Let me begin by thanking everyone who has worked so hard to put this national summit together, certainly Roz Pelles, the members of our AFL-CIO Executive Council Diversity Committee we’ve thanked President Sweeney this morning, but I want to thank him personally for all he has done to lead the diversity efforts of our movement.  

We must be the ones to continue to tell the story of our dignified labor leader who let his actions speak louder than his words when it comes to inclusion and full participation at every level of our labor movement.  His moral compass always pointed in that direction.  

    Earlier, persons have said how great this room looks, and from us here it certainly looks wonderful.  You mirror all of our communities and all of our workforces.  But as good as you look, you have sounded even better with the substantive presentations and discussions that have taken place.

    I want to especially thank our panelists this morning and for sharing their experiences, best practices, and model programs — this has been a team effort by our national unions, central labor councils, state federations and constituency groups.

    To provide a bridge to our afternoon session, I want to comment briefly this morning on where we’ve been, where we are on the eve of our convention here in Pittsburgh, and where we need to go in the future if we are to reach our ultimate goal of strengthening our union movement through the power in our diversity.

    You are all intimately familiar with the history of our campaign for diversity, inclusion and full participation because you birthed it and lived it and deserve credit for taking us to where we are.

    Our movement, as it has been stated frequently today, started with the “New Voices” campaign in 1995 when President Sweeney put down his marker by campaigning for new diversity and the creation of a third national AFL-CIO office, the office first held and distinguished by Linda Chavez-Thompson, and the office I now humbly hold.

    I think people were mildly stunned at how quickly Linda became a popular leader of our movement, externally as well as internally; and in short order, it seemed that we had always had a Executive Vice President and a person of color in our top leadership.

    Shortly after taking office, the New Voices team of Linda, Rich Trumka and President Sweeney took another big step by expanding the size of out governing executive council so it could include more women and people of color as week as representatives of other under-represented segments of our membership.
    While that move created some undercurrent of dissension that we are still dealing with today, it immediately opened up not only our leadership, but it sunshined our policy-making process, and it has made us a better organization and a more dynamic movement.

    Those three first steps became the building blocks of our campaign for diversity, and Resolution 2 became a fourth when we passed it at our 2005 convention and formally committed to the goals we’re trying to reach.


    Some said Resolution 2 was going to divide our movement; instead, it became one of our greatest strengths at a time when we needed unity and solidarity the most desperately.

    As all of you have seen this morning and in our report on “Progress in Our Movement,” we made a successful attempt at measuring and quantifying our achievements, more so than with any other program or campaign initiated by the AFL-CIO.


    How far have we come?  There are those who say that we are dealing now with a cup that is half empty, others that see it as a cup half full.

    I’m always a cup-half-full person because the kind of change we’ve been championing has always been slow in coming — even when everyone is of good will and working in harmony, there are always practical considerations that inevitably involve individual human beings.


    But let me stress that as your Executive Vice President and as Chair of our Civil Rights Committee, I will never be satisfied until our cup is overflowing . . .  (Pause)

    Where are we today?

    We know that progress has been achieved duly reported 40 percent of our national and international unions, one-third of our state federations, and a sizable chunk of our central and regional labor councils.


    But recognize that while our early building blocks established a firm foundation, and that bricks and mortar are going into place regularly and with some scope, we still have a long way to go.

    That’s why our Civil, Women and Human Rights Committee submitted a new resolution — A Diverse and Democratic Labor Movement — to our Executive Council, and why the Executive Council has recommended it for adoption by our full convention this week.


    Resolution 7 builds on Resolution 2, mandating even more aggressive progress in making sure our union movement — in membership, actions, and leadership — really reflects the face of our country’s workforce.

    You all have the text of Resolution 7, and I recommend it for your review and support.

    I will share with you what I think is a key paragraph that compels us to now move farther, faster than ever before.


    “In 2009, with the passage of national labor law reform, it will be more important than ever for the union movement to speak to, speak for and nurture leadership by women, people of color, young workers, LGBT workers and workers with disabilities.  We are now poised to extend the benefits of union membership to tens of thousands more workers and, in the process, build new strength and capacity that can serve millions and rebalance America’s economy.”


    In more direct language, we have the opportunity of a lifetime coming before us, and to take advantage of it, we must be able to proudly display our diversity and provide for the inclusion and full participation of every one of our members in the work that must be done.

    President Sweeney spoke this morning of the moral imperative of our cause, and the tools of practical persuasion we must use to bring along the remaining 50 to 60 percent of our national, international and local unions and our state and local organizations.

    I’ll add to that by saying we must also double our own leadership, effort, and action as trade union leaders — we’ve gotten to where we are through nearly 15 years of hard work, and we may be halfway there.

     I am especially pleased to note that, beginning in the Fall of 2009, the John J. Sweeney Leadership Institute at the National Labor College will begin training the next generation of labor’s rising leaders and activists.

     The Sweeney Leadership Institute will mobilize and maximize the leadership potential of the best of our young and diverse members who we know are key to building a successful labor movement in the 21st Century.

    We know we are pressed for time to finish the job we have begun.  Once we gain the opportunity of growing our movement, we must engage quickly and strongly to make our gains and strengthen our hand in order to protect the changes we’ve been able to bring about.

    That will not happen just because we pass Resolution 2.  It will happen only if we breathe life into Resolution 2 and make it work.

    Let’s pass it next week . . . then let’s carry its spirit back to our unions and organizations and renew, then redouble our commitment to change.

    Thank you very much.