May 9, 2005

(Las Vegas)– The middle class is under attack in this country and workers desperately need a strong labor movement to give them a voice at work and dignity on the job, Jim Hoffa, Teamsters General President, said Monday at the annual Teamsters Unity Conference. That is why the Teamsters Union is leading a reform coalition of unions dedicated to devoting the resources and the energy necessary to produce rapid growth in the labor movement.

“Working people are facing the worst crisis in generations. Good jobs are being destroyed. Affordable health care and secure retirements are becoming a thing of the past,” Hoffa said. “America needs a strong labor movement to restore the American Dream. We need a labor movement that is equipped to fight for workers and win.”

Joined by the presidents of the Service Employees International Union, Laborers and UNITE HERE in a show of solidarity and unity, Hoffa declared that labor unions are the strongest hope for working Americans struggling in a Wal-Mart economy.

“Unions have always been the way that working people have made it into the middle class and achieved the American dream – and we can do it again,” Hoffa said to more than 3,000 Teamsters and other union members. “We must act boldly today in order to win tomorrow.”

“It is time for us to wake up and shake up the American labor movement,” said Terry O’Sullivan, General President of the Laborers International Union of North America. 

 “We’re not going to grow stronger if our numbers grow smaller,” said Andy Stern, President of the Service Employees International Union. “We need to change the AFL-CIO or we need to build something stronger.”

History shows that sinking more money into politics will not stem the decline of union membership, said Bruce Raynor, General President of UNITE HERE. “The only people who can save working people in America are working people in America,” he said.

Added John Wilhelm, UNITE HERE’s Hospitality Industry President: “The leadership of the AFL-CIO is not providing the vision, the energy and the hope that workers in America need today.”

Teamster leaders throughout the country are attending the annual Unity Conference. They are joined by hundreds of other union members from SEIU, the Laborers, UNITE HERE and the United Food and Commercial Workers. Following the conference, the presidents met to develop a strategy for winning major reform of the AFL-CIO.