February 22, 2011 Pro Labor/Middle Class Rally

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On February 22, 2011, Steve attended the Pro Labor/Middle Class Rally at the State House in Boston. From the front of the State House you can see the offices of the local Faux Noise outlet across the street. However, I saw no evidence of their reporters at the rally.

The next day Boston Globe had an article, Patrick reaches out to unions, about the rally. It includes some video.

Contrary to what the Tea Partiers were saying in the video, the Wisconsin Union agreed to the governor’s request for give backs. It wasn’t enough for Gov. Walker to accept yes for an answer in the bargaining process. The governor further wanted to cut off the union’s rights to bargain. Obviously the governor has an agenda that reaches far beyond fiscal responsibility for the state.

In response to the written article in the newspaper, I sent a letter to the editor. I hadn't seen the video when I wrote the letter.

Your article on the labor rally at the State House yesterday seems to be short on nuance and long on assumptions.

I attended the rally to support the unions and the middle class of this country against the greed of the super wealthy and their allies in Congress and the White House.

In my 40 year career in the high tech industry, I never had an opportunity to join a union. That does not mean that I did not benefit from unions. Since the government assault on unions that really gained momentum in the Reagan years and beyond, the working conditions in my former industry (I am now retired) have deteriorated. This deterioration is felt well up into the ranks of the engineers and scientists and even their management.

Previously the threat of unions being formed was enough to keep the top management and the shareholders from bleeding the workers dry. There seems to be nothing holding them back now. The Tea Party is just the latest attempt to convince the workers that management is their friend and their fellow workers are the enemy.

"United we bargain, divided we beg."

Page last updated by Steve Greenberg on October 24, 2022 18:47:08 EDT (GMT-0400).

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