Troubled by huge debts and a plummeting membership, AFL-CIO leader Richard Trumpka (pictured above) seeks to expand membership beyond unions into organizations such as the NAACP.

Via USAToday:

WASHINGTON — Calling the labor movement in crisis, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says he will push far-reaching changes at the federation’s convention next month, including forging closer partnerships and even accepting as members such outside groups as the Sierra Club and the NAACP.

The changes, some of which will require amending the AFL-CIO’s bylaws, are part of a strategy aimed at reviving the labor movement’s falling clout and recasting it as a champion for American workers generally, not just for the declining ranks of dues-paying union members.

In an interview Wednesday with USA TODAY, Trumka acknowledged resistance within his organization and the possibility of conflicts ahead.

“I think any time you do new things and you have change, people are concerned about what it means,” he said on the weekly video newsmaker series, Capital Download. “Will it dilute us? Look, here’s the way I look at it: What we’ve been doing the last 30 years hasn’t worked real well. We need to do things differently.”

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