Jacksonville, FL – On May 17, 150 union members from around north Florida and southern Georgia gathered outside the Hyatt Regency Riverfront Hotel here to expose a top-secret meeting of CUE – the Committee for a Union-Free Environment. Corporate bosses are trying to stop the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) from passing in Congress, an event that one union buster referred to as “Armageddon.” Unions like the Teamsters, Boilermakers, Electricians, Metalworkers, Carpenters, Plumbers and community and student supporters attended.

After a march through downtown Jacksonville, the workers and their families crowded around the entrance to the Hyatt Regency, demanding that the union busters come out and face people they were trying to suppress. The demonstrators had come to Jacksonville to support the Employee Free Choice Act. The protest exposed the secret anti-union meeting for what it really was: A disgusting example of how corporate America's interests are in stark opposition to the interests of the majority.

Local press arrived on the scene to film and interview the workers’ disruption of the secret meeting. Dustin Ponder, recently fired for organizing a union at a restaurant in Gainesville, asked one of the union busters, “Have your kids ever had to work a minimum wage job?” The union buster was speechless.

The rally succeeded in exposing the otherwise hidden agenda of the corporate big shots attending the meeting and was met by the employees of the non-union Hyatt Regency with enthusiastic fists in the air and shouts of solidarity. It was clear that they, too, wanted the right to organize for better wages, health care, paid vacations and dignity at work. As participant Ben Dictor of Gainesville told the corporate fat cats, “We teach your children, we cook your food, we build your houses and we'll dig your graves.”

#JacksonvilleFL #News #EFCA #EmployeeFreeChoiceAct #CommitteeForAUnionFreeEnvironment

Chicago, IL – Members of Teamsters Local 743 are preparing to join the massive national march on Sept. 1 in Saint Paul, Minnesota to protest at the Republican National Convention. They see this march as part of the effort to defeat the Republicans this fall. This march will be the first time in 45 years that Local 743 is joining a national mobilization.

“There are a number of issues important to us in this year’s presidential election,” said Local 743 Vice President Larry Davis. He listed five in particular:

Employee Free Choice Act

This is a bill that would, among other things, stop employers from using attacks against pro-union workers to keep unions out. “All workers should have the right to join a union,” explained Davis.

Health Care for Everyone

“The United States is a very rich country and everyone in America should have health care.”

Fair Trade

“Globalization has pitted workers in the United States against workers in third world countries. Rather then drive down the standard of living of American workers, we should have trade policies that will bring up the standard of living in third world countries, as well as in America.”

Full Equality for Everyone

“All workers in America should be treated fairly regardless to race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or where they were born. We believe in affirmative action. The next president needs to support affirmative action as well as enact an affirmative action program.”

End the War

“The human cost and the cost to America’s economy are far too great,” Davis concluded.

In 1963, the local was one of the unions that dared to stand for civil rights. They joined the March on Washington on Aug. 28 that year, where Martin Luther King gave his I Have a Dream speech. Then in 1966 and 1967, they were among very few unions that supported King and the civil rights movement in challenging racism in the city of Chicago.

In the later years, the local became a corrupt organization in which all workers – Black, Latino and white – were sold out to employers. But in 2007, the workers voted out the criminals that ran the union for many years. Now the union is reclaiming the proud tradition of marching with the movement for peace, justice and equality.

#ChicagoIL #News #ProtestRNC2008 #RepublicanNationalConvention2008 #Teamsters #EFCA #TeamstersLocal743 #LarryDavis #MarchOnWashington

Milwaukee, WI – Angry labor unionists and their supporters protested here, May 19, against Republican hit man Karl Rove. The conservative lobbying group, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) invited former Bush aide Karl Rove to speak against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). EFCA promises to make it easier for workers to form unions with less interference and dirty tricks from bosses. Unions and workers are demanding this new amendment to the National Labor Relations Act that will make forming a union a simple democratic choice.

The Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce conference was closed to the public and the press, but 150 workers showed up at 8:00 a.m. outside to make their voices heard. Workers held signs in favor of the Employee Free Choice Act and chanted, “What do we want? Free Choice! When do we want it? Now!” The bosses at the WMC would not speak to the media, but passed out literature that opposed the EFCA.

The Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce is also opposing a measure that would make Milwaukee the third U.S. city to win paid sick days. The paid sick days ballot initiative passed in November with an astounding 69% mandate and would give all workers in Milwaukee nine paid sick days each year, a huge victory for all workers.

#MilwaukeeWI #Milwaukee #News #SDS #EFCA #KarlRove #EmployeeFreeChoiceAct