Afl-Cio Lays Plans For Growth

The AFL-CIO stemmed the decline in membership last year, according to federation officials who on Monday outlined a broad organizing strategy to bolster labor’s ranks.

Recruiting new union members on a large scale is essential to reviving labor as a social and political force. With steadily declining numbers over the last few decades, its strength has waned.

“America needs a raise, and one of the most effective solutions is a bigger and stronger labor movement, one capable of acting as a counterweight to the corporate forces now dominating our economy,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

While claiming some victories in regaining members during Sweeney’s first year as president, there also have been stinging setbacks such as labor’s offer to unconditionally end the Detroit newspaper strike.

An irate unionist took Sweeney to task during a news conference Monday, accusing him of failing to do enough to support the Detroit strikers. Sweeney denied it was a surrender and portrayed the unions’ unilateral back-to-work offer as a strategic decision that forces the company to “now decide whether to rehire the workers or to risk … backpay liability.”

Sweeney said membership in affiliated unions increased by about 12,000 members in 1996, to slightly more than 12.9 million. The labor movement over the past year has notched up organizing victories among state workers in Maryland and hotel workers in Las Vegas.

Yet, labor’s strength is a far cry from when unions represented nearly 35 percent of the nonfarm workforce three decades ago. Unions overall showed a decline in membership in 1996, from 14.9 percent of the labor force in 1995 to 14.5 percent in 1996.

In the past, the federation left organizing to its affiliates. But Sweeney’s insurgent campaign was based on a promise to commit resources and staff to recruitment.

The federation announced a three-pronged campaign to draw more women into unions and promised to intensify efforts to organize 20,000 California strawberry pickers.