Stephanie
Diamond Member
- Jul 11, 2004
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Oh brother.
SNIP:
By: Byron York 03/17/11 7:10 PM
Chief Political Correspondent Follow Him @ByronYork
Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, speaks at the Keep the Promise rally, a rally to protest pension reform in Maryland, Monday, March 14, 2011, in Annapolis, Md. Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley has proposed changes to address a troubling$19 billion in unfunded pension liabilities and$16 billion in retiree health liabilities. It would require increased contributions from state employees.-Nick Wass/AP"Madison is just the beginning!" AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka told a union rally in Annapolis on Monday. "Like that old song goes, 'You ain't seen n-n-n-n-nothing yet!' "
Fresh from defeat in Wisconsin, union leaders are planning a new campaign not just to head off future challenges to their collective bargaining powers but also to make the case that organized labor's benefits and prerogatives -- wages, health care, and pensions that are more generous than those of comparable workers in the private sector -- are the moral equivalent of rights won by black Americans during the civil rights movement.
To make the point, the AFL-CIO is planning a series of nationwide events on April 4, the 43rd anniversary of the day the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated after speaking in Memphis, Tenn., on behalf of striking black garbage collectors. The message: King's cause, and that of angry schoolteachers in Madison, are one.
"April 4 [is] the day on which Martin Luther King Jr. gave his life for the cause of public collective bargaining," Trumka said in another speech, in Washington, on Wednesday. And on the AFL-CIO blog, there is this notice: "Join us to make April 4, 2011, a day to stand in solidarity with working people in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and dozens of other states where well-funded, right-wing corporate politicians are trying to take away the rights Dr. King gave his life for."
SNIP:
Will it work? After all the demonstrations, and all the speeches, will the public watch protests by angry, nearly all-white, middle-class school teachers with excellent health and retirement plans and think of Martin Luther King? Trumka's AFL-CIO and the big unions are very rich and very powerful. They have the ability to get their message out. But their April 4 strategy might be too ambitious even for them.
Read the whole article here.
Union equates lavish benefits to black civil rights | Byron York | Politics | Washington Examiner
SNIP:
By: Byron York 03/17/11 7:10 PM
Chief Political Correspondent Follow Him @ByronYork
Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, speaks at the Keep the Promise rally, a rally to protest pension reform in Maryland, Monday, March 14, 2011, in Annapolis, Md. Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley has proposed changes to address a troubling$19 billion in unfunded pension liabilities and$16 billion in retiree health liabilities. It would require increased contributions from state employees.-Nick Wass/AP"Madison is just the beginning!" AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka told a union rally in Annapolis on Monday. "Like that old song goes, 'You ain't seen n-n-n-n-nothing yet!' "
Fresh from defeat in Wisconsin, union leaders are planning a new campaign not just to head off future challenges to their collective bargaining powers but also to make the case that organized labor's benefits and prerogatives -- wages, health care, and pensions that are more generous than those of comparable workers in the private sector -- are the moral equivalent of rights won by black Americans during the civil rights movement.
To make the point, the AFL-CIO is planning a series of nationwide events on April 4, the 43rd anniversary of the day the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated after speaking in Memphis, Tenn., on behalf of striking black garbage collectors. The message: King's cause, and that of angry schoolteachers in Madison, are one.
"April 4 [is] the day on which Martin Luther King Jr. gave his life for the cause of public collective bargaining," Trumka said in another speech, in Washington, on Wednesday. And on the AFL-CIO blog, there is this notice: "Join us to make April 4, 2011, a day to stand in solidarity with working people in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and dozens of other states where well-funded, right-wing corporate politicians are trying to take away the rights Dr. King gave his life for."
SNIP:
Will it work? After all the demonstrations, and all the speeches, will the public watch protests by angry, nearly all-white, middle-class school teachers with excellent health and retirement plans and think of Martin Luther King? Trumka's AFL-CIO and the big unions are very rich and very powerful. They have the ability to get their message out. But their April 4 strategy might be too ambitious even for them.
Read the whole article here.
Union equates lavish benefits to black civil rights | Byron York | Politics | Washington Examiner