Union organizing, midterms take center stage at AFL-CIO convention in Minneapolis : NPR

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The AFL-CIO, which is the country’s largest and most important labor organization, gathered in Minneapolis this week. The focus was on new union organizing during the Trump administration and the upcoming midterm elections. NPR’s Don Gonyea reports.

DON GONYEA, BYLINE: The delegates kicked off this week by reelecting AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. In her acceptance speech, she first highlighted a major success.

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LIZ SHULER: We said – if you remember, we said we would organize a million new workers over the next 10 years. Well guess what? We got it done in three.

GONYEA: But alongside such victories have come huge challenges. Union representation nationally is still barely 10% of the workforce. When Shuler first took office, former President Joe Biden was in the White House and boasted of being the most pro-union president ever. Then came the second term of President Trump who, within days of taking office, announced cuts to thousands of federal union jobs, appointed Cabinet officials with anti-union positions and enacted policies in favor of corporations instead of worker rights.

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SHULER: When Donald Trump ripped away the collective bargaining of 1 million federal workers – the single biggest act of union busting in American history – did we back down?

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Shouting) No.

SHULER: Hell no.

GONYEA: The current political climate hung over the convention that included the selection of Minneapolis as the venue. This is the place where armed and masked federal immigration enforcement officials deployed by the Trump administration were met by huge protests. Two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were shot and killed. Bernie Burnham heads the Minnesota AFL-CIO. She said it was a moment when labor knew it needed to step up for the community at-large and that unions here sent a message to the administration.

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BERNIE BURNHAM: They know that if they send ICE into any of your communities, you will fight just as hard as we did.

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BURNHAM: And they know the labor movement will be there every single step of the way.

GONYEA: Organizations like the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades – which has 140,000 members and represents workers at construction sites – say the disruptive impact of Trump policies cannot be overstated. Jimmy Williams is the union’s president.

JIMMY WILLIAMS: It’s a chilling effect amongst all workers, right? Not just union members, but nonunion workers, too. They go to work scared to death every single day and won’t speak out when there’s workplace issues, right? Because they’re afraid that going to work is going to cause a problem for them, so they just put their head down, go to work and don’t speak out.

GONYEA: Another leader told me, in his union, where members were split evenly during the last election, he sees Trump support falling way off but says that doesn’t mean they’re all suddenly embracing Democrats. AFL-CIO President Shuler says between now and November, labor needs to make its case and says they’ll do that through social media and targeted messaging, but also through old-fashioned means that still work – one-on-one conversations between members. She says that doesn’t mean the message is always politics.

SHULER: And so that’s what I have seen that we’ve pivoted into more is just the humanity of what we’re living through right now. And, you know, it’s political in the sense that ultimately it will be pointing to an election. But in the meantime, we can continue to have those conversations, and, you know, people open up.

GONYEA: Shuler says if unions do their job, then members’ voices will speak loudly this fall.

Don Gonyea, NPR News, Minneapolis.

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