Posted on 03/22/2011 5:44:25 AM PDT by Kaslin
"Madison is just the beginning!" AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka told a union rally in Annapolis, Md., recently. "Like that old song goes, 'You ain't seen n-n-n-n-nothing yet!'"
Fresh from defeat in Wisconsin, union leaders are planning a new campaign not just to head off future challenges to their collective-bargaining powers but also to make the case that organized labor's benefits and prerogatives -- wages, health care and pensions that are more generous than those of comparable workers in the private sector -- are the moral equivalent of rights won by black Americans during the civil-rights movement.
To make the point, the AFL-CIO is planning a series of nationwide events on April 4, the 43rd anniversary of the day the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated after speaking in Memphis, Tenn., on behalf of striking black garbage collectors. The message: King's cause and that of angry schoolteachers in Madison are one.
"April 4 (is) the day on which Martin Luther King Jr. gave his life for the cause of public collective bargaining," Trumka said in another recent speech, this one in Washington. And on the AFL-CIO blog, there is this notice: "Join us to make April 4, 2011, a day to stand in solidarity with working people in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and dozens of other states where well-funded, right-wing corporate politicians are trying to take away the rights Dr. King gave his life for."
Union officials are not planning a traditional mega-rally in Washington. Rather, they're encouraging locals across the country to stage shows of force in support of Wisconsin unions and the Democratic lawmakers who fled the state in a failed effort to stop Republican Gov. Scott Walker's budget plan. Throughout, the AFL-CIO is asking local leaders to tie the Wisconsin issue to the King assassination and civil rights.
"A lot of people forget that what (King) was doing in Memphis was fighting for sanitation workers there," says Josh Goldstein, an AFL-CIO spokesman. "It's important for people to make the connection. Martin Luther King was so important to the labor movement. Workers' rights and civil rights go hand in hand. It's a time to remind people what he was fighting for."
The AFL-CIO is advising member unions to come up with activities to stress ties between big labor and the civil-rights movement. AFL-CIO planners suggest that local labor leaders team up with churches to make workers' rights a theme at worship services. Union bosses also advise asking churches "to consider organizing candlelight vigils, which could include the reading of Dr. King's 'I've Been to the Mountaintop' speech," which King delivered the night before he was killed.
But was King fighting for the things that Trumka and his union forces are fighting for today? Is, say, the "right" for well-paid, unionized public employees to enjoy a health plan that includes coverage for Viagra -- a cause for which Milwaukee teachers waged a protracted court battle -- the equivalent of King's work in Memphis, much less his efforts for the right to vote and access to public accommodations?
"It is delusion, bordering on abomination, to try to equate what Martin Luther King was doing in Memphis to public workers getting Cadillac benefits for which they contribute very little, or nothing, at taxpayers' expense," says Peter Kirsanow, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights who has also served on the National Labor Relations Board. "The sanitation workers in Memphis were receiving wages that were so significantly below that which are enjoyed by middle-class teachers in Madison that to try to draw that comparison is offensive. Truly offensive."
Whatever events take place on April 4, look for the effort to have the enthusiastic support of the Obama administration. "Union rights are no different than civil rights," Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told officials of the Communications Workers of America during a Wisconsin strategy conference call two weeks ago. "It's a part of our history, it's a part of our culture, it's a part of what has made this country so great."
Will it work? After all the demonstrations and all the speeches, will the public watch protests by angry, nearly all-white, middle-class school teachers with excellent health and retirement plans and think of Martin Luther King? Trumka's AFL-CIO and the big unions are very rich and very powerful. They have the ability to get their message out. But their April 4 strategy might be too ambitious even for them.
In other words, they are going to lie to get their Stalinist freak on.
Interesting that sooner or later EVERYTHING gets tied to “civil rights”.
One of these fine days, we will call “BULLSHIT!” on this.
Hey, Trumka, you fat Communist pig, I got your civil rights right here.
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It's also a reeking stench!
I'm glad the entire country can see how the Democrat party operates.
As for the judge and her restraining order blocking the bill from becoming law...
The reason she gives is that somehow an open meetings law was violated - a meeting rat lawmakers illegally fled the state not to attend.
Ok. Not a problem... start laying off workers, or declare bankruptcy and renegotiate all contracts for state workers. Face it, the state of Wisconsin is broke!
Click to watch the new Democrat party crash the State Capitol.
“Madison is just the beginning!”
Yes, it is. Soon there will be more and more “Madisons”. And soon no more govt employees unions.
The MLK civil rights movement was, or at least was sold as, a movement to bring equal rights to blacks who were clearly being denied them. Now the union liberals are claiming that this public sector union fight for special benefits for themselves, supplied by the lowly taxpayer who doesn't even get them, is the 1960s MLK equivalent. If Republicans don't jump on this they are crazy.
Just so we're all clear on this; the US Gov. is working in partnership w/ organized labor AGAINST the people of Wisconsin.
Or in other words; the federal gov. is using money borrowed from the Chinese to prevent the duly elected officials of Wisconsin from performing the people's mandate.
Have you had enough yet?
I think it’s just terrible the way the WI GOP took away public worker’s right to not be allowed to decide whether or not to join a union.
Exactly
Martin Luther King died so the unions would get free health insurance....
Rich irony. The quoted line is associated with Al Jolson, famous for performing in blackface. I guess the Democrats really miss the old Jim Crow days and the lovely sounds of de Minstrel Shows.
I hope there is a sarcasm in your statement
That’s because it has always “worked” in the past -
Americans are so ashamed of how we treated [past tense] other humans in our country,
that bringing up that shame causes [decent] people to cower and stop arguing. Meanwhile, the left walks all over us, not expecting any pushback, because they’ve never gotten any.
Everyone should understand - they have no plan B if we do start pushing back. They will NOT know how to respond if cries of “racism” cease to work anymore.
We need to remind those fools as often as the opportunity presents itself that DEMOCRATS are the reason for slavery, KKK, Jim Crow and eugenics and more.
The “right” to a fat government pay check that is confiscated from taxpayers who are making far less or who are paying taxes on their UNEMPLOYMENT checks? In a more intelligent country, that would be an impossible sell, but as stupid as many people are these days, they just might buy it.
It’s true. They want me to apologize and feel bad about the things they have done. That’s not going to happen. I haven’t damaged black people — Democrats did it.
http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/2011/03/wisconsin-republicans-ask-for-help-we.html
We need to step up to the plate.
No one ever said this would be easy.
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