What now?

Yesterday, Donald Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States.

What now?

Some people think that democrats should oppose everything he and the republican congress proposes, others think they should try to find common ground.
Most remain unsure what Trump believes in and stands for.

He ran on a populist campaign, promising to make America great again by putting American workers first in every decision. He spoke to that in his address yesterday.

But his actions don't match his words.

Many of his cabinet picks have histories that show they do not put middle class workers first.
His picks for Secretaries of Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Attorney General are particularly disturbing.
I have nothing against private schools but I do not think taking middle class taxes and paying for private schools is a middle class value, as DeVos advocates.
I have nothing against improving the Affordable Healthcare Act but I do not think a plan that would strip insurance from 18 million Americans, tax the value of employer provided health insurance as income, and come with lifetime maximums on benefits which mean if your child is born with a bad heart or develops leukemia, you would quickly run out of insurance, incur high medical debt, and maybe lose your house, is a middle class value, as Price proposed as a member of congress.

Recently Trump has started to promise that his healthcare plan would provide insurance for everyone.
Great, that's a middle class value!
Then why was his first executive order, signed only hours after becoming president, to repeal the ACA? His administration has marching orders to do everything they can under the law to circumvent the ACA until congress passes a full repeal.

So far, his actions don't match his words. They do not show he supports middle class values.

So what do we do to protect middle class workers and the students, patients and public we serve?

Let me tell you what I did yesterday.

With the other offices of AFT Connecticut, we visited with the members of UHP, the healthcare professionals of John Dempsey Hospital, 2,600 AFT nurses and other healthcare members who work for the state of Connecticut.  Bill Garrity, their president, had invited Jan Hochadel, AFT Connecticut president, there to lead a discussion about the challenges facing our state and country and how it will effect their hospital and patients.  For an hour she answered question after thoughtful question, and listened to their concerns.

That's what we do now. As always, the answer is simple. We talk to our members, we talk to our patients, we talk to our students and their parents, we talk to our legislators and we talk to our neighbors.
But, more than talk....
we listen.
We organize, we engage, we mobilize.
We stand together for the values we believe in. We stand with those who support our values and we oppose those who seek to destroy them.