Elections are major focus of state AFL-CIO convention

More than 600 delegates attending the Minnesota AFL-CIO convention, which begins Monday at the Mayo Civic Center, will focus on electing pro-worker candidates in this year?s elections. Among the speakers they will hear will be former Sen. Max Cleland and national AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

Cleland, chair of John Kerry?s presidential campaign, will address the convention at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. The former Georgia senator, who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam, was defeated in his 2002 re-election bid after a smear-filled campaign in which he was compared to Saddam Hussein. He has been devoting the past several months to championing the cause of Kerry, a fellow Vietnam veteran, who has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO.

Following Cleland?s speech, delegates will go door to door in Rochester to talk with other union members about the election.

Sweeney is scheduled to speak at 1:15 p.m. Monday. His speech follows a series of workshops, including a session on labor law reform called ?100 Days? that is the blueprint for a nationwide program for union organizing.

Andy Levin, national director of the AFL-CIO?s Voice@Work campaign, state AFL-CIO President Ray Waldron, and organizers Kathy Anderson, Martin Goff, Eric Lehto and Alan Kearney will be among workshop leaders.

Other scheduled speakers include Irasema Garza, director of AFSCME?s Women?s Rights Department and former director of the Women?s Bureau in the U.S. Department of Labor. Garza will speak to the full convention and at a luncheon Tuesday sponsored by the Coalition of Labor Union Women.

Delegates will also consider more than 50 resolutions, including support for national, single-payer health insurance; proposals that the Legislature authorize Instant Runoff Voting; that the state offer ?reasonable financial incentives? to keep Ford?s Twin Cities Assembly Plant open; and that the Minnesota AFL-CIO create a new constituency group to increase the involvement and influence of young union members.

Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@mtn.org

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