Such a community would be a "Union City," and the AFL-CIO wants to see them sprout up across the country, raising the living standards of working families as they grow.

The Union Cities initiative unites labor from the local to international levels in a common effort to educate and motivate union members, defend worker rights, organize new members and create a powerful political voice that speaks for working families.

Through the program, central labor councils will create rapid response teams that can help in organizing or on a political campaign, for example.

"The BMWE is an activist union and this is an activist program that matches our way of thinking," said BMWE President Mac A. Fleming. Fleming urged BMWE’s subordinate lodge and system division and federation leadership to share their experience and ideas to help make the Union City effort a success.

"We can only benefit from a stronger labor movement," said Fleming. "It is our obligation and our satisfaction to help all workers gain better living standards."

An 8-Step Program

Union Cities is designed to create an ongoing support structure at the local level for the critical struggles that national and local unions face every day. The program is based on an eight-point strategy:

1. Making organizing labor’s top goal
2. Taking on anti-union employers
3. Building grassroots political power
4. Working with community allies to spur worker-friendly economic development
5. Educating union members about why they are losing ground economically
6. Enlisting local government support on the right to organize
7. Ensuring that central labor council bodies are diverse in membership
8. Setting a goal of 3 percent membership growth

For more information, contact AFL-CIO Field Mobilization at 202-637-5280 or your local central labor council.