Posted on 02/21/2011 6:07:40 PM PST by mdittmar
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Union members, students, parents and even former presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich rallied in Olympia on Monday, taking advantage of the holiday to lobby against budget cuts and to show solidarity with Wisconsin's embattled union for state employees.
The Washington State Patrol estimated that 2,000 people rallied under the Capitol Dome, said KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Senior Political reporter Essex Porter.
Washington state employees chanted, sang songs and waved signs in the Capitol Rotunda in a rally supporting unions and state employees in Wisconsin. Ohio Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich addressed the group wearing a union T-shirt from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Several other groups took advantage of the Presidents Day holiday to demonstrate -- college students urging funding for higher education and the Washington State PTA asking legislators to protect students from budget cuts.
Last week, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker targeted public employees in a massive budget cut proposal, calling for cuts to their benefits and limiting their ability to collectively bargain on wage issues. Walker has said his proposal is about cutting state and local spending for years to come, but acknowledges that if approved, it could cripple unions.
Kucinich said he hoped the rally in Olympia would ripple across the country to show solidarity to union workers in Wisconsin.
"You cannot have a democracy if you don't have people in a position to be able to negotiate for their wages and to have decent benefits," Kucinich said, lauding Washington as being a "bastion for workers' rights," where people have the capacity to push back.
Washington is one of the most unionized states in the country, according to a January U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report.
Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, reminded the crowd that collective bargaining ended child labor and created the 40-hour work week.
"Collective bargaining is not the problem," she said.
Most state employees have Monday off and Tuesday is an unpaid furlough day.
3hours west of Seattle. That’s ocean water?
“former presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich rallied in Olympia “
I’m amazed the munchkin made it. I thought he was crippled for life or something from biting into an olive pit in a sandwich wrap from the House cafeteria. Maybe they rolled him to the demonstration in a wheel chair or he was on crutches with a neck brace or something, you know, to help out with the big lawsuit he has against the U.S. government for wounding him so badly with a sandwich.
These people are "The ENEMY within!"
They are showing us what they really are and what they want = ANIMAL FARM where they are more "equal" than all of us other/lesser "animals".
If Americans do not take a stand against them, the Republic will fall and America as it has existed from it's founding will be no more, replaced instead by a Socialist, Communist, Marxist, Islamic "state".
Port Angeles, on the North Olympic Peninsula.... but you’re close. ;>)
Think Dave Beck who started out in Seattle and went on to head the teamsters, did prison time and eventually replaced by Hoffa.
Yea she is a Democrat but shot down her tax increases in Nov which really upset her. She went into vapor lock!
Soros! Definitely Soros.
Eff ‘em! And Dennis Kookcinich needs to go home to Ohio and suck an olive.
Bizarre isn't it?
The government at all levels has become so huge, so bloated, so controlling, that hundreds of thousands are going to demand more and higher taxes to pay for their lottery style government salaries and government retirement pensions...
I think it's becoming increasingly clear the American people work for those in government.
Heh, I was thinking the same thing! Port Angeles does make sense, though. Bainbridge Island seems like the coast to me when I’m in Seattle!
Nice voter fraud and election stealing. Gregoire may be in WA state but she bears all the earmarks of a true-blue Chicago girl.
Oh Rep. Dennis Kucinich, this nation is a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC, not a DEMOCRACY!
Stinking communionist bastards every last one of them.
Let them tear each other to pieces.
What part of broke do these people not understand.
WA state is $5.7 billion in debt, but the typical state worker in WA can’t get their head around that. These people really are delusional and there are plenty more of them in a state that pumps out libs faster than jobs.
...a well guarded mountain top, located approximately 3 hours west of Seattle...
—
The Olympic National Forest is now open to homesteading? Have you clear cut yet?
Seattlunatics = Farsiders
Bainbridge Island = Farsider lefty bedroom community.
i love the arguments that they are losing their right to negotiate...
what about a right to negotiate with others to do the job for less...
that is the argument. eliminate the necessity to belong to a union to work in the gov’t and there will be many who will get good pay and benefits for less.
teeman
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