In states across the country, workers are fighting back against corporate-backed lawmakers who are trying to use state budget problems as an excuse to gut workers’ rights and benefits, when in fact it was Wall Street’s gambles and broken promises that have hurt taxpayers and the middle class—not workers. CEOs are trying to shift the blame for high unemployment and rising poverty levels away from themselves and onto workers and our unions.
But we won’t let that happen. Workers across the country — from Wisconsin to Indiana, from Ohio to Florida — are fighting back.
IEA chief lobbyist Jim Reed.
To many of us there seemed no sense of urgency in the IEA leadership’s voice last week.
I think I called it a yawn.
What a difference a week makes. Now IEA chief lobbyist Jim Reed is screaming, “An attack is coming!”
Writes Reed:
It appears there will be imminent action in the next few weeks, during what is still a fairly new General Assembly. Speaker of the House Michael Madigan told theState Journal-Register this week that leaders are eyeing changes. There are no
As everyone knows by now, the Democrats in the Wisconsin state senate took a powder yesterday, fleeing the state to deny the body a quorum and force a pause in Governor Scott Walker’s plan to eviscerate the state’s public employee unions. Early yesterday evening the senate’s Reupublican leadership bowed to reality and put the senate into recess for the night.
Here’s the latest:
Wisconsin’s Dem state senators are still AWOL in Illinois, but Jesse Jackson made an appearance today in the capitol rotunda, addressing the crowd of activists who have packed the building in recent days. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka also addressed the crowd.
The head of the state’s largest public employees union offered to compromise on benefits if Walker would back
The past few weeks have been really busy ones for me, and all of us who have been organizing around the country to improve our schools in meaningful, sustainable ways. Not an excuse for neglecting you fine readers, though
Here’s a little clip from Dr. Diane Ravitch’s speech to teachers, students, and parents last night– full video of her riveting speech is coming as soon as I can upload it!
Q Jay, on Wisconsin, is the President keeping up with what’s going on there? Speaker Boehner today said the President should tell OFA to stand down.
MR. CARNEY: I want to make clear that -- something about what -- the President’s comments in the radio -- the television interview he gave the other day. There are two points he made. One is that he is very understanding of the need for state governments, governors, state legislatures to reduce spending, to be -- to make tough choices, to be fiscally responsible. He’s doing that at the federal level and he understands that states need to do that at the state level.
But he also feels very strongly that we need not to make this an assault on the collective bargaining rights of workers in a given state. Public service workers need to make sacrifices just like everyone else, but there’s a distinction here that he sees. And I just want to make sure that people see that he was very clear about his recognition that states need to deal with their budgets just like the federal government needs to deal with its budget.
Q Do you expect the President to weigh in on this activity in some of the other states -- Ohio or Indiana?
MR. CARNEY: I have no scheduling announcement to make, or I have no information that he would do that.
Q The Post suggested this morning the White House had a role in stoking the protests in Madison.
MR. CARNEY: The President made a comment in a television interview. That's the only role that I see that we've had.
Q What about Organizing For America?
MR. CARNEY: I’d refer you to the DNC for comment on that.
Q Does the President support federal funding for Planned Parenthood?
MR. CARNEY: I'm sorry?
Q Does the President support federal funding for Planned Parenthood?
MR. CARNEY: There’s a longstanding history of funding for Title 10 by HHS, and on the history of that program and the funding of that program and what it does, I'd refer you to HHS.
February 18, 2011 by gatorbonbc
MADISON, Wisconsin – Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has been pushing the state assembly to put forward an anti-union and anti-collective bargaining bill which would affect all state employees with the exception of fire and police unions. Walker threatened early on that he would unleash the national guard on any striking workers. Public schools have been closed for three days in Madison. Democratic senators have refused to show up in the capitol.
Students at UWM (Madison) held a walk out yesterday (among others); this video of the mass of students was submitted to us:
It cannot be a shock to hear that the Chicago school system under the control of Mayor Daley has become even more racially segregated than ever. And it cannot be a surprise that the gap between minority and white students has grown even wider.
Yet we have data that demonstrates those two facts and supports the call for an elected school board.
A study by two University of Illinois at Chicago professors Thursday dumped on the idea of a Chicago Public Schools “miracle’’ under Mayor Daley and pushed for an elected — rather than appointed — school board to move city schools forward.
The disparities between black and white students, and between Latino and white students, have only grown larger under Daley, creating a “two-tier” public
QUOTES ON LABOR UNIONS |
| Our labor unions are not narrow, self-seeking groups. They have raised wages, shortened hours and provided supplemental benefits. Through collective bargaining and grievance procedures, they have brought justice and democracy to the shop floor. JOHN F. KENNEDY, speech, Aug. 30, 1960 With all their faults, trade-unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in man, than any other association of men. CLARENCE DARROW, The Railroad Trainman, Nov. 1909 Labor unions would have us believe that they transfer income from rich capitalists to poor workers. In fact, they mostly transfer income from the large number of non-union workers to a small number of relatively well-off union workers. ROBERT E. ANDERSON, Just Get Out of the Way To a right-winger, unions are awful. Why do right-wingers hate unions? Because collective bargaining is the power that a worker has against the corporation. Right-wingers hate that. JANEANE GAROFALO, Majority Report, Jun. 3, 2005 The proper business of a labor union is to get higher wages, better hours and good shop conditions for the workmen. But when labor en masse plunks its vote for its own party, then the spirit of party loyalty begins to obscure labor's objectives -- high wages, short hours, decent shop conditions. Thus class-conscious labor leaders become more interested in their party welfare than in the fundamental objectives of the labor unions. So we shall have the class-conscious political worker trading his vote not for the immediate objective of wages, hours and shop conditions, but for power for his political labor boss. WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE, speech, Sep. 20, 1937 There was no precise moment when the tide began to turn against labor unions in America. There was no single catastrophic event -- no landmark strike that was broken, no massive organizing campaign that was turned back, no key negotiation that went poorly for labor. But beyond any doubt, since the early 1980s, unions have lost many of their resources and much of their influence. GARY CHAISON, Unions and Legitimacy The labor unions are group efforts in the direction of democracy. Like the political efforts in the same direction, they become many times stultified and lead up blind alleys. But the effort creates power. While the economic gains are themselves important and are measures of strength, the significance of the labor union is its assertion of the manhood of labor. HELEN MAROT, American Labor Unions The character of the labor movement derives in large part from the relations between labor unions. The extent to which values are shared and formal structures are inclusive matter too, of course, but it is the way unions deal with one another that largely determines whether labor solidarity is meaningful or a hollow pretense. DAVID J. WALSH, On Different Planes You know, when I was in college, there was a big debate: Do unions raise wages? Well, with regard to industrial unions, there were arguments back and forth -- international competition. It is now clear, I think, that whether or not you think unions raised wages 50 years ago, the absence of unions and their weakness that is inflicted by anti-union public policy depresses wages. The fact is that people who are not represented, in the service industries in particular, are the victims of policies which depress their wages BARNEY FRANK, speech, Jan. 3, 2007 To remember the loneliness, the fear and the insecurity of men who once had to walk alone in huge factories, beside huge machines—to realize that labor unions have meant new dignity and pride to millions of our countrymen—human companionship on the job, and music in the home—to be able to see what larger pay checks mean, not to a man as an employee, but as a husband and as a father—to know these things is to understand what American labor means.ADLAI STEVENSON, speech, Sep. 22, 1952 |
Show Your Support for Embattled Workers! | 
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We are rolling out actions today for people to show support for embattled state and local workers. We’ll have more in coming days. Please join in and pass these along.
Stop back here often for breaking updates on actions in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states where the middle class is under attack.
Wisconsin public employees have been fighting back against Republican attempts to smash one of their most basic labor rights -- and they're winning.
