Vol. 76/No. 32      August 27, 2012

They came to protest attacks against workers being carried out by the bosses and the city, state and federal governments, including by the Obama administration.

At the same time, one of the central purposes of the event was to garner support for the Barack Obama election campaign. Speaking from the platform, Democratic Party National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz told workers their problems would get much worse if Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his newly announced running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, were to get elected.

Hundreds of union locals participated, including those from the Teamsters, Transport Workers Union, United Steelworkers, Communications Workers of America and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.

There was a large presence from building trades locals of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Sheet Metal Workers, Laborers International Union, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, and others.

“Our members have been out of work and they have been stripping us of any rights that workers have won,” Roxy Mejia, a member of the Painters and Allied Trades union, told the Militant.

One of the reasons for the rally was to protest the location of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in North Carolina, a right-to-work state, according to Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO, who spoke at the rally.

Ed Good, a member of the Utility Workers of America, told NBC-10, “At times we feel both political parties have dropped the ball representing working families. I think that’s what this rally is about.”

Before the event began, more than 1,000 Verizon workers, who are members of the CWA or IBEW, held a spirited demonstration at Verizon’s main offices here and then marched to the rally site. Some 45,000 Verizon workers in the Northeast have been working without a contract since they ended a two-week strike in August 2011.

“The companies want to tear up the union contracts and lower wages,” Michael Neggie, a Verizon worker from New York, told the Militant. “Big business saw that Obama wasn’t standing up for working people and is making its moves.”

Mario Ciardelli, business representative for IBEW Local 683 in Columbus, Ohio, told the Militant that the local has twice sent contributions to the 1,300 sugar workers in the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota who have been locked out by American Crystal Sugar for more than a year. “I am so proud of them standing for what they believe in,” he said. “We want to do more to help. Some of these workers can’t even get unemployment compensation.”

Another component of the AFL-CIO rally was U.S. nationalism. The rally’s theme was “Stand for America.”

“Exporting jobs only undercuts the middle class,” said one member of CWA Local 13000 who carried a sign reading, “Keep Verizon Jobs in America.”

“They are giving us tools made in China,” said Joe Monroe of IBEW Local 466 in Charleston, W.Va. “If they didn’t import so much, we’d be doing better here.”

Juan Lopez, a member of Steamfitters Local 638 in New York City, expressed another view. “We have to stop them from separating us country by country. These politicians are in a different world,” he said.

“It is also important for our union to have members of different nationalities,” Lopez added.
 
 
Related articles:
Caterpillar strikers say,‘We have to take a stand’
Tens of thousands of autoworkers strike Hyundai in South Korea
W. Virginia Steelworkers strike against concessions
On the Picket Line
Marx: ‘Trade Unions: Their Past, Present, and Future’
Why bosses ‘go after workers so hard’  
 
 
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