Dear Members,
The recent demonstrations by teachers, fire fighters, policemen and other union workers in Wisconsin provide a lesson from which we all can learn. Those brave men and women are on the line for all of us, union and non-union workers alike. They understand that the actions of governor Scott Walker are not just an attempt to balance the budget—it is an attempt to break the power of unions and to reduce the strength of that force in American life that is responsible for the creation of the Middle-Class.
Make no mistake. This is class warfare with the corporate rich and powerful in full assault against working people. Governor Walker wants to take away the right of unions to organize and to collectively bargain. He claims that this is needed to balance the state’s budget. This is simply not true. The workers in Wisconsin already have agreed to make the financial sacrifices the governor asked for. The claim that the end of collective bargaining is needed to bring the state’s expenditures into balance is a ruse, a cover story to conceal the real goal—to crush the union movement.
Walker is nothing less than an agent for powerful corporate interests—most particularly the billionaire Koch brothers who helped finance his gubernatorial campaign. Corporate elitists like the Koch brothers are engaged in similar tactics around the country. They know that unions represent the only real opposition to corporate power and control of government. They also know that unions are more likely to support Democrats. When unions are destroyed, there will be very little to stand in the way of right-wing ideologues and powerful corporations that already have an unfair advantage in American politics as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling that allows unlimited contributions by corporations and big businesses to political parties and candidates. Most of these contributions will go to right wing, pro-Wall Street, pro-big business, anti-union candidates.
You see, the less in wages and benefits workers receive, the more corporations and big businesses pocket as profit. Fortunately, the American people remember that it was unions that brought them the eight-hour workday, paid vacations, healthcare, weekends, and pensions—and they are not about to give those things up without a fight.
The lesson is loud and clear—unions are holding up the foundations of the American Dream. If you’d like that dream to stay alive, perhaps you should join the union.
In Solidarity,
Debra Perry