Labor & Employment Law

Solidarity for Workers? Struggles Grows

By Mike Hall

From California to North Carolina to Poland, workers, community and faith activists are standing in solidarity with workers in Wisconsin, Ohio and around the nation in their fights against a coordinated attack on middle-class jobs.

In a letter of support to Wisconsin workers, Piotr Duda, President of the Polish Trade Union Solidarnosc, writes:

Dear Friends, please rest assured that our thoughts are with you during your protest, as we truly do hope that your just fight for decent working and living conditions, for the workers? rights will be successful Your victory is our victory as well.

Click here for the full letter.

More than 150 worker and civil rights activists rallied outside the North Carolina state legislature in Raleigh Monday, and tonight you can tune in live to a candlelight vigil for the Wisconsin workers from Sacramento, Calif.  SEIU Local 1000?s Channel 1000 will offer a live stream starting at 5:50 p.m. Pacific. Click here.

In other solidarity actions:

• The Minnesota AFL-CIO organized a rally Saturday at the border town of Hudson, Wis. Check out Working America?s photo stream here.

• Monday in Olympia, Wash., hundreds of workers gathered at the Capitol Rotunda to stand in solidarity with Wisconsin’s public servants. Click here for more from the Washington State Labor Council (WSLC).

• In a message to Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) members President Michael J. Sullivan writes.

• • I am asking each and every one of you to stand up in solidarity with our brothers and sisters under attack?in Wisconsin and across the country representing every corner of the labor movement. Click here to read his entire message

• Friday in Trenton, N.J., where workers are battling against Gov. Chris Christie?s attack on middle-class jobs, a group of Wisconsin workers will appear in solidarity with their New Jersey brothers and sisters. Click here for information from the New Jersey AFL-CIO.

• In Des Moines, Iowa today, more than 1,000 rallied and marched in solidarity with Wisconsin workers in a We Are One rally sponsored by the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFSCME Council 61 and other worker groups. Click here for more information.

• Today, the Maryland State and D.C. AFL-CIO held a rally in Annapolis and tomorrow the Washington D.C. Metro Council and community and religious allies will hold a march in support of Wisconsin and other workers battling for middle class jobs.

• In a column on Huffington Post, Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United (NNU) writes

• • It should be apparent that the right wants to scapegoat workers and their unions, and is trying to exploit the economic crisis for an all-out assault on unions, public employees, and all working people in a campaign that is funded by right-wing, corporate billionaires like the Koch brothers. Click here for the full column.

• This evening in New York City, just as Glen Beck was going the air, workers rallied outside Fox News headquarters in solidarity with Wisconsin workers in an action organized by the New York Broadcast Trades Council

• Check out this video from Monday?s AFSCME demonstration in Baltimore in support of the Wisconsin workers.

• For photos from the entire week-plus actions in Madison and elsewhere in Wisconsin, see the Wisconsin AFL-CIO?s photo stream here.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on February 22, 2011 (boomark / email).