fund appeal

AUD is lucky -- although we operate on a shoe string, it's one tough shoe string! Thanks to a core group of supporters -- most of whom have been supporting AUD generously for years -- we can stay alive and effective even when the economy crashes and support from foundations dries up.

We don't take that support for granted, which is why we are making this appeal. But sometimes we fear that you may get tired of reading the same old appeal, year after year, from the same old people.

So we thought we might share with you how AUD's work is perceived from a fresh, young, new perspective. Lorissa Rinehart came to work for AUD as program assistant, with no prior experience in the labor movement but, as she explains, with a dedication to human rights. After just a few months of answering that phone and reading those e-mails, here is what she has to say:

As a new member of the AUD team, I've had a pretty steep learning curve, especially among the likes of Herman, Judy, and Kurt. But, those who I have learned the most from are our callers and supporters from unions like the IBEW, SEIU, and AFGE. So often we receive calls from union members working under untenable conditions, whose unions, to add insult to injury, fail to represent them in any meaningful way.

Then there are those who try to do something about it. Often their situations are worse than those who simply submit to these injustices. As is so often the case, speaking truth to power precipitates blacklisting and smear campaigns. Nevertheless, many of those who I've spoken to continue on for months, sometimes even years, in their fight to bring democracy to their union and to the larger union movement. I am constantly astounded by their knowledge, their drive and their passion.

Coming from a human rights activist background, I have never come across a group of people more dedicated and effective than those fighting for union democracy. AUD is many things, and as a new team member, I am most encouraged to know that it is a support network, linking union members from New York to California, from Alabama to Michigan, in their efforts to make their unions democratic.

Lorissa joined the AUD staff at an opportune moment for her and for AUD. The labor movement is spurred into renewed hope and action by the possibilities it sees in the Obama victory, a hope that is expressed for the moment in the campaign around the Employee Free Choice Act. At the same time, the quality of life of the rising labor movement and the strength of its internal democracy are being shaped by a series of internecine conflicts.

On the West Coast, the new National Union of Healthcare Workers and the SEIU are embattled over policy differences exacerbated by a battle over union democracy. In various SEIU locals, apart from the big west coast events, independent caucuses campaign on issues of union democracy. AUD has been in touch with SEIU activists around the country. In a related dispute the big Change to Win-affiliated, UNITE/HERE, is embroiled in a civil war with the split-off new union, Workers United, now a direct affiliate of the SEIU.

Healthcare is the arena for most of these events, which makes nurse unionism an especially significant, and often overlooked force, in determining how it all will work out. Registered nurses are one of the strongest and best organized sectors of the labor movement. But they are divided among a bewildering assortment of separate, and often competing, unions. In the New York State Nurses Association, an independent caucus, Nurses for Unity, makes union democracy one of its key goals. Leaders of Nurses for Unity write us, "AUD's guidance has been invaluable to our NY Nurses for Unity search for a democratic process in our union."

With your help we can keep you up to date on the quest for a more democratic labor movement. Even more importantly, we can continue to help move it forward. Can we count on you once again for help, perhaps even more generously than before?

Judith Schneider -- Executive Director
Herman Benson -- Secretary Treasurer
Kurt Richwerger -- Program Director
Matt Noyes -- Internet Coordinator
Lorissa Rinehart -- Program Assistant

Contribute now:

Become an AUD Associate for just $30 per year.*

Or, by giving just $10 a month, you can join our $100 Plus Club and get our publications every month.

The labor movement is going through enormous challenges and changes. Help us make sure that union democracy isn't overlooked and forgotten.

*IRS regulations prohibit deduction of the first $30 of your total yearly contribution due to the publications received.

AUD depends on the financial contributions of our members and supporters to stay afloat. Without your help we can not keep paying the rent, publishing the magazine and website, and providing the legal, educational, and counseling support that rank-and-file activists need so much. We hope you will agree that this project is worth supporting. Contribute online via our secure credit card service. If you want to contribute offline, give us a call. Please consider putting AUD in your will. It's tax deductible. Federal Employees can give to AUD via the Combined Federal Campaign.

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