AFSCME convention votes
to 'bring troops home now'
By Sharon Black
Anaheim, Calif.
Some 6,000 people participated in the 36th
international convention of AFSCME--the State, County and
Municipal Employees union--in Ana heim, Calif., June 19-25.
About 3,000 were delegates from local and district AFSCME
councils. AFSCME Puerto Rico's participation increased
dramatically, from two to 40 delegates.
The meeting, demonstrations nearby, and resolutions against
the war in Iraq reflected a growing militancy among the rank
and file of the public workers' union.
As with the Service Employees union's convention in San
Francisco earlier in June, the AFSCME gathering passed a
resolution calling for U.S. troops to get out of Iraq.
The final resolution involved a struggle over wording with
some of the union leadership, which supports John Kerry's
presidential campaign. The union's resolutions committee had
watered down an earlier anti-war resolution, changing the
demand to "bring the troops home as soon as possible" instead
of "now."
Later, Brenda Stokely, president of District Council 1707
representing daycare workers in New York City, gave an
impassioned call from the conference floor to amend this
wording. She expressed the workers' sentiments when she urged,
"Bring the troops home now!"
The delegates cheered and applauded her call. And when the
resolution came to the floor for a vote, these same delegates
overwhelmingly passed the amendment to make the wording "bring
the troops home now."
People in the "Union and Community Campaign to Bring the
Troops Home Now" distributed a special petition and flier
repeating this demand. AFSCME convention participants scooped
up these fliers.
The issue of the war is of burning importance to workers.
Their children are on the front lines.
Union's support for Kerry
contradicts anti-war sentiment
Despite the strong anti-war sentiment, AFSCME's official
position is support for John Kerry.
Kerry spoke at the convention on June 24. He called for a
stronger military. He has vowed to increase the number of
troops in Iraq.
Yet the AFL-CIO's top leadership is throwing all its efforts
and resources into the Kerry campaign.
This stands in stark contrast to what labor really needs: a
resurgence of action that gets right in the bosses' faces.
Labor needs unity that will challenge the capitalists. It needs
a program that is politically independent of both the
Democratic and Republican parties.
Kerry doesn't exactly have a strong pro-labor record. Just
recently, even though he presents himself as labor's candidate,
Kerry missed an important Senate vote on extending unemployment
benefits for thousands of jobless and desperate workers. Had he
been there the amendment would have passed.
At the convention, the AFSCME delegates approved a $9 union
dues increase. In itself this could be fine--but the increase
is meant primarily to support the Democratic Party and the
Kerry election campaign.
One delegate from Detroit bravely took the microphone to
oppose the dues increase, asserting that the union's strategy
of relying on the elections is wrong. The delegate suggested
that the money would be better used for strengthening AFSCME
locals, on organizing, and on building bigger demonstrations
about union issues.
While this opposition to the dues increase was clearly a
minority view, AFSCME staffers have expressed worry that the
dues increase could hurt organizing efforts.
The hoopla around Kerry also forced the tabling of many
other progressive resolutions. The Million Worker March, a
national rank-and-file effort to organize a mass labor march on
Washington for Oct. 17, had gathered a number of
supporters.
Clarence Thomas from the International Longshore Workers
Union Local 10 and others had come to the conference to
organize for this effort. Caucus meetings and a local church
meeting in Anaheim helped to build support.
Unfortunately, the actual floor vote on supporting the march
was scuttled. Nevertheless, march organizers felt they had
succeeded in meeting many like-minded labor unionists.
Secretary-Treasurer Bill Lucy continues role
During the elections of union officers, Secretary-Treasurer
Bill Lucy stunned the membership when he declined nomination
for re-election, citing health problems. Lucy has long been one
of the labor movement's leaders most closely associated with
the Black struggle for civil rights. He traces his roots to the
Memphis strike of sanitation workers that the Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr. was supporting when he was assassinated. Lucy
also fought to oppose South African apartheid. He is president
of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists.
The conference floor broke out in standing ovations of
support for Lucy, with delegates demanding that he stay on as
secretary-treasurer. In the end, Lucy agreed to continue in his
role. Both he and Gerald McEntee, AFSCME president, were
unanimously re-elected.
The most dynamic part of the convention was the
pre-organizing conference. There, workers from California,
Missouri, Maryland and many other states talked about their
efforts to unionize. On June 23 hundreds of AFSCME delegates
and supporters jumped on buses to travel to the nearby
California University Medical System to demand contract rights
for poorly paid hospital workers who face racism on the
job.
Domestic workers, day-care providers, hospital workers, bus
drivers and campus workers are the most exciting layer of
AFSCME workers who are leading the new organizing drives. Most
are women and most are African American, Latin@ and Asian.
Reprinted from the July 8, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
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