There are times in the lives of men and women when they feel compelled to join together to more fully enrich their lives. This is a time-honored, God-given right, universally recognized by free men and women. With such a privilege comes, also, responsibility which men and women must bear to their associates and to society.

 The struggle to improve our working and living conditions through an industrial union organization is in vain unless we remain united, regardless of craft, age, sex, creed or nationality, to protect ourselves collectively against the organized forces of the employer.

With such precepts in mind, we, as free and prayerful persons, do hereby join together to form an organization in order to achieve honorable and reasonable goals which have been unattainable by us as individuals; a chance to earn a fair share of the fruits of one's labor, an opportunity to work in an atmosphere of tranquility and security, and the privilege to adjust graciously to the ever-changing technology of competitive industry.

To honor those goals we pledge our time, our talents, our good names and our sacred honor. We pledge ourselves to perpetuate our union and to work concertedly with the AFL-CIO and through it with other labor organizations, for the achievement of these objectives.