AFL-CIO Convention Labor Movement Goes Online

THE LABOR MOVEMENT IS TAKING a big jump into cyberspace through the AFL-CIO's latest initiative - workingfamilies.com - announced at the AFL-CIO convention in Los Angeles.
Delegates also took action on several initiatives, including the endorsement of Vice President Al Gore and the first steps of a major restructuring of the labor movement on the state and local level.

The Internet program, slated to be up and running by Dec. 1, will link millions of union families, giving them access to affordable Internet service and computers, as well as links from a main "portal" site to union sites, lots of information and a way to gain an even stronger voice in the workplace, community and government.

CWA President Morton Bahr outlined the program to reporters and convention delegates, calling it "a union gateway to cyberspace that gives union members and their families timely information about important workplace, bargaining and legislative developments" as well as the ability to respond in an instant.
Bahr called the program "a new tool for workers activism," pointing to an Internet campaign and mobilization among tech workers at IBM over a pension plan conversion as a recent example of "cyber protest." CWA has been in the forefront of using the Internet in many different kinds of campaigns, from telecom bargaining and the successful representation drive among US Airways agents to organizing among permatemps at Microsoft. "This is the language of the high-tech worker," and we have to speak their language, Bahr said.

Workingfamilies.com will make Internet services available to union members through Union Privilege for about $14.95 a month and will offer home computers with full financing for as low as $600, bringing union families online for about $30 a month. The web portal, or entryway to the Internet, will provide state-of-the-art services - e-mail, e-commerce, news, weather and information of special interest to union families.