(AMHERST, NEW YORK) - While the Western New York AFL-CIO Area Labor Federation (WNYALF) outlined what must be done in the months to come to combat the Anti-Worker agenda of the Trump Administration, noted keynote speaker and Labor Activist Bill Fletcher, Jr. outlined “four things Unions need to do” to bring about results that will ultimately benefit Working People over the course of time.

A couple of hundred Labor Leaders and Delegates from an array of Public and Private Sector Unions jammed into the United Auto Workers (UAW) Region 9 Union headquarters in the Buffalo Suburb of Amherst over the weekend to take part in the WNYALF’s 2017 Annual Meeting.  They revisited a number of notable victories local Labor registered in 2016 and vowed to rededicate themselves to what must be done in 2017, while listening to inspirational speaker Fletcher talk about the avenues that Labor must pursue in the coming months.

“One, we must unite a ‘new majority’ of ‘bringing together a lot of sectors who are at odds with this administration,’” said Fletcher, an internationally-known Racial Justice, Labor and Global Justice Writer and Activist (http://billfletcherjr.com/).  “Two, we have to ‘split the enemy.’  We have to ‘create splits’ and ‘let them fight one another.’  Three, ‘we must harass and pursue the enemy,’ including the filing of lawsuits.  This is ‘critically important,’ especially when it comes to ‘ballot initiatives.’  We must ‘block’ them.  And four, we have to ‘continue to build alliances and coalitions.’  We have to ‘build united fronts with all our allies.’”

“And we need a ‘new’ Labor Movement,” Fletcher (Pictured Below/WNYLaborToday.com Photos) told those in attendance, speaking in reference to the lost presidential election and the continuing fight against Anti-Union Republican State and Federally Elected Officials.  “The GOP used Wisconsin in 2011 to ‘test out their weapons.’  The Labor Movement ‘learned almost nothing’ from Wisconsin and our ‘old ways’ of fighting.  But, ‘we are not far away from the opportunity to turn things around.’”  

One other strong point made by Fletcher in his address to Western New York Labor was: “This is not the hour of collaboration” between Labor and the Trump Administration or Republican representatives.  “This is ‘the hour for unconventional fights, not the hour of collaboration (with the Republican Party).’  We’ve got to ‘chip away and build our strength,’” he said.

Richard Lipsitz, who serves as President of the Regional AFL-CIO Labor Organization that oversees five individual Labor Councils in Buffalo, Niagara-Orleans, Dunkirk, Jamestown and Cattaraugus-Allegany that combine to represent just under 150,000 Unionized Workers across Western New York, also addressed the Union Representatives, first underscoring a number of very good victories in 2016 and then outlining the WNYALF’s plans for 2017.

“Last year the WNYALF ‘expanded its work and consolidated’ its organization,” Lipsitz said, “and here’s a list of some of the activities and accomplishments:” Water for Flint, an effort that garnered local and national publicity and provided 2.5 trailers of water for the people of Flint, Michigan; Supported locked-out Workers at the ATI Plant in Lockport; Supported Striking Workers at Ingersoll Rand in Suburban Buffalo; Supported the Communications Workers of America (CWA) contract bargaining at Kaleida Health in Buffalo, which resulted in a very positive settlement; Supported the CWA’s Catholic Health Campaign which ended in an historic Collective Bargaining Agreement in Buffalo; Supported the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) and its organizing of Grad Students throughout the region; Built regional support for the CWA-International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Strike at Verizon; Was a key player along with the Clean Air Coalition and the Kenmore Teachers Association in the passage of the Fossil Fuel Closure Act, which guaranteed bridging money for The City of Tonawanda after the closing of the Huntley Power Station; Supported the Athenex Project in the Southern Tier City of Dunkirk, and stayed the course in support of the repowering of the Dunkirk Power Station; Played a leading role in the effort to turn the Buffalo Board of Education away from the control of the racist building developer Carl Paladino; Played a supportive role in ending the stalemate over a Labor Agreement between the Buffalo Teachers Federation and the Buffalo Board of Education; Continued to agitate for high road economic projects in the City of Niagara Falls; the WNYALF was also in the middle of a fight with the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, in alliance with Amalgamated Transit Union and the Coalition for Economic Justice, over the dual issue of mass transit and an eight-year lapse since the last Labor Agreement; the WNYALF worked on all these issues and in doing so, we saw the resurgence of the Buffalo Central Labor Council, the strengthening of the Niagara Falls Labor Council and the maintenance of the Cattaraugus-Allegany, Dunkirk and Jamestown Labor Councils.

“We’ve also ‘continued to find positive alliances’ with our allies and friends around questions like jobs for the minority communities, ‘just’ transitions, and the ‘general fight’ versus bigotry and racial discrimination,” Lipsitz said. “All this was ‘accomplished with the hard work of all the affiliates, friends of the organization, our executive board, and especially our staff.’  The crowds for various meetings and rallies ‘were bigger, more enthusiastic and clear-eyed than at any time in the recent past.’  It is also in the ‘nature of things’ that ‘most people basically just want a way to make a fair life with basic needs met.’  ‘Very few want to promote themselves off the labor or image or influence of others.’”

“This is ‘what our movement is really all about.’  We ‘recognize the dignity of hard work, the honor of promises kept and we never try to benefit off the misery of others.’  Not so this (Trump) administration.  ‘So sorry friends, no magic wand is forthcoming.’  Like everything that ‘grew’ our Movement, the ‘current situation will require hard work and a redoubling of our efforts,’” he continued.  “Unfortunately, none of us will be able to ‘avoid’ the battle that is upon us.  I ‘wish’ Trump had ‘lost’ the election, if he had, we could go back to ‘making steady, but slow progress along the lines of our work in 2016.’  I wish I didn’t have to talk to my friends and family about the ‘monsters’ like Steve Bannon, who ‘have taken over policy making’ at (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue).  However, to do so ‘would be to deny reality.’”

“Instead, we ‘must fight, and we must do so in a smart, thoughtful and determined fashion.’  We ‘must fight along a broad front, including even those with who it may seem we have little in common.’  We ‘must unite the ordinary Working People against the policies emanating from Washington, and their local spokesmen, like (Western New York) Congressman Chris Collins. People ‘who never sat in our boat may become regular passengers and some who were with us - in the past, may slip away.’  I ‘firmly believe anything is possible in this next period,’” Lipsitz said.

“The ‘key question is to keep our bearings and to never forget that the Labor Movement is by its objective nature the primary defense organization of millions and millions of Workers and their families.’  In fact, many Union Members ‘did vote for’ Trump ‘in numbers slightly larger than those who voted for (past Presidential Candidate Mitt) Romney, and this fact should not be forgotten.’  A ‘percentage of those voters may be plagued by voter’s remorse before long, if not sooner.’  The ‘only way we can stay close to our rank-and-file is to carry out the type of work we did in 2016.’  ‘Nothing is pre-ordained, nothing is pre-determined.’  ‘We can survive this onslaught by consciously working towards common goals that are life affirming, and beneficial to the masses of people in this region and the country,’” Lipsitz said.