It's About Time: A.F.L.-C.I.O. Has Plan to Add Millions of Nonunion Members - ParentAdvocates.org

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A.F.L.-C.I.O. Has Plan to Add Millions of Nonunion Members



Unions and community groups have joined forces to try to create the nation’s highest minimum wage through a referendum in SeaTac, a community south of Seattle. The proposal would establish a $15-an-hour minimum wage — more than twice the $7.25-an-hour federal minimum — for 6,500 workers at Sea-Tac International Airport and its nearby hotels and car rental agencies. The $15 wage would be 63 percent higher than Washington’s $9.19-an-hour minimum, already the highest state minimum wage.
           

Richard Trumka

A.F.L.-C.I.O. Has Plan to Add Millions of Nonunion Members
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE, NY TIMES
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Richard L. Trumka, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., has a bold plan to reverse organized labor’s long slide: let millions of nonunion workers — and perhaps environmental, immigrant and other advocacy groups — join the labor federation.

When the labor federation holds its convention in Los Angeles beginning on Sunday, he will ask its delegates for a green light to pursue these ambitious reforms. Needless to say, some within the labor movement view them as heretical.

Mr. Trumka says he believes that if unions are having a hard time increasing their ranks, they can at least restore their clout by building a broad coalition to advance a worker-friendly political and economic agenda. He has called for inviting millions of nonunion workers into the labor movement even if their own workplaces are not unionized. Not stopping there, he has proposed making progressive groups — like the NAACP; the Sierra Club; the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic