Statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson on New Report on Poverty

For immediate release                                    Contact: Caren Benjamin 202-637-5018

Statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney

and Exec. Vice-Pres. Linda Chavez-Thompson on

New Report on Poverty from the Center for American Progress

April 25, 2007

The Center for American Progress' Poverty Task Force's substantial new report - - "From Poverty to Prosperity"- - does the country a tremendous service by identifying a clear path to halving our nation's poverty rate in the next 10 years. The message from the Task Force is clear: It can be done.  One of the key suggestions to reducing poverty is enacting the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that would make it more difficult for employers to rob workers of their freedom to form unions.  

It is scandalous that in the richest nation in the world 37 million live in poverty. Nearly a quarter of American workers in 2006 held full-time, year-round jobs and still did not earn enough to keep a family of four above the poverty threshold.

The Task Force report finds that passage of the Employee Free Choice Act would go a long way toward moving these workers from poverty to the middle class by restoring the freedom to form unions and the opportunity to collectively bargain for a better life.

The link between increasing collective bargaining power and reducing poverty is clear.  Workers who have been able to join with co-workers in unions make an average of 30 percent more than their colleagues who don't have the benefit of collective bargaining. Latino union members make 46 percent more than their counterparts who don't have unions and African American union members make 36 percent more. Union members are far more likely to have health insurance and pension benefits - two expenses that can force otherwise middle-income families into poverty.

America simply isn't working the way it should when the wealthiest keep getting richer, and the ranks of the poorest continue to swell.  We need to turn our nation back toward equality and prosperity, and the new CAP report on poverty offers concrete and do-able recommendations, including passing the Employee Free Choice Act.  Our nation's leaders should pay close attention.