This week I had the privilege to participate in the AFT Public Employees weeklong #ConnecticutBlitz2019. Although we couldn’t be there every minute due to schedules, Jan and I spent as much time as we could in the training and door knocking because AFT Connecticut believes we are only as strong as our members are engaged.
This week activists in #AndRUnion, Save Vo-Tech Schools, UHP University Health Professionals Local 3837, APEA-Alaska Public Employees Association, KOSE - Kansas Organization of State Employees signed up over 60 managerial & exempt #CTStateWorkers in #MandEUnited
I want to thank every who participated and shared their time, their knowledge, and their friendship. It was great to meet new friends from Alaska, Illinois and Kansas and deepen friendships with old friends.
These weeklong mobilizations that start on Saturday and run straight though Friday are grueling. Days start at sunrise and end after sunset. Teams leaflet buildings, hold site meetings, receive training on mapping the workplace, charting, the “organizing conversation” and other aspects of building worker power and finish the day with house visits and a debrief.
Yeah, it’s a lot of work.
Yeah, it’s intense.
But hear this.
It’s life changing.
Being in a union isn’t about wages, benefits and working conditions.
It’s about respect.
Being in a union isn’t about a contract.
It’s about a voice and worker’s power.
And a union isn’t the elected leadership or staff.
It’s the members.
Thank you to my sisters and brothers of the mobilization. Solidarity.
Saturday, September 21, 2019
Monday, September 2, 2019
Happy Labor Day, the struggle continues.
Is it too much to ask that is a person works hard that they be able to provide for their family; have a roof over their head, food on their table, quality education for their children, and quality, affordable, and accessible healthcare?
Is it too much to ask that people not be burdened with crippling debt from housing, healthcare, or education?
Is it too much to ask that these things not depend or our zip code, the color of our skin, our religious beliefs, our gender, who we love, or the many other things that drive discrimination?
I don’t think it is.
In fact, I believe most people would agree with me.
So what stands in the way?
In our ecconomy, money is power. They more money you have, the more power you have. The richer you become, the bigger your corporation becomes, the more power you have.
Occasionally, a big corporation believes as we do about the questions we ask.
More often, they do not.
That’s why we have owners of charter schools, of big Pharma, of hospital corporations, making such outlandish incomes while those doing the work and those receiving the services, suffer.
The balance to all this is workers standing together.
Corporations know this.
That’s why they opposed the right to form unions.
Through laws, regulations, and intimidation they do everything within their power to resist the power that comes when workers stand together for positive change.
That is the essence of the Labor Movement.
That is why our struggle continues.
Happy Labor Day my sisters and brothers.
Is it too much to ask that people not be burdened with crippling debt from housing, healthcare, or education?
Is it too much to ask that these things not depend or our zip code, the color of our skin, our religious beliefs, our gender, who we love, or the many other things that drive discrimination?
I don’t think it is.
In fact, I believe most people would agree with me.
So what stands in the way?
In our ecconomy, money is power. They more money you have, the more power you have. The richer you become, the bigger your corporation becomes, the more power you have.
Occasionally, a big corporation believes as we do about the questions we ask.
More often, they do not.
That’s why we have owners of charter schools, of big Pharma, of hospital corporations, making such outlandish incomes while those doing the work and those receiving the services, suffer.
The balance to all this is workers standing together.
Corporations know this.
That’s why they opposed the right to form unions.
Through laws, regulations, and intimidation they do everything within their power to resist the power that comes when workers stand together for positive change.
That is the essence of the Labor Movement.
That is why our struggle continues.
Happy Labor Day my sisters and brothers.
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