Summary
He also signaled that labor unions need new ideas. "The American labor movement can turn our country aroundand together that's exactly what we're going to do," Trumka told the convention. "But to do it, we need a new kind of labor movement-one shaped to meet the needs of Americans in a changing economy.
Trumka and the labor movement can't succeed on either count without more education, training and activation of members - the labor movement's ultimate, and only partly tapped, source of power. "Our responsibility is to agitate, agitate," says AFSCME (public employee) union president Gerald McEntee. "We've got to have more of that, to get back into the streets."Assuming the EFCA passes - and even more so if it doesn't - unions will need not only unity but broad public support to launch organizing drives on a larger scale. Many unionists are skeptical about Trumka's proposal for an army of 1,000 organizers that unions would commit to other unions' organizing campaigns or defense against raids, noting how overworked the already inadequate ranks of organizers are.See the full content of this document
Extract
Labor's New Leader
RICHARD TRUMKA- COAL MINER, LAWYER and new president of the AFL-CIOtook the stage after his election at the federations Pittsburgh convention in mid-September to the strains of the defiant Tom Petty refrain, "I'm going to stand my ground, and I won't back down." Clearly, Trumka wanted to convey a new style of labor leadership, one toughe...
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