Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — The survival of labor unions in America hinges on the ability of leaders to reverse years of declining membership, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney declared Tuesday.
"I must stand before you this morning and say in all honesty, the American labor movement is failing to help new members organize at anywhere the level we need to," Sweeney told some 1,000 union members at the federation’s convention.
"And this failure must be addressed by those of us in this hall," he said, "or the future of this federation is at stake."
The AFL-CIO claims a slight membership increase of about 100,000 this year — to 13.2 million. But that total is about the same as when the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations joined in 1955 to form the AFL-CIO.
Since then, the U.S. work force has almost doubled and union membership nationally has declined from 35 percent to 13.5 percent last year.
Had unions kept pace, the federation would represent 40 million workers today, Sweeney said.
"While the labor movement stood still, the American economy grew strong and millions of new jobs were created," he said. "And for the most part, those new jobs have been nonunion jobs."
New membership goals will be voted on.
"This is the challenge of our generation of leadership. Nobody will do this if we do not," Sweeney said. "And if we do not meet this challenge, we face slow but certain decline."
The AFL-CIO’s 66 member unions are being asked to increase their membership by 10 percent and to devote at least 30 percent of their budgets to organizing to help boost organized labor’s numbers.
Sweeney has failed to reverse membership declines despite the promises of increases that he made when first elected six years ago. He is to be re-elected to a four-year term Wednesday.
"When all unions get to this level of financial commitment, we will have laid the foundation to transform the American workplace," reads a federation resolution.
Unions have to stop paying lip service to organizing, said Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union.
"Organizing became like sex. Everybody talked more about it than did anything about it," Stern said.
Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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