive
Board
Brooklyn, NY
Jack Gerson
Oakland Education
Association, retired
Oakland, CA
Millie Phillips
Administrative Committee
Labor Fightback Network
Berkeley, CA
Michael Carano
Teamsters Local 348, retired
Cleveland, OH
Linda Ray
SEIU 1021 Peace &
Solidarity Committee Chair
Delegate to San Francisco
Labor Council
Michael Lyon
AFT 2121 Retiree
Gray Panthers of SF
San Francisco, CA
Jim Hamilton
Vice chair, retiree chapter
AFT Local 420
St. Louis, MO
Bill Leumer
Former President
IAM Local 565
San Francisco, CA
Ann Robertson
California Faculty
Association
San Francisco, CA
Allan Fisher
AFT 2121
San Francisco, CA
Shanell Williams
Student Trustee
City College of San
Francisco
Kali Akuno
Malcolm X Grassroots
Movement
Atlanta, GA
Vann Seawell
Retired Staff
Chicago & Midwest
Regional Joint Board,
Workers United
Galena, Ohio
Marc Rich
Retired, UTLA
Pasadena, CA
Amy Hines
AEU & Executive Board
Member
Young Workers of
California
Clayton, CA
Donna Cartwright
Co-chair
Transgender Caucus, Pride
@ Work
Baltimore, MD
Rodger Scott
AFT 2121
San Francisco, CA
Paul Alan Lenart
Former organizer,
CWA 3570
Reno, NV
Paul Colvin
CWA/ITU Retired
San Francisco, CA
Dan Kaplan
Executive Secretary
AFT Local 1493
San Mateo, CA
Tom Lacey
OPEIU, Local 3
San Francisco, CA
Tina Beacock
Chicago Teachers Union
Chicago, IL
Andrew Barbano
Editor, NevadaLabor.com
CWA Local 9413/AFL-CIO;
member
Reno, NV
Tom Edminster
Executive Board, UESF
(AFT/NEA)/AFT 61;
Delegate UESF to S.F.
Labor Council
Pacifica, CA
Maria Guillen
SEIU 1021
Shop Steward
San Francisco, CA
Bruce Wolf
Chair Social Justice
Committee
OPEIU Local 2
Takoma Park, MD
Ben Atteberry
member; AFSCME L.U.
4041
retiree/member; IRONWORKERS LU 118
Minden, NV
To endorse this statement, please see
coupon on back page.
Send us your endorsement; we want to hear
from you. — LFN
Resolution for a Just Immigration Reform
WHEREAS:
There are 11 million undocumented immigrants contributing to the American economy
and community that are being denied basic
rights and protections;
Anti-immigrant programs such as Secure
Communities (S-COMM), E-Verify and I-9
audits have resulted in the deportations of
hundreds of thousands of undocumented
immigrants and continue to incite fear and
terror in immigrant communities;
The rate of deportations is at a record
high, with 34,000 individuals being deported
daily tragically separating thousands of families;
Family unity has been threatened by a
broken immigration system that imposes
unnecessary wait times for sponsorships,
leaving millions awaiting reunification for
decades;
Immigration reform must create a fair
process respecting human dignity and family
unity, including protection for lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender, intersex, and questioning (LGBTIQ) families;
Working people are strongest when working together, and the labor movement is
strongest when it is open to all workers,
regardless of where they come from;
We deny that migrants are responsible for
the “strain” on jobs and services. These are
scarce not because of migration, but because
the corporations and politicians in their service are decimating them as part of making the
majority pay for the crisis, to boost profits
and the wealth of the rich;
Although we are not at war with Mexico
or Canada, militarizing the borders has led to
thousands of deaths and widespread violations of human rights;
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Central America Free
Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and other similar
“free trade” agreements and structural adjustment policies and other U.S.-governmentbacked “economic reforms” continue to boost
corporate profits while creating massive
poverty in countries like Mexico, El Salvador
and others, and as a result, millions of workers and farmers are displaced and have no
alternative but to migrate in search of work,
and therefore will continue to come to the
United States to work, join our unions and
participate in our organizing drives;
Temporary worker programs do not
reflect America’s values as a democratic society. The largest corporations and employer
groups in the United States — including
WalMart, Hyatt, Smithfield, the Associated
Building Contractors, Microsoft and others
— seek to force this flow of migrants to come
to the United States only through guest worker programs, where the low wages, lack of
rights, and dangerous conditions are
described as “Close to Slavery” by the
Southern Poverty Law Center, while these
corporations try to restrict and end familybased immigration;
We as a labor movement have previously
called for inclusive reform of our immigration laws, and adopted a position that
demands a halt to deportations, amnesty
/legalization for all undocumented workers,
the strengthening of family reunification as
the basis of immigration policy, protection of
the right to organize for all workers, the
repeal of employer sanctions, opposition to
guest worker programs, the demilitarization
of our borders, and “fair trade” policies that
prevent the massive destruction of jobs and
communities south of the border contained in
the current “free trade” agreements; and
The AFL-CIO is committed to working
together on the side of justice for all, along
with community partners, including civil
rights, human rights and immigrant rights
organizations, to pass immigration reform
that encompasses the principles of this resolution and that strengthens our democracy;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT:
• The 2013 National Convention of the
AFL-CIO stands united with the community
to call on Congress to create a rapid and
inclusive way for 11 million undocumented
immigrants to gain legal status and citizenship — not contingent upon border security
measures or going to the “back of the line” of
prospective immigrants. Such a swift legalization process must lead to a green card,
without requiring proof of continuous
employment and without excluding people
based on minor criminal records or based on
learning English.
• The 2013 National Convention of the
AFL-CIO supports family reunification by
increasing legal avenues for loved ones to
reunite with each other by eliminating the
backlog in family reunification petitions and
ensuring that families can petition for relatives in the future without the long waits, and
opposes eliminating any family preference
category.
• The 2013 National Convention of the
AFL-CIO calls on Congress to ensure due
process and protections at every level of
immigration and to reinstate judicial review;
• The 2013 National Convention of the
AFL-CIO stands united with the community
to call on Congress to put an immediate halt
to all deportations and all workplace enforcement actions. Enforcement programs such as
Secure Communities, racial and ethnic profiling, and the use of detention, including
mandatory and prolonged detention, should
be ended. Mandatory E-Verify and I-9 audits
should also be ended, as they build upon the
flawed employer sanctions framework and
push workers into an underground economy
where workplace abuses are prevalent;
• The 2013 National Convention of the
AFL-CIO supports a reform on border
enforcement based on demilitarizing the border and restoring full civil and human rights
in border communities. Immigration laws
should be enforced by the federal government, not by local law enforcement officers,
and the policies leading to the detention and
deportation of hundreds of thousands of people annually, overwhelmingly workers and
their families, much be changed;
• The 2013 National Convention of the
AFL-CIO calls upon Congress to provide
immigrants with equal access to healthcare
and other public benefits;
• The 2013 National Convention of the
AFL-CIO calls on Congress to ensure full
labor and workplace rights and protections
for all workers regardless of immigration status, including the right to organize and
enforce worker protections without retaliation;
• The 2013 National Convention of the
AFL-CIO calls on Congress to remove from
any immigration reform legislation all guest
worker provisions and programs, as these
only contribute to creating a second class of
workers and lowering wages and working
conditions for all workers. Permanent residence visas should be made available for people who want to come to the U.S. to work;
• The 2013 National Convention of the
AFL-CIO calls for a just immigration reform
that addresses the root causes of migration,
and therefore calls for fundamental changes
to NAFTA, CAFTA and all “free trade”
agreements; all provisions causing poverty
and unemployment that force people to
migrate to survive must be scrapped, and no
new such agreements, like the Trans-Pacific
Partnership, should be signed;
• The 2013 National Convention of the
AFL-CIO will communicate this position
with the State and and National Congressional delegates.
— Model Resolution by LFN
WHY LABOR SHOULD OPPOSE A
U.S. ATTACK ON SYRIA!
At a time when 27 million U.S. workers are unemployed or underemployed and severe cuts in social
programs are being implemented under the sequestration, the Obama administration is focused instead on
finalizing plans to unleash a bombing attack on Syria.
We strongly believe that labor and our community partners should vehemently oppose such an attack.
After all, the government destroyed Iraq at a cost of 4,488 U.S. lives, tens of thousands casualties and
billions of dollars, and at a cost of a million Iraqi lives and casualties, all based on a lie that Saddam
Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. And this came after the U.S. supported Iraq’s use of chemical
weapons against Iran in the 1980s. Washington’s outrage is indeed selective.
The U.S. government attacked Afghanistan and 12 years later the war against that country is still going
on with a further loss of human life and at a cost of $10 billion a month. But what benefit has that war
brought to the working class majority of either country?
Now a new U.S. war is apparently about to commence, this time against Syria. Will Iran be next? And
which country will be the enemy after Iran?
A lot of terrible things are taking place not just in Syria but also in other parts of the world. But the
U.S. has no right to intervene and dictate the course of events in other lands. We are not the world’s cop
and have no right to go from one hot spot to the next, demanding that countries comply with what the
U.S. government directs them to do.
The cornerstone of international law is that each country must decide its own destiny, free from outside
intervention and dictation. Unfortunately, the U.S. has a long history of waging aggressive wars — even
when it faces no immediate threat as is the case with Syria — because it does not approve of the regimes
and policies of other countries. Vietnam is a classic example of where such a war was waged with enormous loss of blood and treasure, while the warmakers suffered a staggering defeat.
Labor must be unconditionally against any military aggression by the U.S. government — the only government in the world that used atomic weapons and that later used Agent Orange in Vietnam and Depleted
Uranium in Iraq.
The American people are sick and tired of endless wars and occupations. All polls show an overwhelming majority of the public opposes a U.S. strike against Syria.
We urge our union brothers and sisters — and all of labor’s allies — to speak out now and demand of
the U.S. government: “Money for Jobs and Education, Not for Wars and Occupations! Hands Off Syria!”
— Statement by Labor Fightback Network
This four-page brochure has been issued by the Labor Fightback Network. For more
information, please call 973-944-8975 or email conference@laborfightback.org or write Labor
Fightback Network, P.O. Box 187, Flanders, NJ 07836 or visit our website at laborfightback.org.
If you agree with these statements and resolutions, please contact us today!
Donations to help fund the Labor Fightback Network based on its program of solidarity and
labor-community unity will be much appreciated. Please make checks payable to Labor Fightback
Network and mail to the above P.O. Box or you can make a contribution online. Thanks!