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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“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.