WHEREAS:

            Since the founding of AFSCME 77 years ago, our union has understood that by working together with community partners, we could be greater than the sum of our parts. That’s why we partnered with the civil rights movement to fight for worker justice in Memphis – a fight where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. ultimately lost his life. That’s why we worked with the women’s rights movement to help narrow the pay gap between women and men. And that’s why we joined together with community organizers, women’s groups, retirees, faith leaders, doctors, nurses, small businesses and civil rights leaders to win quality and affordable health care for all; and

WHEREAS:

            Politically extreme elected officials, Wall Street, and anti-worker CEOs like Charles and David Koch, who have waged a war on working people and their unions, have also waged war on women, communities of color, immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ community in order to seize power and wealth for themselves; and

WHEREAS:

            The size and scale of these attacks demand that we forge a new majority with community partners and allies in order to regain, exercise, and sustain power in our communities, the states, and in the country as a whole; and 

WHEREAS:

            Only by forging a new majority and leading a broader movement for workers can we accomplish our goals to build an economy that works for all of us, not just the wealthy, and to protect, strengthen, and expand our democracy; and

WHEREAS:

            AFSCME has made building a broader movement for workers by creating new and strengthening existing partnerships a priority of our union; and

WHEREAS:

            AFSCME has created an Allies Pilot Program to expand local affiliates’ capacity to engage with allied organizations and other strategic partners to build power for working people.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

            AFSCME will stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies in the fight to win economic and social justice and power for working people; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

            AFSCME will be a strong partner, committed to deep, long-term relationships with community allies, rather than short-term, transactional relationships that dissolve after a campaign is over; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

            AFSCME will fight alongside our community partners and AFL-CIO constituency groups on issues that reflect our shared values; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

            AFSCME will incorporate partnerships with community allies into our organizing, legislative, bargaining and electoral campaigns; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:

            The International Union will partner with affiliates to create innovative ways to engage with allies and will create tools, models and training to help members, locals, and councils work with community allies in long-term, power-building relationships.