America is a gift.

For generations people came to its shores, worked hard, and had their work valued and rewarded. As a people, we have treasured freedom, built the most prosperous economy in the world, and confronted and overcome many challenges.

Today, at the dawn of a new century, our country is living though the most profound economic revolution in world history, as globalization and new technologies change the way business operates and people work. This new economy creates for America a serious test, extraordinary opportunities, and demands new bold thinking and solutions.

American workers today want what previous generations also sought. We want hard work to result in opportunities to keep up in a changing work environment. We want to be rewarded and respected for the work we do. We want to build strong communities in which to raise our families. We want to have health care we can depend on and to be able to retire with dignity. Most importantly, we want to make it possible for our children to do better than ourselves.

At the moment, however, today’s economic revolution is not meeting those needs. It has been good for the profits of global corporations, but not for working people or for America. It is creating a society of a few “haves” and increasing millions of “have-nots” — an escalating class divide that cannot be sustained. Wages are down even as productivity skyrockets. Americans are in greater debt than ever before. Health care coverage is being eroded and pensions are being wiped out. Meanwhile, wealth is being more and more concentrated at the top as the ranks of the poor grow and the middle class shrinks.

Throughout history, the American Dream has depended on progress won by working people who organized together in strong, democratic unions. But today, unions have been growing smaller, not stronger, and the middle-class jobs they sustained are fast disappearing.

As the percentage of union workers has declined, our political institutions have become even more dominated by corporate special interests and have not developed economic policies that are responsive to the 21st century American worker.

Union workers still earn wages 30 percent higher than those of nonunion workers, and benefits are more than double the nonunion rate. But standards set by union workers will not be sustained as the percentage of union workers continues to decline and as the cost of health care rises and pension funds implode.

Instead, the nonunion sector is now driving the American economy to the point where major American employers that have enjoyed good relations with their workers are themselves attacking wages, health care, and pension benefits.

It is in this environment that Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest employer with 1.4 million workers, has become the standard-setter for bad corporate behavior. Until Wal-Mart emerged as the largest U.S. company three years ago, General Motors held that spot. A General Motors assembler earns three times more than a Wal-Mart worker.

Wal-Mart and other large service sector employers are defining the new industrial landscape and the structure of the U.S. working class. The 2001 recession and jobless recovery have accelerated the shift to low-wage work. Nearly one-fifth of American workers have been laid off since 2001. While 71 percent of these workers have found new jobs, half of them are earning less than they were before they were laid off.

Change to Win is committed to the principle that only with strong, democratic unions can America restore its promise and provide good jobs with a paycheck that supports a family, affordable health care for all, retirement security, quality public education, full political participation, fair taxation, and freedom from discrimination.

Change to Win is dedicated to the single most important task for restoring broad hope and prosperity to the American people — uniting by industry the tens of millions of workers who are now without a voice on the job and in our nation’s political life. Change to Win and its affiliates believe unionization and collective bargaining are the foundation on which a fair and balanced economy can develop.

Be it therefore resolved:

Change to Win and its affiliates pledge to devote maximum resources, including at least three-quarters of the resources of our new federation, to the central task of uniting millions more workers in strong, democratic unions in each industry and raising pay and benefit standards for all working people, including those in rapidly expanding service sectors and regions where there is little union tradition.

Change to Win and its affiliates pledge to involve millions of working people and allies in local, state, and national political action based on the needs of working families and our communities and not the interests of any particular political party, making it our priority to hold elected public officials accountable for standing up for the right of working people to form unions.

Change to Win and its affiliates pledge to unite the strength of all working people in America, including fighting for full legal rights for immigrant workers, opposing all forms of discrimination, and ensuring diversity at all levels of our federation and our movement.

Change to Win and its affiliates pledge to join with allies to campaign across our nation for basic American values and rights — especially the right to a union and collective bargaining; the right to affordable, quality health care; and the right to retirement security.

Change to Win and its affiliates pledge to unite with unions and allies in other countries to negotiate with global corporations to raise living standards and respect workers’ rights everywhere rather than dragging them down to the lowest level.

Change to Win and its affiliates pledge to hold each other accountable to our common objective of uniting workers into unions and restoring the American Dream.