PEP, October 2011: Letters to the Editor

Public Employee Press

Letters to the Editor

AFSCME thanks DC 37 for help in Wisconsin
The following letter was sent to DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts after DC 37 members, locals and employees contributed $50,000 to the Wisconsin fightback:

Thanks to you, and the efforts of your members, AFSCME achieved unprecedented success in the Wisconsin recall campaigns. On Aug. 16, state Sens. Jim Holperin (D) and Bob Wirch (D) defeated their right-wing opponents. Previously, voters elected two anti-worker senators. Voters also retained all three pro-worker senators who faced recalls this summer, including Sen. Dave Hansen (D).

All these victories mean that the Wisconsin State Senate has gone from a 19-to-14 anti-worker majority to just a 17-to-16 advantage. Governor Walker no longer has a working majority.

The AFSCME-led We Are Wisconsin coalition did an incredible job. Nearly 1,500 AFSCME members volunteered in the campaign. AFSCME staff members worked full-time. Our polling center made hundreds of thousands of calls. Donations poured in.

The momentum we have achieved in Wisconsin with your critical support must now be turned into victories in other states where AFSCME members are fighting back for working men and women.

We must make it clear to all: If you attack working middle-class families and tread on our rights, you'll suffer the consequences at the ballot box!

In solidarity,

—LEE A. SAUNDERS
International Secretary-Treasurer

—GERALD W. MCENTEE
International President

Congrats to Mandy

Congratulations to my daughter, Amanda Ramirez, on winning the Miss Little Hispanic Parade title. She will be on the parade float on Oct. 10. Mandy, I am very proud of you.

—MARCELA CARVAJAL
Clerical Associate 3,
Local 1549

Lets help all children

After reading your PEP article about the layoffs in the schools, I say our mayor has no concern for our children.

The money given to charter schools from big businesses and the government should be given to all the children.

Our mayor has made our schools into a business. So why can't big business help all children? If Ms. Moskowitz can make megabucks running charter schools, they are not the answer. Smaller classes should be for all children.

As Local 372 President Santos Crespo said, if this mayor wants to leave a legacy as the "education mayor," then he should know that our children are not a commodity and schools are not a business.

—PHYLLIS LEVY
Retired School Aide,
Local 372

Prof praises PEP for its gay/labor reporting

Your coverage of DC 37 members' participation in marriage equality [PEP, Sept. 2011] got my partner and me both directly in the smile zone. Really, this is the gold standard for gay/labor reporting in a union newspaper.

—MIRIAM FRANK
Professor,
New York University

Arrested protesting environmental catastrophe

This summer the call went out: Come to Washington and get arrested.

Who could resist? Not my wife and me, or the 1,250 others who sat in to stop an environmental catastrophe - a new pipeline to bring tar sand oil from Canada across the United States. Tar sand is loaded with sludge-like oil. The largest deposits are in Alberta, Canada.

To extract the oil, first the forest is cut down. For every barrel of oil, 4 tons of tar sands are strip-mined, 4 gallons of water are contaminated, and tons of carbon dioxide (which causes global warming) are released.

The toxic waste is stored in lake-sized "ponds." Near them, indigenous communities develop rare cancers.

TransCanada plans to build the Keystone Pipeline to carry the oil to Texas refineries. This 36-inch pipe will cross 71 rivers and streams, the water supply for Midwest agriculture, an active earthquake zone and delicate ecosystems.

TransCanada projects 11 "significant" spills over the next 50 years. But the Keystone Project has already had 12 major spills in the last two years.

The oil industry originally claimed the pipeline would create 240,000 jobs but when this was questioned, they revised it to 2,000. Even so, some say the environment can wait - we need jobs now.

But the environment can't wait. We are already above the safe limit for carbon dioxide in our air, 350 parts per million; the tar sands project would add an additional 200 ppm.

Jobs and a healthy environment are not an either-or question. We need both.

—GARY GOFF
Local 2627