WHEREAS:
One hundred seventy-six years after the Women's Rights Movement in America was launched at the Seneca Falls Convention (1848), American women still do not have a constitutional guarantee of equality; and
WHEREAS:
For more than a century after the Thirteenth Amendment (1865) abolished slavery, American women continued to be economic prisoners, restricted by law absent a male guardian or guarantor from independent economic participation sufficient to provide for themselves and their families well into the 1970s; and
WHEREAS:
Fifty years after the Fifteenth Amendment (1869) established the right of former male slaves to vote, Black women, along with American women of every other race, were legally prohibited from participating in our nation's democratic decision-making process; and
WHEREAS:
Despite the systemic barriers which are the legacy of that history, American women have emerged as a major political and economic force in the 103 years since the Nineteenth Amendment (1920) established the right to vote for women, yet no woman in American history has ever had a constitutional guarantee of equal rights with her male counterparts; and
WHEREAS:
One hundred years after Alice Paul first authored the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA, 1923) and 51 years after Congress passed the ERA (1972) and sent it to the states for ratification, the ERA has still not been encoded into the Constitution of the United States; and
WHEREAS:
Notwithstanding the expiration of the seven-year deadline for ratification, as of 2020, 38 states have ratified the ERA and final and permanent codification of the ERA into the Constitution of the United States is within reach; and
WHEREAS:
Congressional actions aimed at final and permanent codification of the ERA have been authored in each of the past three legislative sessions, but such legislation has been blocked by detractors from even coming to the floor for a vote; and
WHEREAS:
Fewer than 30 states have a guarantee of gender equality of any kind in their state constitutions; and
WHEREAS:
Among the states that do have a guarantee of gender equality in their state constitutions, 1 in 6 limit the scope of that provision to functionally exclude transgender and gender non-binary individuals from a guarantee of equal treatment under the law; and
WHEREAS:
AFSCME recognizes that systems which perpetuate inequality constitute a threat to union strength and solidarity in that they are a foothold through which our hard-won collective bargaining gains can be undermined and circumvented; and
WHEREAS:
Inequality is an affront to our union's proud heritage of solidarity, and passive acceptance of inequality on the basis of sex is dissention against the core values to which our union aspires.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
That AFSCME staunchly reaffirms its commitment to equitability in access to, and equality in applicability of, all of our union's policies and practices without regard to sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race, color, creed, national origin, marital or familial status, religion, age or disability; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME will commit its collective voice and resources to affirmatively further the cause of ensuring that a constitutional guarantee of equal treatment under the law regardless of sex will finally become the law of the land throughout America.
SUBMITTED BY:
Frederick Yungbluth, Jr., President
Meredith Hickman, Secretary
AFSCME Council 75
Oregon