As America’s Middle Class Shrinks, Labor Movement's Major Outreach Plan Is Making Waves

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http://www.alternet.org/labor/americas-middle-class-shrinks-labor-movements-major-outreach-plan-making-waves



As the AFL-CIO ended its quadrennial convention in Los Angeles, something different seemed to be in the air. It wasn’t just the lingering forceful rhetoric from the stage about reversing America’s growing inequality and declining standard of living, or the pledges to welcome non-union workers into the federation and labor movement.

Instead, it was the realization that Americans are not just struggling with labor’s issues—wages, benefits, advancement, healthcare, retirement—but are paying closer attention to what labor is now saying and doing. That could be seen in the wide interest that people outside the convention took in Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s speech defending labor’s agenda as America’s agenda and attacking the Supreme Court as the most pro-corporate court ever.

It could be seen in the media’s interest in the coast-to-coast protests organized by fast-food workers, helped by one of the largest non-AFL-CIO unions, Service Employees International Union. It could be seen in what the business press covered from L.A., the prospect of remaking unions to include members who are not represented by it in contract talks, such as student, environmental and women’s groups.

“I think it is important that people are getting interested in organized labor again,” said University of Texas Professor Jack Getman, one of the country’s top labor law experts. “The tone is good, but you have to put in the sweat. You have to inspire people. I think the fast-food workers strike is inspiring people to take another look at unions.”

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