Ohio Governor Gets 3,000 Boos

This post was delayed, I thought that I had published it already. Sorry for the SNAFU –WG

Via Labor Notes

Howard Ryan

|  March 18, 2011

Firefighter Dan Rihm uses a bullhorn to rally the thousands of activists protesting Ohio Senate Bill 5, which ends collective bargaining for most state workers. Photo: Mike Elicson/SEIU.

Ohio Governor John Kasich delivered his “State of the State” speech March 8 with all the pomp expected of a new governor setting his agenda.

But 3,000 union members and allies—led by 2,000 firefighters along with teachers, state workers, electrical workers, steelworkers, and many others—had just finished rallying outside the Columbus statehouse damning Senate Bill 5, the governor’s proposal to gut public employee unions.

And now hundreds of protesters packed the hearing gallery, with many more outside, filling the air with boos and “Kill the Bill” chants while the governor spun down-home tales, like one about a young girl who walked up to him during his campaign to say, “Mister, please don’t tax my eggs.”

Seth Rosen, vice president of Communications Workers District 4, said Ohio politics are usually mild. Booing the governor isn’t typical.

The governor and the legislature’s Republican majority certainly don’t have moderation in mind. After a little reworking, the senate passed a bill in early March that ends collective bargaining for most state workers, by a 17-16 vote. The assembly was still considering it at press time.

Protesters Retake Wisconsin Capitol after Republicans Pass Anti-Union Bill

Via Labor Notes

Jane Slaughter and Mischa Gaus

|  March 10, 2011

Wisconsinites have been protesting Governor Scott Walker’s power grab for more than three weeks. The confrontation climaxed Wednesday night. Photo: Sue Ruggles.

Stunned and outraged, thousands of Wisconsinites forced their way into the Capitol tonight after Senate Republicans passed their bill attacking unions.

The Republicans rewrote the bill to strip out fiscal measures and focus just on attacking union rights and collective bargaining, allowing them to pass the bill without the participation of Senate Democrats.

We Stand With You as You Stood With Us

Via Infoshop News

Statement to Workers of Wisconsin by Kamal Abbas of Egypt’s Centre for Trade Unions and Workers Services

About Kamal Abbas and the Centre for Trade Unions and Workers Services:

Kamal Abbas is General Coordinator of the CTUWS, an umbrella advocacy organization for independent unions in Egypt. The CTUWS, which was awarded the 1999 French Republic’s Human Rights Prize, suffered repeated harassment and attack by the Mubarak regime, and played a leading role in its overthrow. Abbas, who witnessed friends killed by the regime during the 1989 Helwan steel strike and was himself arrested and threatened numerous times, has received extensive international recognition for his union and civil society leadership.

English translation follows, below:

KAMAL ABBAS: I am speaking to you from a place very close to Tahrir Square in Cairo, “Liberation Square”, which was the heart of the Revolution in Egypt. This is the place were many of our youth paid with their lives and blood in the struggle for our just rights.

From this place, I want you to know that we stand with you as you stood with us.

Union Protest Interrupts Mortgage Bankers Summit

Solidarity with the protesters, and I challenge all of you to continue taking direct action, with or without the support of your leadership. –WG

Via Infoshop News

WASHINGTON — About 200 union workers interrupted a meeting of mortgage bankers at a posh hotel Wednesday.

The protest — aimed at the Pulte Group, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders — quickly turned into a scrum as workers wearing hardhats and shouting through bullhorns overwhelmed the security staff at the JW Marriott, bursting into a crowded conference room before a stunned crowd of bankers.

Shouting “Where are the jobs?” and “Where is the money?” the protesters from the Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, many in overalls and helmets, said taxpayers have provided $900 million in tax breaks to Pulte with the aim of creating jobs. They said they haven’t seen the results they were promised.

“Those tax breaks were supposed to create jobs,” Wayne Peworchik, one of the protesters, said. “That was President Obama’s and Congress’s intent.”

“Instead, Pulte laid off workers,” Peworchik said.

Marc Norberg, the union official who led the protest, said they protested the summit held by the Mortgage Bankers Association of America because “this is where Pulte is, and the mortgage bankers should know.”