The Saturday rally in Pack Square Park was an effort to show solidarity with the public-sector union workers protesting to save their collective bargaining power in Wisconsin. It’s a debate being taken up across the U.S. as financially strapped states are finally forced to face up to huge deficits. For great context and background, read the N.Y. Times‘ profile of Chris Christie and see how he’s tacking the problem.
In Asheville, here’s Errington C. Thompson on his support of unions, from his Where is the Outrage blog. This is part of his transcript of the speech he delivered at the rally:
This is the world without strong unions.
If you want a world in which you can work for a living wage and get adequate time off. You want world with… Strong unions.
If you want a world where you can work in negotiate your benefits plan. You want a world with… Strong unions.
If you don’t want your children to work before age 10. You want a world with… Strong unions.
If you want to get paid overtime for working more than 40 hours a week. You want a world with… Strong unions.
If you’d like a little bit more safety on your job. You want a world with… Strong unions.
If you want some job security and a pension. You have to have a world with… Strong Unions.
We have a choice today. We can turn our backs on the unions as we have for the last 40 years. We can hope that the CEOs and executives of this country will look out for the American worker. Or we can stand up and support… Strong unions.
In my mind, the middle class of the United States of America cannot survive and thrive without… Strong unions.
And here’s Larry Porter, writing on the Larry’s Right blog:
Today, Feb. 26, 2011 was a dark day for Western North Carolina. I attended the rally to “Save the American Dream” in Asheville today. That was sad enough. But I was a committee of one. Not one other Western Carolina person dared come forth to stand against what these people support. I was not assaulted. I was not even talked to harshly. I was basically ignored. I did not openly protest. What for?
My observation on these people is that most of them are not evil. They are neighbors who have bought the Big Lie. There is no reasoning with them. One cannot educate them. They will not listen to your arguments. They hold their ears and sing loudly so as not to hear what you have to say. Most seem intelligent but how can one say they are intelligent if they bought the Big Lie and will not listen to anything else. They are elitists who think they are the only ones who can possibly be right. But all in all, they are simply following an insidious group of dictators who are working toward total control through communist/Marxists tactics. I wanted to scream at the people in the crowd, “Don’t you realize you are being led by Van Jones and his ilk? Have you not investigated who came up with ‘Save the American Dream’?” But to what advantage? They do not want to hear from me. Today, I left an event that, unbeknownst to the crowd, was the completion of the destruction of America, not saving the dream. I left with tears in my eyes.
6 Comments
We beg to differ just slightly That Zaszu. Unions don't give a crap about worker safety. All they are interested in is collecting their monthly dues and padding the wallets of the fat cats who run the unions. The key word in your posting is ACCIDENT. Unfortunately accidents happen in the workplace just as they do in every other place in our society. Can we categorically always blame the employer when a tragic accident happens in the workplace?
Show me evidence and data that unionized workplaces are safer than non-unionized workplaces, and maybe you'll have a valid argument, but not from one isolated incident.
In an online story, via KTVU.com San Francisco, concerning safety issues in the Meat Packing Industry, among other Food processing industries.
The story:
Authorities are investigating the death of a 72-year-old worker who fell into a meat-grinding machine at a Kings County meat processing plant.
The Fresno Bee reports that the accident happened early Monday morning at Central Valley Meat Co.
The man, a Hanford resident, was pronounced dead at the scene. A spokeswoman for the California's workplace safety agency said the plant also was investigated for an accident there in 2004, when a worker who was cleaning a meat grinder activated it and was caught in the machine. Spokeswoman Krisann Chasarik says the worker was able to switch off the machine before getting sucked in.
The company paid a $1,100 for the failure to lock out the device in that case.
Now, this is why having Unions, to represent persons "safety & rights", while on the job. Note, that the Company was only fined $1,100 for a "safety lockout."
For more info (and this is not spam), rather a suggested reading list that sheds more insight for why we need Unions: Fast Food Nation-Eric Schlosser, The Jungle-Upton Sinclair, among many others. I, now, would like to ask this "Observer/protester/Tea Partier: if this was the industry you had set your career in, would you like to have someone looking out for YOUR safety? I would certainly doubt it.
I would just like to clarify… Larry went out to counter protest and could not find one other person that shared his viewpoint. Sometimes an individual is a dreamer when they see things differently from everyone else, and they can change the course of history. Most of the time, however, they're just wrong. Pretty sure we can see which way this one went.
I don't imagine Dr. Thompson's bosses at Mission Hospitals that pay him nearly a half million a year will be too happy to hear the good doctor's ranting about unions. That strikes fear in the hearts of hospital administrators everywhere. Errington, sharpen up your resume my friend.
Simply calling the attendees of a group sheeple (albeit somewhat politely) does not a counter argument make
Thanks for posting two opposing views of the event. I attended the rally and support the workers in Wisconsin. But I also appreciate hearing two (or more) sides to various issues and hope ASHEVEGAS will continue to post similar contrasting opinions in the future.