The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the largest union within the AFL-CIO, announced what its representatives are calling a 21st Century Initiative. The plan calls for the union to increase its membership by 70,000 every year, to get over a quarter of a million of its members registered to vote, and to have the union become a more active player in the political arena. The union's president characterized the move as a counter to efforts by federal and state governments to deny rights to their employees.
See "Union of Government Workers Seeks to Build Political Muscle", Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times, August 10, 2006