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Pictures from AFL-CIO in Chicago

Pictures from AFL-CIO in Chicago - LaborNet
Harry Kelber at Chicago LAC Rank & File Convention

A Special Report

How I Addressed the AFL-CIO Convention And Got a Standing Ovation by Delegates

By Harry Kelber

As the only declared candidate for a seat on the AFL-CIO Executive Council, I conducted a full scale campaign on issues that are troubling workers everywhere, while Council incumbents remained completely silent, waiting for the moment when they expected to be re-elected by acclamation.

I was very fortunate to have as my campaign manager, Ken Little, a longtime volunteer organizer within the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, who will be running for secretary-treasurer of the UBC at its convention next month. Ken was able to propel my candidacy forward despite the obstacles set in our path by AFL-CIO staffers.

Ken’s able assistant was my daughter, Laura Kelber, a Yale University graduate, who had spent 18 years working as a union electrician on construction jobs and as a member of I.B.E.W. Local 3 in New York City.  And there were many delegates willing to lend a hand when I needed help.

*   *   *   *   *   
On the Sunday before the convention opened, I suddenly found myself as the intended victim of an attack to disqualify me and terminate my candidacy. AFL-CIO’s top staff people produced a letter from CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling, to Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO’s secretary-treasurer, which stated: “We have checked our membership records and Harry Kelber is not currently a member of the CWA.”

Fortunately, I had a letter from Kathleen Sims, an officer of my CWA Local 1104, which stated: “We are in receipt of your $575.00 check to cover your dues for the period from June 28, 2005 to December 27, 2005 and would like to thank you.” We had Ms. Sims fax detailed information about my union membership to Easterling and Trumka, including canceled checks of my dues payments.

Laura and I distributed more than 800 leaflets and campaign buttons on each of  the first and second days of the convention. I had several radio interviews and spoke to groups and individuals, where I offered a program for reinvigorating the labor movement, based on mobilizing the rank and-file in their own defense; in contrast,  the Sweeney and Stern forces were focused almost exclusively on their own struggle for power, as though they owned the labor movement.

*   *   *   *   *  
On the convention’s third day, scheduled for nominations. when it became clear that I had a nominator and two endorsers primed to make my candidacy official and thus force an election, an AFL-CIO lawyer, Larry Gold, approached us with a proposition: if we would forego the election process, I would be given three minutes to address the convention delegates “on any subject that I chose.”

Since I had already made my case to the delegates and since there was not the slightest possibility that I could even come close to being elected under the outrageously lopsided convention voting rules, I chose to take the three minutes. Ken and Laura engaged in heated arguments with Gold about when, how and where I would deliver my three-minute speech. It was finally settled that I would be seated in a chair at one of the mike’s when I spoke.

Sweeney’s introduction of me was hardly enthusiastic, as he emphasized to the delegates, at least twice, that I was being limited to three minutes. As soon as he had finished with his introduction, I began: “Brother Sweeney, I have a special gift for you, my autobiography, “My Sixty Years as a Labor Activist.” I held up the book , whose cover appeared on the convention’s screen. ( Sweeney: Thank you.) And here is the text of my speech.

*   *   *   *   *
As you know, you’ve seen me around for the past two days distributing my literature as a candidate for a seat on the Executive Council. On Wednesday (that’s yesterday), I was all set to have my candidacy confirmed. My nominators were here, the endorsers were here, when I received a call from an AFL-CIO lawyer, Larry Gold, They offered me this proposition: Would I forego the election process if I were given three minutes to speak to the delegates?

Since I had already made my case to the delegates and since I knew that I had not the ghost of a chance of getting elected [laughter], given the convention’s outrageously unfair voting rules, I eagerly accepted the three minutes, [applause] I think I negotiated a good deal. [Laughter, applause]

All right now, let’s talk. I want to talk about a very important subject: What changes should we make to really build this labor movement into the strong force it was 30 or 50 years ago? And what I have to say also applies to the SEIU, to  the Teamsters and to any union, because I am dealing with fundamentals.

Now, my first point is, and I’m going to be straightforward, because that’s what millions of workers out there are thinking, and I’ve been listening very carefully. The fact of the matter is that the AFL-CIO has a top leadership that is frozen, that is exclusionary. We have elected and re elected them by acclamation four times while the labor movement continues to decline, good jobs are disappearing and unions are on the defensive.

Let’s look at the world of sports.  When a team keeps losing game after game, at some point, there’s a shakeup: the coach may be fired, at least several players will be dropped.  But not in the labor movement. Let me cite an important point in labor’s history. In the past 50 years, there has not been a single member of any central labor council or state federation who has ever been elected to the Executive Council.

My second point: You have done a great job at this convention. You have passed many resolutions which I completely agree with and endorse. Yet millions of union members and unorganized workers haven’t the vaguest idea of what you are doing here and most of them don’t seem to care. We have to go out and involve them. Why? Because they are the heart and sinew of this labor movement. And if we can’t involve them, we’re going to go down the drain. But if we can mobilize them for action, we can reinvigorate the labor movement. And that must be a top priority for all of us.

Thirdly, we talk about millions of workers out there who want to join a union, but we haven’t made a serious attempt to reach them.  We don’t know where they are and are not trying to find them. We don’t have a national radio or TV program or a newspaper that can tell labor’s story and refute anti-union propaganda.  If we can’t communicate with these workers, how are we going to organize them?

Fourth, we have a situation in our labor movement that when union members express views that are critical of their leaders, they often suffer reprisals. They are labeled as dissidents and treated like pariahs.  They suffer a variety of abuses and can lose their jobs because of their views. But let’s remember, they, too, are union members and have a right to voice their opinions. We have to treat all union members with respect and dignity if this is going to be a labor movement that we can all be proud of. [Applause]

On another point. Our labor movement has to have some vision of the future.  We have to know where we’re going. Is all we want is a few extra bucks in our paycheck? Do we have a vision of the  kind of economy and society we want our children and grandchildren to live in? Will they know that we fought to give them a peaceful world, not one full of perpetual war and violence? We ought to talk about the legacy we hope to leave to future generations.

And I want to tell this audience of labor people, I’m with you 100 percent. I’ve been committed to our labor movement for over 72 years, and I intend to stay this way. [Applause] We’re going to fight together. I am not going to yield. I am not going to a nursing home. I’ve been running my weekly column, LaborTalk, for the past ten years and I will continue.

I know in this hall, there are hundreds of competent and dedicated trade unionists, who, despite the difficulties, will carry us forward. Employers will never destroy our labor movement [applause]. And as long as I live, I will do my best to work with you. Thank you. [Applause, standing ovation]

*   *   *   *   *
Although the AFL-CIO lawyer had strictly forbidden me to appear on the dais, I decided to ignore him. I walked alone to the front of the convention hall, managed the few steps to the dais and strode over to Sweeney, shook his hand and wished him good luck. Trumka embraced me, and the international presidents on the dais greeted me with handshakes.

Many delegates later came by and congratulated me. Quite a few bought my book and asked for my autograph. Many took copies of my various pamphlets.

*   *   *   *   *   
From here on out, I intend to keep a close watch and monitor what both the Change to Win Coalition and the AFL-CIO will be doing to advance the interests of working people.  The information and analysis of what I gather will appear on my weekly “LaborTalk” column and in special reports. Check my Web site: www.laboreducator.org  My e-mail address is: hkelber@igc.org

WIN Raw Audio Service

Workers Independent News
Harry Kelber brings down the house urging respect for dissidents and mass mobilization at AFL-CIO convention - 07/29/05

Looking back on 72 years in the labor movement, 60 as an activist, Harry Kelber drew repeated applause from AFL-CIO delegates even as he criticized the AFL-CIO leadership. The 91 year old labor activist, writer and educator says employers will never destroy the U.S. labor movement as he urged respect for dissidents. Kelber advocates mass mobilization of rank and file union members for organizing. Kelber's speech provided by Doug Cunningham, Workers Independent News. (6.54 MB)

AFL-CIO agreement with Harry Kelber

Today I reached a compromise agreement in which I was given 3 minutes time to address the AFL-CIO convention in return for which I agreed to give up my candidacy for the Executive Council. I had conducted a campaign for the past two days in which I criticized the activities and policies of the AFL-CIO leadership. Now I will have 3 minutes in which I can express the views about union democracy which is lacking in the American labor movement which is in large part responsible for its decline.

Harry

AFL-CIO convention resources

AFL-CIO convention resources - by Eric M. Fink, The UnCapitalist Journal
There are several good online resources for those interested in following the saga of the AFL-CIO convention this week.

LaborTalk for July 13, 2005

Exec Council Incumbents Are All in Hiding, But Still Expect to Get Re-Elected - LaborTalk By Harry Kelber
Only 11 days are left before the start of the AFL-CIO convention, and we still haven't heard a word from the 51 incumbents on the Executive Council. In fact, they haven't announced they're running for re-election. They just assume that if they remain silent, convention delegates will give them all another four years in office, just as they did in four previous elections.

To prevent that from happening, I decided to seek a seat on the Executive Council, forcing the AFL-CIO to conduct an election with a printed ballot and secret voting. I believe that my credentials for serving on the Council are superior to most of those who have occupied that office. And I will be happy to debate any Council member on the issues affecting labor's future.

In their ten years in office, the Executive Council has little to brag about. Its members have failed to come up with policies that could reverse the decline in labor's membership and economic power. They can point to no legislative victory that has improved the quality of life for workers, either on or off the job.

Council members have not come up with a single idea on how to improve union organizing, except to pour more money into campaigns. None of the national labor leaders seem to understand that the only way they are going to organize on a massive scale is to involve union members who know how to talk to unorganized workers.

The Sweeney and Stern camps are engaged in a power struggle in which, no matter who wins, workers will suffer. In fact, neither group has tried to involve rank-and-file workers of other unions, who have the most to lose by any further decline in labor's strength.

The AFL-CIO needs articulate, well-informed leaders (I include myself) who are capable and willing to tell labor's story on national radio and television and refute anti-union propagandists who are constantly attacking us. Unfortunately, nearly all Council members have preferred to keep a low profile and have rarely spoken to a national audience.

I sent a certified letter to AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka on June 29, asking for the opportunity to send convention delegates a message about why I am a candidate for a seat on the Executive Council and asking for their support. Thus far, Trumka has not responded.

I have also sent e-mails and faxes to 20 international union presidents, asking them to make a "courageous and principled decision to serve as one of my nominators," so that the "labor movement should be seen as standing for free and open elections, in which every candidate will have an equal chance to compete for a Council seat."

I also warned that "if the undemocratic conduct of the three last elections for Executive Council is repeated in 2005, it will be a massive public and media disaster, and will increase the growing cynicism among union members and unorganized workers."

Kelber Calls for Changes in Convention Voting Rules So Each Delegate Will Have the Same Single Vote

News Release

Harry Kelber, a candidate for a vice president seat on the AFL-CIO Executive Council, says that because of a lop-sided convention voting system that favors big international unions, it is virtually impossible for any independent candidate to challenge incumbents.
Kelber offers the following data to support his charge that the Executive Council has become a self-serving, self perpetuating oligarchy.

In the last 23 elections of national officers since the founding of the AFL-CIO, the only actual contest with a printed ballot was in 1995, when John Sweeney ran successfully for the federation presidency. But no incumbent Executive Council member was ever defeated in those fifty years.

A small union, like the Federation of Professional Athletes, had 1.700 convention votes, based on the size of its membership, which was more than six times the combined votes of the delegates from 47 State Federations and 226 Central Labor Councils who attended the AFL-CIO’s 2001 convention.

At the 2001 convention, each of the 22 delegates from the Service Employees International Union was entitled to 57,796 convention votes. By contrast, California and New York State Federations, each serving more than two million union members, had only one convention vote apiece.

Under the convention voting rules, the big international unions are entitled to as many votes as their reported per capita payments to the AFL-CIO, while state federations and central labor councils are restricted to one vote each, no matter what their size or importance.

This is an outrageously undemocratic system, yet neither Sweeney nor Stern have ever lifted a finger to change it, because it serves their bureaucratic interests, Kelber says. One of his campaign slogans is, "One Delegate, One Vote"

There is nothing radical about giving every delegate the same one vote. It is fair and equitable and used by most organizations, including the Canadian Labour Congress, to which most AFL-CIO international unions are affiliated and abide by its rules. Equality in voting is practiced even at meetings of the Executive Council, Kelber says.

With Sterns four or five insurgent unions preparing to quit the AFL-CIO, it will be interesting to see what effect their departure will have on the composition, of the Executive Council.

Kelber Offers New Media Plan to Fill Void, As AFL-CIO Drops Its Monthly Magazine

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Harry Kelber, a distinguished labor journalist and editor, has proposed a new media plan to help union organizers reach out to the millions of workers who say they would like to join a union. His plan comes at a time when the AFL-CIO has scrapped its official monthly publication, America@Work, and, given the federation’s budgetary restraints, is making no effort to replace it.

Commenting on the refusal of the AFL-CIO to establish a national media strategy, with a weekly, professional-level newspaper, as well as radio and television programs, Kelber asks: "If you can't talk to non-union workers, how are you going to organize them?"

Kelber, who is thus far the first and only candidate for Executive Council, says: "A steady stream of anti-union propaganda, some of it true, pours forth from editorial writers, commentators, right wing politicians and corporate 'consultants,' who demonize unions and their leaders. Yet workers who read newspapers, listen to the radio and watch television never get the union 'message.' They tend to believe all the anti-union arguments because in only very rare instances do they get convincing answers--or any answers at all--from the AFL-CIO leadership."

Kelber's career dates back to 1939, when he was editor of two weekly labor papers, the Trade Union Record and the Building Trades Union Press. He was both an observer and an active participant during a period that saw the rise of the CIO and enormous growth of unions in the mass production industries.

In the 1940s and 1950s, he helped set up official publications for locals of the hotel workers, machinists, furniture workers, teamsters and transit workers, while assisting them in their publicity efforts.

Kelber says that unions that give the highest priority to organizing must accept the fact that communicating with the public and unorganized workers is an essential part of their recruiting efforts. They must establish a committee of experts to draw up plans for a weekly newspaper, better use of the Internet, and weekly radio and television programs.

"Improving labor’s media structure will ensure that the AFL-CIO has a sustained presence and voice in the national debate on economic, social and political issues. It would also strengthen labor’s media influence if it established a coordinated relationship with the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA), which has several hundred affiliated publications, as well as with Workers’ Independent News (WIN), which has more than one hundred radio outlets," he adds.

"I believe there should be at least one person on the Executive Council of 51 members who has the knowledge and experience to deal with media problems. I think I fit the need," Kelber says.

10 Issues on Labor's Future (July 4, 2005)

Heads of 15 Largest Unions Plan Scheme To Take Permanent Control of U.S. Labor - By Harry Kelber
Both the Sweeney and Stern factions favor continuing the AFL-CIO Executive Council, even expanding it, while reducing its powers in favor of the Executive Committee. all of its authority to the Executive Committee.

If the international union presidents win convention approval to run the AFL-CIO like a private corporation with them acting as its board of directors (they certainly have the convention votes to make it a reality), trade unionism, as it has been practiced since 1886, will cease to exist. We will become shareholders, with only a remote connection in a "modernized" labor movement.

Harry Kelber, Veteran Labor Journalist and Educator, To Campaign for Seat on AFL-CIO Executive Council

Harry Kelber, Veteran Labor Journalist and Educator, To Campaign for Seat on AFL-CIO Executive Council

Harry Kelber has officially notified AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka that he is a candidate for a seat on the 51-member Executive Council. Kelber, a well-known labor journalist and educator, is the first, and thus far the only, candidate for a position on the Council.

Kelber's announced candidacy guarantees that there will be an actual election with a printed ballot and secret voting. In the last four elections for officers, the hand-picked Unity slate won all of the Council's 51 seats by default, even though they were unknown to most of the convention delegates who voted for them.

In the nearly ten years they've held office, Council members have maintained a remarkable silence, so that we do not know where they stand on the critical issues confronting the labor movement. Nevertheless, they intend to get re-elected in their usual manner--by keeping their mouths shut, instead of campaigning.

Kelber will expose the plot of a group of international union presidents in both the Sweeney and Stern-Hoffa camps to seize complete control of the AFL-CIO's decision making powers, while they freeze out women and minorities from any positions of influence. He is urging qualified union leaders and members to join him by becoming candidates for the Executive Council.

Harry will also focus on a prime problem that has aggravated the AFL-CIO's current crisis: the failure to organize the millions of workers who say they'd like to join a union. In the 10 years that Sweeney and the Executive Council has been in office, they have failed to reverse the continuing decline in labor's membership and influence, so that unions in the private sector today represent only 7.8% of the nation's work force.

Unlike almost all 51 members of the Council, Kelber is uniquely qualified to provide new strategies for union organizing. Several thousand copies of his "Training Manual for Union Organizers" have been bought and are being used in recruiting campaigns throughout the country. His "Why Unions Are Good for You and Your Family" is a best seller, with sales from more than 1,000 unions.

Harry designed a 10-session course on union organizing and has taught more than a dozen classes attended by hundreds of organizers from a cross-section of the labor movement. His latest pamphlet, "A New Game Plan for Union Organizing" could be profitably used by unions seeking new strategies for their campaigns.

Kelber offers to debate any of the Council's 51 members on the future of the labor movement. "After a 10-year freeze on its membership, isn't it time for the Council to accept one new member with fresh ideas," Kelber asks.

LaborTalk for April 6, 2005

Sweeney Is Silent on Ties to War Hawks Who Are Promoting Bush’s Global Agenda

LaborTalk for March 30, 2005

AFL-CIO’s 50-Year Organizing Record Under Meany, Kirkland and Sweeney

LaborTalk for March 23, 2005

‘Good Jobs’ Is High on Labor’s Agenda, But What Can Unions Do to Create Them?

LaborTalk for March 16, 2005

Major Organizing Issues: Overwork, Stress and Less Time for the Family