Day One: Building the Movement to Meet the Moment

Working people across America and around the world are coming together in the proud union city of Philadelphia to join the 29th AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention. As one movement, we are engaging, learning and preparing to take the next steps on the journey for dignity and justice at work. Look to your email every morning for a quick recap of what’s happening at our convention.

President Liz Shuler to Lead Era of Transformational Organizing

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler was elected by acclamation to serve as the first woman leader of America’s labor movement. She expressed her gratitude to the delegates of the AFL-CIO Convention. Here is a portion of her remarks:

We have a visionary way forward. Just as the AFL invested to create the CIO for industrial organizing in the 1930s. Today, we are launching the Center for Transformational Organizing—the CTO.
This is the vehicle that will accelerate and convert the energy of this moment to take our movement into the next century. The CTO will bring together the brightest organizers, technologists and researchers.
We will develop, implement and scale powerful campaigns for unprecedented union growth. By concentrating resources and coordinating to achieve the biggest wins, the CTO will use the power of the entire U.S. labor movement.
That’s 13 million of us in 57 unions in every state, in every ZIP code, in all industries.
And here’s the bottom line. In the next 10 years, we will organize and grow our movement by more than 1 million working people.

Union Delegates Elect Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond to Serve Our Movement

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond delivered his acceptance speech to the AFL-CIO Convention after being unanimously elected as the highest ranking African American officer in the history of the American labor movement.

He quoted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who told us, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Redmond declared, “I know it’s true because I see all of us, as a movement, working to bend it.”

“I know what the labor movement does,” he continued. “It brings the marginalized in from the margins. It brings respect to the disrespected. It lets people come together and collectively bargain for their own future….Let’s keep bending that arc toward justice.”

Watch: This Is Our Moment

During the past five years, our labor movement has risen to meet the moment, time and time again. Working people across the country have said enough is enough. We’re building our collective strength, coming together to make our jobs better. And we’re organizing across industries and sectors. This is our moment.

Headlines

Bloomberg Law: Shuler Wins AFL-CIO Presidency, First Woman Elected to Role
The Hill: New AFL-CIO Leader Eyeing Tech Sector for Organizing
Axios: Axios Interview: Inside the Plans of the Country’s Top Union Leader
CBS Philly: President Joe Biden Will Visit Philadelphia Tuesday for AFL-CIO National Convention
The Guardian: Feel the Benefit: Union Members Receive Far Better Pay and Rights, Congress Finds

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