Worker activist Michael Westfall remains defiant of the AFL-CIO union after signing a petition circulated in the United States by the American Family Association that calls upon the labor giant to forego its opposition to a proposed amendment of the US federal constitution that would define marriage as being solely between one man and one woman.
Westfall, who is a member of the United Auto Workers’ union and a lifelong gadfly of General Motors, was once toasted by icons such as Ralph Nader for championing workers’ rights and opposing outsourcing. The union man, now 69 years old, also opposed historic concessions made by the UAW to General Motors during the 1980s. A fixture in Flint, Michigan, - the city lampooned by Michael Moore in the film “Roger and Me” – Westfall witnessed the city’s decline following GM’s closing of most of its factories. Westfall told Spero News that he “cannot understand how the leaders of our great unions can be so far off base with the members on this issue” inasmuch as these labor union leaders embrace the “homosexual agenda.”
Despite Westfall proudly proclaiming workers’ rights in the face of growing globalization to the press and on his website, he has now found himself firmly athwart the AFL-CIO - one of the largest labor unions in the world. Explaining to the Flint Journal in a June 27th story that he is “not anti-union, but the union doesn’t come first,” Westfall drew a line in the sand by saying “Christians, Christ and the Bible come first.” This comes after Westfall signed on to a national petition circulated by the American Family Association that calls on the union to renounce its opposition to the Federal marriage amendment.
The AFL-CIO incorporates workers as disparate as school teachers, government bureaucrats, and factory workers. In March 2005, the AFL-CIO executive council passed a resolution that detractors say is anti-family and favour the legitimization of homosexual relations. The resolution passed by the AFL-CIO executive council calls for supporting the “full inclusion and equal rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the workplace and society.” The union’s resolution goes on to say that a proposed amendment to the Federal constitution - that is supported by many Christians - to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman would “would 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.”
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