Resolution Number Nine
WHEREAS, the organized labor movement represented 33 per cent of American workers after World War Two and now represents only 20 percent
WHEREAS, the organized labor movement will never be able to effectively combat Reaganomics as long as tens of millions of workers remain outside the trade union fold
WHEREAS, it is primarily the lack of union organization in the South which allows for anti-labor Southern politicians to accumulate seniority in the House and the Senate, chair most of the major committees, and thereby play a key role in blocking legislation that would benefit working people
BE IT RESOLVED, that the 1982 Biennial Convention of the Ohio AFL-CIO go on record as declaring that the number one priority of the AFL-CIO be to organize the unorganized worker, especially in the South
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the AFL-CIO do whatever is necessary in terms of marshalling its financial and human resources to accomplish this task
I wrote this to be submitted to the 1982 Ohio AFL-CIO convention, where I served as a delegate from Steelworkers Local 1375. At the convention, it was adopted unanimously. It has yet to be implemented.