Public Employee Press

Labor on the march

By GREGORY N. HEIRES
with reporting by Alfredo Alvarado

The conservative attack on public employees has fired up a nationwide backlash of street heat with rallies citywide and coast-to-coast and DC 37 planning a massive protest on June 14 against the city's assault on jobs, services and benefits.

DC 37 members stood among the 15,000 unionists and supporters who rallied April 9 in Times Square to protest the right-wing campaign to crush the power of public employee unions in Wisconsin and dozens of other states and denounce the deep budget cuts in New York.

"Working men and women across the country are under attack like never before," said Denis Hughes, president of the state AFL-CIO, which organized the protest.

"Our message is clear: We are one movement. Respect our rights."

"We have to fight together to let them know they can't win," DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts told the throng. With her were hundreds of DC 37 activists, including a large contingent that joined the rally after participating in the Lobby Institute at union headquarters.

Clerical-Administrative Local 1549 member Natasha Isma addressed the demonstration. "People are talking about what's happening in Wisconsin and all over the country, but we're under attack here in New York City too," she said. "We have to fight to protect our benefits and our right to collective bargaining."

1,200 protests nationwide

The April 9 demonstration and others statewide were among 1,200 protests that began April 4, the anniversary of the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. King was killed in Memphis, Tenn., supporting the bargaining rights of striking sanitation workers in DC 37's national union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. On April 4, DC 37 emptied its 125 Barclay St. headquarters for a noontime march and rally, and similar demonstrations took place throughout the city.

At a rally in Memphis on April 14, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Lee Saunders charged that Republican lawmakers like Govs. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and John Kasich of Ohio are "trying to silence workers so corporate influences can go unchecked. Their actions have awakened a powerful movement, and we will not let them steal our power or our future."

Wisconsin, Ohio and New York are among AFSCME's dozen "battleground states" where public employees face particularly strong threats. Hundreds of members assembled March 12 at DC 37 for training to help mobilize the New York fightback.

Fightback Rally June 14

DC 37 and other municipal and private-sector unions are gearing up for a massive City Hall fightback rally on Tuesday, June 14, at 4:30 p.m. The rally will hit Bloomberg's layoff plans, cuts in community services, contracting out and attacks on civil service rights.

"The threat we face here is the same threat workers face throughout the country. Our pensions, our pay and our fundamental right to be a union are on the line," said Roberts.