JOBS, SHOW OF POWER, POLITICS KEY THEMES
FOR LEADERS, WORKERS AT ‘ONE NATION’ DEMO
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
 
            WASHINGTON (PAI)--Campaigning for good jobs with good benefits, a
show of power against the Radical Right and politics through Election Day and
beyond were key themes for both union leaders speaking at the mass “One Nation”
demonstration in Washington on Oct. 2, and for rank-and-file unionists
questioned there.
 
            The demonstration was organized by more than 300 groups, ranging
from the AFL-CIO through individual unions through civil rights, womens’ rights,
anti-war and community groups.  People came from as far away as San Diego.
           
            Organizers also wanted to motivate progressives for the stretch
drive for the election and as a warning to politicians that workers and their
allies, not the Radical Right, represent the majority in the country.

 
            Some 10,000 members of the Communications Workers,  a similar number
from AFSCME, at least 25,000 Service Employees, 1,000 Utility Workers, thousands
more Steelworkers, 25,000 Teachers, and hundreds of Auto Workers, Transport
Workers, National Nurses United and NEA members made up a large share of the
crowd of several hundred thousand people stretching from the Lincoln Memorial
down the Mall.
 
            Jobs was a consistent theme of every speaker, on the platform and in
the crowd.
So was politics.  So was denunciation of big business and its influence.  
 
            Two speakers, CWA President Larry Cohen and AFL-CIO President
Richard Trumka, said strengthening workers’ rights, specifically by enacting the
Employee Free Choice Act, is the way to combat corporate clout.  Trumka brought
a dozen union workers to the mikes to make the case, too.
 
            He also aimed at the Radical Right.  “If you watch too much TV,
you’d think America is a nation full of hate,” Trumka said, an implicit
reference to the Glenn Beck-Tea Party rally at the Lincoln Memorial in
September.  “But America is President Lincoln.  America is Dr. King.  And behind
the hate are the forces of greed that did a lot of damage to the country.”
 
            Admitting “it’ll take something big” to rebuild the U.S., Trumka
demanded creation of jobs reconstructing roads and schools and in “green energy”
and high technology.  “And we must make sure every man and woman has the freedom
to make every job a good job by having the freedom to join together and
bargain,” he declared.
 
            Cohen was even more explicit, noting that when Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. gave his “I Have A Dream” speech at the memorial at the mass civil
rights march there -- a march several speakers said was organized by
African-American union leader A. Phillip Randolph and the UAW -- one-third of
private sector workers were unionized.
 
            “But in these 47 years, workers’ rights have been all but crushed,”
Cohen said.  “And the minority in the Senate has blocked 400 bills, including
EFCA.”  Repeating a theme he’s used before, Cohen declared that “real change is
hard, but not hopeless.”
 
            “We know when we join hands as health care workers, janitors, public
service workers” and with others, “we can make change happen,” new SEIU
President Mary Kay Henry told the crowd.  “And SEIU brothers and sisters are
here to say we have had it with a corporate America that insists on higher and
higher pay and bonuses while millions of Americans are losing their jobs.”
 
            Workers and activists interviewed concentrated on jobs, too -- and
on holding politicians accountable if they’re not created in a time of
recession.
 
            “We want to show everyone in this nation deserves good jobs, plus
Social Security and Medicare,” Deborah Burger, one of four NNU co-presidents,
told Press Associates as her colleagues Jean Ross and Malinda Markowitz agreed. 
“We’re here to insure our politicians understand what we the people need -- and
not what the corporations, the racists and the misogynists want.”
 
            “We advocate for patients getting good quality care and that should
not depend on whether you have a job,” Ross, a Minnesotan and also an NNU
co-president, said.  As RNs, she added, they see the impact of the recession in
people who come to hospitals sick because they can’t pay for primary care
because they’ve lost their jobs.
 
            “We continue to organize to get the word out there” to hold
politicians accountable for “creating jobs that have a decent wage,” said Janet
Benefield of Teamsters Joint Council 3 of Denver and surrounding states.  “I
have people who were laid off two years ago -- and can’t find a job paying more
than $9.50 an hour.”
 
            SEIU Local 617 President Rahaman Muhammad linked jobs to pushing
Presi-dent Obama into action, despite Congress.  “We have to stand up for the
change we voted for.  We’re tired of our voices not being heard -- and of the
venomous rhetoric of the Glenn Becks,” the Newark resident told PAI.  “We want
to reclaim America, with decent jobs for the good of all.  Corporate greed has
gotten very out of hand.”
           
            Daman Turner, a CWA Local 4400 member from Cincinnati Bell, also
said the rally was a reminder to pols.  “It was urgent to show a force from the
other side -- and we get active and we vote,” he said.  To make his point, Turner temporarily
switched his party registration to Republican, to vote in the Ohio primary
against House GOP Leader John Boehner.  It didn’t succeed, but at least this
time Boehner had opposition, he said.  
 
            Gene Steele, President of UAW Local 856 in Toledo, added export of
U.S. jobs overseas to the mix.  His members make -- made -- brakes for
aircraft.  At its height, Meggert Aircraft Braking employed 1,750 workers. 

 
            Then the firm was split, with half the business going to Lockheed. 
Brake production for civilian planes stopped, leaving military plane brake
contracts.  Meggert planned to shut that production, too, and move the remaining
jobs to Mexico, where brakes would be made and shipped back to the U.S.  

           
            The profitable firm “took our jobs away out of pure greed,” Steele
said.  If Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, hadn’t intervened, the last 238 jobs would
have vanished, too.
 
            “We have to support the issue of creating jobs and keeping jobs. 
We’ve felt the pain and so have our brothers and sisters in the UAW, in
aerospace and autos.  It’s a unity thing,” Steele said.               
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