Statement by Joe Hansen, United Food and Commercial Workers International President, at the Change to Win Founding Convention
September 27, 2005
We meet today—and I say this as plainly as it can be said—because if we don’t drastically change there will be no labor movement in this country.
We are here, each and every one of us, to pledge ourselves to a new course of action that gives working people a fighting chance to have the respect they deserve in the workplace—and, a better life for their families.
This convention is not about Joe Hansen. It’s not about the presidents of our national and international unions. It’s not about what’s going on in
It’s about the workers you’re meeting right here in St. Louis: the Advance Demolition workers, Cintas workers, the school bus drivers, Smithfield Packing workers, Houston janitors, hotel workers, DHL workers, and workers who aren’t with us today—including our members—and the millions of workers who want a union so they can have a better deal at work and a better life for their families.
Arriving here—prepared to live up to our responsibility—has not been easy for any one of us. We may have taken different paths—but, they all meet at one vision.
We must grow in our core industries. We must grow industry-wide, and build a worker movement with the kind of power that can raise working and living standards.
The wake up call for the UFCW was a prolonged and bitter strike in Southern California. When we emerged from that difficult time, we looked at every aspect of our union. We established a Committee on the Future. We examined the financial and market situations of our major employers.
The picture wasn’t pretty.
Our employers had too much financial clout, too much power—and we weren’t effectively utilizing the levers of power at our disposal.
After the better part of a year, the committee proposed, and our International Executive Board adopted, core principals to build more power for UFCW members.
Those principles rest on the foundation of: core industry organizing, coordinated bargaining, and political action aligned with the strategic interests of UFCW members
Within the UFCW, we are already in the process of undergoing the steps to change our union.
Each of our unions—in our own ways—arrived at the need for fundamental change.
We took a reform package to revitalize the labor movement to the AFL-CIO.
But too many unions feared the uncertainty and risk that accompanies change.
Our unions feared what would happen to workers if we did not change.
Working people can’t win a better life unless more workers belong to unions.
We are laying the foundation to make that a reality for workers in our core industries.
They cannot wait for change.
We are here today to pledge ourselves to a covenant for growth—and the duty that covenant requires.
Only core-industry organizing delivers the union density and worker power necessary to confront corporate power.
Change to Win is taking a new path to engage and organize workers industry-wide.
The expectations we place upon ourselves couldn’t be higher.
I believe we’re going to live up to them.
I believe the time is now to bring new hope to American workers and their families.
Thank you.
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