Drive Means Everyone Can Join AFL-CIO

Kevin Troutman, a partner in the Houston office, was quoted in the March 21 Houston Chronicle article "Drive Means Everyone Can Join AFL-CIO." The article reported on an affiliate union recently set up by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). The affiliate, called Working America, is designed for everyone, including those who are between jobs or don't have unions at work. It focuses on many of the same issues that unions do, including health care access, retirement security and unemployment insurance benefits. Members won't have collective bargaining rights or the protections of the National Labor Relations Board, but they will have many of the same union benefits. Kevin said: "Employers need to pay attention to this sort of thing if they want to maintain a union-free workforce." The AFL-CIO project is a way to build loyalty, engender an atmosphere of "us versus them" and identify people already receptive to union messages. That could give a union a head start later on if it launched an organizing campaign.