AFSCME President, U.S. Labor Secretary Thank Members, Urge Action on Jobs Act
by Cynthia McCabe | October 01, 2011
AFSCME Women’s Conference attendees rally in support of City of Milwaukee workers, members of Council 48, who are losing their rights to collectively bargain. (Photo by Luis Gomez)
MILWAUKEE, WIS. — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis on Friday applauded the women of AFSCME for their fight for the American worker — praise echoed by AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee in his keynote address to the National Women’s Conference. But the work must redouble to get President Obama’s American Jobs Act passed by Congress, speakers told conference attendees.
“We know you have a track record of getting things done,” Solis said, urging members to send messages to their members of Congress via email, Twitter and Facebook, calling for passage of the bill that will add an estimated 2 million jobs to the American work force and prevent the layoff of 280,000 teachers, emergency workers and other public employees. “Do it every single day that they don’t pass this jobs act.”
The National Women’s Conference focuses this year on energizing union members for such legislative battles in Congress, and in states where right-wing, corporate-backed politicians are targeting collective bargaining and hard-earned public employee benefits. Women make up 56 percent of AFSCME’s membership.
“When AFSCME is attacked, working women are attacked,” McEntee said, calling out Republican governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Kasich of Ohio, Chris Christie of New Jersey, Rick Scott of Florida and Mitch Snyder of Indiana. “We will not relent until the right of all public workers to collectively bargain is restored,” McEntee told the more than 900 cheering conference participants.
Earlier in the day, attendees were thanked by Speaker Pelosi, who spoke of how AFSCME, “inspired the nation by fighting back,” when collective bargaining was threatened in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states.
That fight was on display as attendees rallied in the heart of downtown Milwaukee in support of City of Milwaukee workers losing their right to bargain over wages, hours and working conditions at the end of the year. These members of AFSCME Council 48 are losing their rights under a new state law stripping collective bargaining from 200,000 Wisconsin public service employees, including 60,000 AFSCME members.
“In these tough times, Milwaukeeans need to pull together to find solutions that work for everyone,” said Annie Wacker, a city resident and president of AFSCME Local 1954. She said she was heartened to see hundreds of her union sisters and brothers from as far as Puerto Rico and Hawaii backing local workers at the rally.
AFSCME Sec.-Treas. Lee Saunders fired up rally participants with his strong words for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who is now seeking to cut public workers’ wages by five percent.
“You can’t build a strong middle class when you’re tearing down the services that help people find a way up,” Saunders said, drawing loud applause and cheers from the crowd. “You can’t build a strong city by taking it apart, brick by brick.”
