Union Mission and the big picture

What We Stand for: Mission and Goals of the AFL-CIO
Why a union?

Per AFL-CIO website:

The mission of the AFL-CIO is to improve the lives of working families—to bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our nation. To accomplish this mission we will build and change the American labor movement.

We will build a broad movement of American workers by organizing workers into unions.

We will recruit and train the next generation of organizers, mass the resources needed to organize and create the strategies to win organizing campaigns and union contracts.

We will create a broad understanding of the need to organize among our members, our leadership and among unorganized workers.

We will lead the labor movement in these efforts.

We will build a strong political voice for workers in our nation.

We will fight for an agenda for working families at all levels of government.

We will empower state federations.

We will build a broad progressive coalition that speaks out for social and economic justice.

We will create a political force within the labor movement that will empower workers and speak forcefully on the public issues that affect our lives.

We will change our unions to provide a new voice to workers in a changing economy.

We will speak for working people in the global economy, in the industries in which we are employed, in the firms where we work, and on the job every day.

We will transform the role of the union from an organization that focuses on a member's contract to one that gives workers a say in all the decisions that affect our working lives—from capital investments, to the quality of our products and services, to how we organize our work.

We will change our labor movement by creating a new voice for workers in our communities.

We will make the voices of working families heard across our nation and in our neighborhoods.

We will create vibrant community labor councils that reach out to workers at the local level.

We will strengthen the ties of labor to our allies.

We will speak out in effective and creative ways on behalf of all working Americans.

I wish to thank all the union folks for their hard work and dedication to the productivity of this country. Unions are the backbone of companies and a way of life for the working man and woman.

Keep the faith