Four buses of Tucson unionists go State Capitol for Day of Action
Four buses of unionists left Tucson this morning. (Image credit: Pamela Powers Hannley)
When I originally reported on the AFL-CIO Day of Action, I said four bus-loads of unionists were going to the Capitol to lobby Legislators and demonstrate against the anti-labor bills. Correction: that’s four buses just from Tucson. Additional bus-loads will be arriving from other Arizona cities.
As they loaded the buses, one participant told me that two years ago, 30 unionists went to the Arizona Legislature on the Day of Action. Last year, there were two buses of unionists. This year with six anti-worker bills in the Arizona Legislature, there are four bus-loads just from Tucson going to the capitol.
Maybe today will be Arizona’s “Wisconsin moment.”
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It was truly a honor to meet Nevada State Senator Patricia Spearman (center) in October and to confer with her regarding our efforts to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in Arizona. Spearman led the successful Nevada efforts to ratify the ERA in 2017. Here we are with activist and NOW leader Dainne Post after the ERA workshop at the We the People Conference in Phoenix. There are a lot of Arizona women who are ready to make history in 2018. Watch my blog here and my Facebook page here for ERA updates.
In the 1980s, the Tucson Weekly called Tucson the “Baked Apple”.
Protesting anti-woman laws at the Arizona state capitol.
Arizonans for New Economy co-directors Jim Hannley and Pamela Powers Hannley with UA Tech Park VP Bruce Wright.
Visiting with PALF chairman Fred Yamashita at the 2016 Labor Day Picnic.
There have been many lively debates in the Arizona House in 2018. This team of House Democrats fought for consumer protections and fought against risky financial deals in a “regulatory sandbox.” (Pictured are Reps. Mitzi Epstein, Kelli Butler, Athena Salman, Pamela Powers Hannley, Ken Clark and Isela Blanc.)
Despite the sweltering heat, Jim and I had a great time at the Labor Day Picnic. We collected a lot of Clean Elections $5 donations and signatures. Here I am with LD9 chair Michael Dues.
Protesters hand deliver symbolic big check from corporate American to McCain.
PDA Tucson Coordinator Jim Hannley speaks against both the crowd management ordinance and the urban camping ban at the City Council meeting.
Martin Luther King, Jr. march.
John Nichols of ‘The Nation’ addressed progressives and unionists at a Tucson event.
Jim and I were part of a contingent of Unitarian Universalists who came up from Tucson. Here I am with Rev. Ron Phares from the Mountain Vista UU Church in my district. (Jim is photobombing us.)
Congressman Ron Barber and Pamela Powers Hannley at Cyclovia
PDA members, including Advisory Board Chair Mimi Kennedy, protested food stamp cuts in front of Congressman Henry Waxman’s office.
Protesting cuts to education
Occupy encampment in Armory Park– before it was cleared out in the middle of the night by Tucson Police.
Jobs with Justice marching with Occupy Tucson in support of postal workers.
A giant poet’s head made up of stainless steel letters marks the stop near the UA Poetry Center.
#RedForEd teachers and supporters in the Arizona House Gallery, 2018.
Ironically, I posted this blog post on the anniversary of this election on June 19. 1970ish.
Rep. Sally Ann Gonzales and I were interviewed by NBC at the Phoenix rally.
Pamela Powers Hannley, Progressive Democrat for Arizona House, LD9
The Oberlin Rescuers outside of the Cuyahoga County Jail.
Safe Park, downtown Tucson
The Living Economy event was very informative; we had a great time hob-nobbing. My husband Jim is a small business owner and a member of Local First Arizona. I have owned two small businesses in the past– Powers/Queen Associates and Wind Dancer Design. We support Local First Arizona and buying/investing locally. We believe that supporting local small businesses with low-interest loans through a public/private partnership between a public bank and community banks and credit unions is the sustainable route to improving our local economy. Trickle down economics doesn’t work; it’s time for new ideas.
Giving the LD9 update at the June meeting. What a great crowd!
Protesting migrant deaths in the Arizona desert.
Governor Ducey had proposed increasing prison beds and funding, while cutting education. Protesters took issue with that short-sighted idea.
A homeless man sleeps in the shadow of corporate America.
Desconocido (unknown)
We often hear that corporations need migrant workers because Americans “don’t want to do these jobs.” When I hear this statement, I picture farm workers picking vegetables. Recently, I toured two dairies and an animal feed packing plant in Pinal County. The photo above from the Zinke Dairy shows a giant cow milking carousel. Nine migrant workers milk 4000 cows three times a day at this dairy. Legislators watched the two men pictured here– working at a brisk pace– bend over and pick up, lift, and attach large electronic suction cups to the cows as they ride the carousel around the giant facility. This level of automation is the wave of the future for industrial jobs.
This is a broken sink in the Ladies’ Room at the Arizona State Building in downtown Tucson. One of the elevators also was broken. It’s time to fix Arizona government.
I have a background in research. Help me build Tucson’s tech industry and grow our own local businesses.
We are the 99%.
Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley with members of the Tucson Chapter of NOW on opening day at the Arizona Legislature, 2018.
The unions, which once served a great role in supporting the American worker, have now become the bane of the taxpayers and the economy.
“the bane of the taxpayers and the economy”
More properly, they are an obstacle to the right-wing, randian plans to completely disempower the working class. Aside from that, like immigrants and the poor, they tend to vote their interests, i.e., democratic. The right wing finds it easy to disenfranchise the poor and immigrants through restriction of voting rights in these communities, but cracking union solidarity is a tougher nut, requiring creating a fearful boogie man of unions.
Unions have, no doubt, in many cases, overplayed their role. Nevertheless, if it weren’t for the existence of unions today, many workers would find themselves beiing exploited to the fullest as they were back in the nineteenth century.
Tucson should hire outside contractors to pick up garbage,run the water company and the other services provided by the city.It’s working in many states and you don’t have to worry about pensions,healthcare and all the vacations and holidays that we pay through the nose on a regular basis.No contracts!
I can just imagaine the “busloads” from “other” Arizona cities.
Maybe in the future there WILL be a final “Wisconsin” moment…. But for now we can only hope they pretend to be rational citizens and not pee all over the hallways of the capital.