Become a non-union member of the AFL-CIO.

[Touchdown]

This seems like a good day to present this. The AFL-CIO has created an organization to join with us for people who are not currently represented by a trade union. It's called Working America.

http://www.workingamerica.org/home.cfm

If you sign up, you won't be a union member, but you will be a member of the AFL-CIO. Sign up is free, no dues to pay, but donations and voluntary dues are appreciated.

WORKING AMERICA, a community affiliate of the AFL-CIO, is a powerful force for working people. With the combined strength of 9 million union men and women and millions of nonunion workers who share common challenges and goals, we fight in communities, states and nationally for what really matters—good jobs, affordable health care, world-class education, secure retirements, real homeland security and more.

And we work against wrong-headed priorities favoring the rich and corporate special interests over America’s well-being.

WORKING AMERICA uses professional research, communication, education, canvassing, lobbying and community organizing to demand that politicians address the priorities that matter most to working people—not just wealthy special interests. Make a difference for your community, for America and for your working family.

Nobody asked me to do this, BTW. I just thought yous alls would like a look.

[AX10]

1. kick

[Coexist]

2. kick

[acmejack]

3. KnR

[MercutioATC]

4. Good post! I'm already a union member of the AFL-CIO...

...well, of NATCA, which is affiliated with the AFL-CIO.

[Touchdown]

5. I'm getting a gateway error now.

...but I SWEAR it's there. Just try again later.:hi:

[Fierce]

6. Why not, you know, join a union?

Or organize one?

[Touchdown]

8. This might be a step in that direction.

There's a wealth of information and support from unions in this org. and it can only be a matter of time before enough non-union people join up to see that they can make a difference and take that step.

At least I can hope that it could be. Organizing a union right now could get you fired, and the Bush appointed NLRB? Guess who they're going to side with.

[Fierce]

13. Eh,

as far as getting fired or the NLRB, I'm tired of the labor movement whimpering about laws. If we're as right as we say we are, we won't let the laws stop us.

[Touchdown]

14. Ok.

Show me.

[Fierce]

16. Show you what?

nt

[Touchdown]

17. Show us how to unionize.

Give us a plan for taking worker's rights back to the mainstream.

Show us how we don't need laws to protect us, that naked force will get us what we want, or whatever plan you might have.

Draw us a blueprint to put these corporate cronies back on the defensive and claim the rights we rightfully deserve and have been losing bit by bit since Reagan fired the ATCs.

Give me a cause. Show me the way. Make us a plan, and I'll follow you, Brother.

Everything else is just empty rhetoric. I'm involved in something. It may not work. You have demonstrated that you stand for something, but not for what I propose. So what have you got?

[jdadd]

7. Recommended

I'm currently a member of the United steelworkers of america and former member of both the SMWA and IUE..All are under the banner of the AFL-CIO..I'm proud to have been a union member since 1968 :patriot:

[Touchdown]

9. Hey Brother!

CWA in Denver. I'm the legislative chair for my local. They picked me, because I never shut up about Bush and his cronies.:rofl:

[jdadd]

18. Hey Brother!

"I never shut up about Bush and his cronies". Sounds like a good platform to me....Ya got my vote!:thumbsup:

[dae]

10. Thanks for the post and link, I joined and made a small donation. eom

[Touchdown]

11. Kicking.

:kick:

[wicket]

12. K & R

:kick:

[tomreedtoon]

15. As a union member in a right-to-work state...

...I keep wondering why nobody in AFL-CIO thought of doing this before.

Throughout the 1960's, as I grew up, I saw unions get the reputation of being greedy bastards who sought to extort money out of companies. (Since my father was management, I got a bit of grumbling like that.)

And in all honesty, in those years, they were. Many unions had forgotten they were organized to help working people. They were pretty contemptuous of non-union workers, and of the state of the businesses for which they worked.

It apparently took the decimation of union membership, the marginalization of unions, deliberate union-busting and outsourcing of jobs for the unions to realize they had lost their way.

Maybe this Working America program...which, by the way, I have never heard of from my local or my shop steward...might be a first step in turning things around. Maybe people can see a new side of the union movement - not just automatic votes for Democratic candidates, but a group of people who care about workers and their rights.