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Pro-family groups take on Big Labor
Demanding AFL-CIO drop resolution backing same-sex marriage
worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44853
Pro-family groups are joining forces to demand labor unions rescind a recent resolution backing same-sex marriage.
The groups sent a letter to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, asserting the resolution threatens the rights of workers who support traditional marriage and families, reported Agape Press.
The AFL-CIO Executive Committee’s March 3 resolution, which labor officials unanimously adopted, opposes federal and state constitutional amendments to define marriage exclusively as a union between a man and a woman.
The resolution reiterates the AFL-CIO’s “longstanding support for the full inclusion and equal rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the workplace and society.”
The Executive Committee says a federal Marriage Protection Amendment and its state counterparts “threaten the rights of working people by creating an environment across the nation that is hostile to the rights of domestic partners, regardless of their sexual orientation.”
But the coalition of pro-family leaders contends it’s the AFL-CIO that is threatening the rights of its workers who support traditional marriage and families.
American Family Association chairman Don Wildmon says the family values advocates who signed the letter to the national labor organization are united in their purpose “to protect one-man, one-woman marriage and defend the precious liberties of faithful Americans who belong to an AFL-CIO-affiliated union.”
The family groups believe a majority of workers would vehemently oppose the resolution.
Addressing Sweeney, the pro-family leaders write: “We firmly believe that the overwhelming majority of dues-paying union members who finance the national AFL-CIO and its organizational, political and lobbying activities strongly oppose so-called homosexual ‘marriage’ as well as the broader political agenda of homosexual and ‘transgender’ activists.”
The coalition also is concerned that under the resolution, union dues and fees collected as a condition of employment could be used to help pay for political and lobbying activities designed to advance homosexual and transgender activists agendas.
The coalition wants the Executive Committee to rescind the resolution at the AFL-CIO’s upcoming July 25-28 annual convention in Chicago.
The coalition, with more than three dozen national and state organizations, includes the heads of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, Catholic Vote, the Coalition of African American Pastors and a number of Christian television and radio networks.
Several prominent religious and conservative leaders are represented, including Beverly LaHaye of the Beverly LaHaye Institute, Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation, Janet Folger of Faith2Action, and Linda Chavez, who was President Bush’s original nominee for secretary of Labor.
The letter’s other signatories include three Christian legal foundations, seven AFA state affiliates and half a dozen affiliates of James Dobson’s Focus on the Family.
Among the Focus on the Family affiliates is Citizens for Community Values in Cincinnati, led by former AFL-CIO union negotiator Phil Burress.
Burress’s successful Ohio marriage amendment was widely credited with helping President Bush win the crucial swing state in the November 2004 presidential election.
In their letter, the pro-family leaders insisted that on the issue of marriage, they speak for most of the union federation’s 13 million members.
The coalition cited polls indicating a strong majority of union households last year voted in favor of state marriage protection amendments, which were approved by voters in 14 states, including heavily unionized states such as Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Oregon and Nevada.
The pro-family leaders have a countermeasure prepared in case the Executive Committee refuses to rescind the resolution.
The signatories say they are committed to ensure that legal counsel and representation will be provided at no charge to any union members who withhold funding from the national AFL-CIO and its affiliate unions as a response to the resolution.
Demanding AFL-CIO drop resolution backing same-sex marriage
worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44853
Pro-family groups are joining forces to demand labor unions rescind a recent resolution backing same-sex marriage.
The groups sent a letter to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, asserting the resolution threatens the rights of workers who support traditional marriage and families, reported Agape Press.
The AFL-CIO Executive Committee’s March 3 resolution, which labor officials unanimously adopted, opposes federal and state constitutional amendments to define marriage exclusively as a union between a man and a woman.
The resolution reiterates the AFL-CIO’s “longstanding support for the full inclusion and equal rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the workplace and society.”
The Executive Committee says a federal Marriage Protection Amendment and its state counterparts “threaten the rights of working people by creating an environment across the nation that is hostile to the rights of domestic partners, regardless of their sexual orientation.”
But the coalition of pro-family leaders contends it’s the AFL-CIO that is threatening the rights of its workers who support traditional marriage and families.
American Family Association chairman Don Wildmon says the family values advocates who signed the letter to the national labor organization are united in their purpose “to protect one-man, one-woman marriage and defend the precious liberties of faithful Americans who belong to an AFL-CIO-affiliated union.”
The family groups believe a majority of workers would vehemently oppose the resolution.
Addressing Sweeney, the pro-family leaders write: “We firmly believe that the overwhelming majority of dues-paying union members who finance the national AFL-CIO and its organizational, political and lobbying activities strongly oppose so-called homosexual ‘marriage’ as well as the broader political agenda of homosexual and ‘transgender’ activists.”
The coalition also is concerned that under the resolution, union dues and fees collected as a condition of employment could be used to help pay for political and lobbying activities designed to advance homosexual and transgender activists agendas.
The coalition wants the Executive Committee to rescind the resolution at the AFL-CIO’s upcoming July 25-28 annual convention in Chicago.
The coalition, with more than three dozen national and state organizations, includes the heads of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, Catholic Vote, the Coalition of African American Pastors and a number of Christian television and radio networks.
Several prominent religious and conservative leaders are represented, including Beverly LaHaye of the Beverly LaHaye Institute, Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation, Janet Folger of Faith2Action, and Linda Chavez, who was President Bush’s original nominee for secretary of Labor.
The letter’s other signatories include three Christian legal foundations, seven AFA state affiliates and half a dozen affiliates of James Dobson’s Focus on the Family.
Among the Focus on the Family affiliates is Citizens for Community Values in Cincinnati, led by former AFL-CIO union negotiator Phil Burress.
Burress’s successful Ohio marriage amendment was widely credited with helping President Bush win the crucial swing state in the November 2004 presidential election.
In their letter, the pro-family leaders insisted that on the issue of marriage, they speak for most of the union federation’s 13 million members.
The coalition cited polls indicating a strong majority of union households last year voted in favor of state marriage protection amendments, which were approved by voters in 14 states, including heavily unionized states such as Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Oregon and Nevada.
The pro-family leaders have a countermeasure prepared in case the Executive Committee refuses to rescind the resolution.
The signatories say they are committed to ensure that legal counsel and representation will be provided at no charge to any union members who withhold funding from the national AFL-CIO and its affiliate unions as a response to the resolution.