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California Veterans, Union Members Want Employee Free Choice |
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A coalition of veterans who are union members and other supporters of the freedom to form unions are gathering today in Los Angeles to send a strong message: Pass the Employee Free Choice Act now to give veterans the chance they need for a better life.
Organized by the L.A. County Federation of Labor, these union veterans will rally outside the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, urging her and all of California’s members of Congress to vote for the Employee Free Choice Act to restore workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain.
As part of the rally, these veterans and workers will debut a new video that shows why veterans need the Employee Free Choice Act. This video includes testimony from a number of veterans who spoke at an April town hall meeting in Los Angeles attended by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis.
Carolyn Consoli, a Navy veteran, said in the video it was hard for her and many other returning veterans to find a job that offered the pay and benefits she needed:
The only jobs I could find were those that led to poverty wages.
The veterans who testified at the town hall meeting said they were able to join the military with just a signature, without having to ask anyone’s permission. Why, then, shouldn’t they have the same chance to form a union and bargain for a better life?
You can watch the video here and find out more about today’s rally here.
4 Comments
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I really liked Brother Rubio’s statement that it only took his signature to join the Army, why should it take more to form a union. I will continue to do what I can to back employee free choice.
Solidarity forever!
There is not enough Senator support to pass the EFCA. I personally think it should be on a state ballot initative, that’s the only way to prove who is right - us or them! There would be about eight or so states who would pass it. Living in Illinois - I’m fine with the state ballot.
Union members dont quite comprehend what we are up against - or that we are on OUR OWN, because Obama just filled his cabinet with anti-union, anti-labor, pro-business Clinton hacks. Screw me once… READ THIS:
Can Labor Revive the American Dream?
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090126/kaplan
WHAT ABOUT THIS?? U N R E A L !!!!
Grand Theft Auto: How Stevie the Rat bankrupted GM
http://www.gregpalast.com/grand-theft-auto-how-stevie-the-rat-bankrupted-gm/
I would like to close with a letter I sent to the editor of a local paper explaining how I see the EFCA:
Employee Free Choice Act pundits cut the profits of, and help put hundreds of small business owners whose workforce is already union out of business.
Union small business owners should be praised for “keeping government out of private business” by taking it upon themselves to pay union scale, benefits and pensions, not punished. It’s their corporate competitors hiring illegal immigrants, paying non-union workers peanuts and buying congress to subsidize the food, healthcare and housing of their workforces. And if they are taxed for it at all, they scream “socialism” and move out of the country. Keep believing that “socialism” nonsense, Mutual Ground’s (a battered women’s shelter) closing is only the beginning.
A recent Open Line call said GM’s bankruptcy “wasn’t in God’s plan.” Anyone who reads Deuteronomy 15 and Luke 16 knows that. Obama’s “Car Czar” STOLE the United Auto Workers pensions by forcing them to trade it for worthless GM stock instead, and then used the pension cash to pay off JP Morgan Chase and Citibank’s bonds IN FULL, which was illegal. While everyone else entwined in GM got beheaded, JP Morgan and Citibank secretly got another bailout.
Republicans hate unions because they donate to and vote for Democrats. The end. But whose fault is that? Joe the Plumber’s broke, financially and intellectually. Meanwhile, Republicans call the hoards of actual small business owners, with both votes and money, in the Pipefitters and Plumbers Union “fascists?” No, the businesses with government subsidies, contracts and taxpayer supported employees who STILL cannot run a successful business are the only “fascists.” Not the small union business owners who take “personal responsibility” for their own businesses and employees. What passing The Employee Free Choice Act will ultimately do is protect the businesses of owners who do the RIGHT thing - from those who DON’T.
Senator Dianne Feinstein flip flopped on The Employee Free Choice Act. First she was for it, now she doesn’t know what to do. Just like a woman.
I am a resident of California, and have written several e-mails to Senator Feinstein from her website, however. she has not replied to any of them. I do not know if she is just too busy taking care of special interests, or only deep pocket constituents matter enough for a reply. Senator Boxer does reply promptly, and is supporting Employee Free Choice, as well as My representative Loretta Sanchez.