John Sweeney: “The AFL-CIO is America’s Labor Federation"

[dcsmart]

Responding to press reports about the creation of a National Labor Coordinating Committee (NLCC) headed by David Bonior, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney reaffirmed the centrality of the AFL-CIO as “America’s Labor Federation” in an April 9 memorandum. The AFL-CIO will neither disband itself to create a new umbrella organization, nor will it confine its role to lobbying and political action. The memorandum characterized the NLCC a “very short-term vehicle.” However Sweeney’s memorandum did reaffirm the value of the ongoing discussions, and the need for greater coordination of the labor movement.
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you can read Sweeney's statement and the full article below
http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/john-sweeney-aflcio_centra/



Also
The Labor Movement’s Framework for Comprehensive Immigration Reform
see links within the article.

This approach to immigration reform has five major interconnected pieces:

1. An independent commission to assess and manage future flows, based on labor market shortages that are determined on the basis of actual need; 2. A secure and effective worker authorization mechanism;
3. Rational operational control of the border;
4. Adjustment of status for the current undocumented population; and
5. Improvement, not expansion, of temporary worker programs, limited to temporary or seasonal, not permanent, jobs.

Family reunification is an important goal of immigration policy and it is in the national interest for it to remain that way. First, families strongly influence individual and national welfare. Families historically have facilitated the assimilation of immigrants into American life. Second, the failure to allow family reunification creates strong pressures for unauthorized immigration, as happened with the IRCA’s amnesty provisions. Third, families are the most basic learning institutions, teaching children values as well as skills to succeed in school, society and at work. Finally, families are important economic units that provide valuable sources of entrepreneurship, job training, support for members who are unemployed and information and networking for better labor market information.

The long-term solution to uncontrolled immigration is to stop promoting failed globalization policies and encourage just and humane economic integration, which will eliminate the enormous social and economic inequalities at both national and international levels.
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You can link to the New York Times report and read the full article below

http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/the-labor-movements-framework-for-comprehensive-immigration-reform/