Representing all Workers in a Bargaining Unit – not just those who pay dues – is how Labor Unions and the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME) can continue to build power in an era when billionaires, Corporate CEOs and their Right Wing allies are trying extra hard to destroy the Labor Movement.

That’s because it is Labor’s and AFSCME’s way.

At AFSCME’s just-held 43rd International Convention in Boston, Delegates adopted a resolution reaffirming AFSCME’s commitment to exclusive representation, barring so-called Fee-for-Service Arrangements, Members-Only contracts and other measures that undermine the duty of fair representation.

Four AFSCME International Vice Presidents took to the convention stage to reiterate that the Labor Movement can’t build collective power if Unions, including AFSCME, fights only for dues-paying Members and ignores Non-Union Employees.

Stacy Chamberlain, who serves as Executive Director of Oregon AFSCME Council 75, reminded delegates that Labor’s greatest achievements – Social Security, the weekend, the eight-hour work day, etc. – were “bold demands ‘made on behalf of millions of people who had no affiliation’ with Unions.”

“As Trade Unionists – ‘at our core’ – ‘we are motivated by a sense of justice, and fairness – people shouldn’t get something for nothing,’” she said. “But we ‘cannot let emotional reaction dictate our strategy, not if we want to grow and build our collective power as a movement.’” 

Eliot Seide of AFSCME Council 5 (Minnesota), said a divided workforce is precisely what the Right Wing groups that engineered the Janus v. AFSCME Council 31 case want.

The Freedom Foundation, the Koch Brothers, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and other organizations know that’s exactly how they can destroy Labor Unions.

“They are ‘laying a trap for us,’ in order to have workers resent and attack other Workers, for Members to fight Non-Members, for us to fight each other instead of fighting the boss,’” Seide said.  If we take the bait, “we – ‘not our enemies’ – ‘will destroy the unity and solidarity that we need now more than ever,’” he warned.

AFSCME’s commitment to represent all Workers – regardless of their membership status – is enshrined in the principle of “strength in numbers,” and forms the core of AFSCME’s mission.

It “is a question of ‘solidarity versus division,’” said Se'Adoreia “Cee-Cee” Brown, the President of Local 199 (AFSCME Florida). “The ‘goal for Unions is to essentially recruit, educate, and develop Non-Members into dues-paying Members and motivate them to be active.’”

After steadily eroding Workers’ Rights in the State Iowa, the governor and the legislature recently forced Public Service Employees to recertify whether they wish to stay united every year – requiring majority votes in Bargaining Unit after Bargaining Unit, said Danny Homan, the President of AFSCME Council 61(Iowa/Missouri/Kansas).

“Last year, we held forty-three ‘separate’ recertification elections – ‘and we won forty-two of them - overwhelmingly,’” Homan said to applause.

The only way for Organized Labor and AFSCME to grow is by fighting for all Workers, Homan said: “Iowa is ‘rebuilding.’  We ‘realize that the governor is the enemy – not’ Non-Members. ‘When our rights are restored, and it comes time to sign up dues-paying Members, we're going to be bigger and stronger than we were before.’”

To Directly Access This Labor News Story, Go To: www.afscme.org/now/dividing-workers-into-camps-is-a-right-wing-plot-not-the-afscme-way