Union Member Leads Petition Drive Challenging AFL-CIO's Pro-Homosexual Resolution
by Ed Thomas
June 30, 2005
(AgapePress) - A recent move toward support of the homosexual agenda by the leadership of the country's largest federation of workers has drawn opposition from many of its members. Union members in Michigan, Mississippi, and elsewhere have led the charge with a nationwide petition to counteract the AFL-CIO's opposition to a federal marriage amendment.
UnionWorkersAgainstGayMarriage.com -- that's the name of the website that was established as part of the attempt to get AFL-CIO president John Sweeney to retract a March resolution by the organization opposing a federal marriage amendment -- and supporting same-sex "marriage." Kendall Boutwell, a pastor and union worker for Georgia Pacific in Mississippi, helped launch the website.
Boutwell says that neither he nor most of the millions of AFL-CIO members in more than 60 unions were asked by executive leaders whether they approved of the resolution. "They did not ask the body [of the union], the members being the body," he explains. "They didn't ask 13 million members. They took it upon themselves and did this."
The Mississippi union member contends that a minority of AFL-CIO members and the general population are trying to control the culture. He wants union leaders to rescind their decision.
"President Sweeney of the AFL-CIO and the executive council, which is made up of about 60 people, voted unanimously to do that," he says. "They didn't ask the workers -- the people paying the dues -- what they thought. That's not democratic."
Ninety percent of Boutwell's union members have signed on with his petition supporting traditional marriage -- and he contends that mirrors laborers' viewpoints nationwide. He is hopeful as many union members as possible will sign the petition before the AFL-CIO convention in July.
A well-known labor activist in Michigan has joined in with Boutwell, as have several dozen religious and conservative organizations who have written to Sweeney to demand that the AFL-CIO retract its official resolution supporting homosexual marriage.
Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
