Labor & Employment Law

Solis Stands With Public Workers in Struggle for Rights

By James Parks

With 10,000 members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) on the line, U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis earlier this week pledged her support for public employees struggling to save their right to bargain for good middle class jobs.

In a phone call to CWA members this week, Solis, who comes from a union family, said she is inspired and proud of the hundreds of thousands of union and non-union workers nationwide who are taking on the states’ aggressive anti-worker agendas. She said

Budget sacrifices are one thing but demanding that workers give up their voice is another. The governors aren’t just asking us to tighten our belts, they’re demanding we give up our uniquely American rights as workers.

The governors? targets are “the men and women who care for our neighbors, teach our kids, keep our communities safe and clean, and run into burning buildings when others will not,” she said. 

They do their work with little fanfare and don’t expect recognition, but through unions they have a voice in the workplace and in their future, and that’s what’s put us in the middle class.

Union members in some of the embattled states also spoke on the phone call. Alex Hanna, co-president of the University of Wisconsin’s Teaching Assistants Association, an affiliate of AFT, was in Egypt during the uprising last month that overthrew President Mubarak. He said the struggles in the Mideast and states like Wisconsin are related.   

We’re standing firm. The fight that began in Wisconsin won’t be finished until we rebuild a worldwide labor movement.

Angie Schritter of CWA Local 4900 in Indiana said she was overcome with pride taking part in the protests in Indianapolis.

My heart beamed last week when our crowd of 3,000 at the statehouse grew to 10,000 by the next day. My family is proud to be union and we will fight this battle for as long as it takes. To those who want to destroy us and the middle class, hear this: We outnumber you. We are united. And we will not go away.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on March 04, 2011 (boomark / email).