Labor & Employment Law

USW Rally Hits Attack on Public Service Workers

By James Parks

Hundreds of working Americans overflowed the lobby of United Steelworkers (USW) headquarters today into the streets of Pittsburgh, in a rally to show solidarity with teachers,  nurses and other public service workers  in Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio whose freedom to bargain for a better life is under attack.

Across the country, thousands of workers are mobilizing and coming together as never before to fight back against efforts by Republican governors like Wisconsin?s Scott Walker and Ohio?s John Kasich to repay their CEO supporters by blaming public employees for their state?s fiscal crises.

“The recent wave of attacks on public employees is not the fault of the workers but the result of giving enormous tax breaks to the rich and the ultra-rich,? USW President Leo Gerard said.

Public sector unions are being vilified, used as the scapegoats as  budget shortfalls are, pure and simple, being used as political fodder to turn Americans against organized labor.

Gerard told the crowd that the blame for the economic mess lies with politicians who approved reduced tax revenues from tax cuts for the wealthy, who supported two unfunded wars and voted for trade deals that have resulted in 55,000 manufacturing plants closing their U.S. operations in the past 10 years. But Walker and Kasich would rather point the finger at the modest pension plans for a retired teacher, he said.

Nationally syndicated columnist Jim Hightower told the crowd:

What they?ve done is like poking a stick at a sleeping dog as workers across  American have awakened and are fighting back for the middle class.

This is democracy in action with hundreds of working Americans taking time out of their day to listen to the repeated message, if we let political leaders like   Walker get away with removing collective bargaining rights, we will all be participating in collective begging.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on February 24, 2011 (boomark / email).