Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Debate for Pres. AFL-CIO?

Petitioning Richard Trumka for an AFL-CIO Presidential Debate
http://www.change.org/petitions/petitioning-richard-trumka-for-an-afl-cio-presidential-debate

Petition by CWA's
Harry Kelber for AFL-CIO President 2013

AFL-CIO members need to hear from ALL the presidential candidates, not just the incumbent, Richard Trumka. How can the country's largest labor organization have a presidential election without a true debate?

To:
Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO
rtrumka@aflcio.org

Petitioning Richard Trumka for an AFL-CIO Presidential Debate

Dear President Trumka,
The unions and labor movement are in dire straights. We are losing hundreds of thousands of members and the government is allowing a flagrant violation of our democratic rights. The privatization of public services and education are rapidly expanding, destroying the public commons.

Regardless of who is in charge in Washington, these attacks are continuing. In light of this, we call on you to debate the only other candidate for president of the AFL-CIO, CWA member and journalist Harry Kelber, who has submitted his name in nomination for president of the AFL-CIO. In order to have a democratic trade union movement we must have a democratic process for discussion of the issues facing the members of the AFL-CIO and the entire working people of the United States.

We call on you to agree to have this debate and discussion on the issues facing working people including:

* How to fight privatization and deregulation in education and public services?

* How to put millions of people back to work now? Should the AFL-CIO continue to support labor management partnerships and concession bargaining.

* How to stop the attacks on millions of immigrant workers so they have democratic labor rights?

* How to stop the Trans Pacifica Partnership and rescind anti-labor agreements like NAFTA which have been used to destroy working people around the world?

* Should the AFL-CIO convention be streamed on the web for all AFL-CIO members having the right to see what issues are presented and debated at the AFL-CIO convention?

* How to stop the growing militarization in the US and the wars around the world?

* Why labor does not have a 24 hours labor channel for workers and their unions to have a voice countering the anti-labor propaganda?

* How labor can fight multi-nationals in the US and around the world when they have no borders and operate above the law.

* Why there are no criminal prosecution of corporations and their executives who flagrantly violate labor and health and safety laws with impunity.

* How does the AFL-CIO have be reorganized to stop the loss of members and become relevant to the tens of millions of unorganized workers.

* Should the rank and file members of the AFL-CIO have the right to vote for the leadership of the AFL-CIO and should their salaries by significantly above the average wages of US workers?

* Should the unions in the US begin to investigate the formation of a democratic labor party that will have a program for all working people and not be driven by corporate interests?

We know you want to workers to be educated about these issues and we hope you will agree to participate in a televised debate so the AFL-CIO members of this country can see how you and CWA member Harry Kelber address these issues.

Please let the voices of the rank and file AFL-CIO members be heard in this upcoming AFL-CIO convention on which way forward.
Sincerely,
[Your name]

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