Teamsters from Joint Council 41 got fired up at the "We Are Ohio" rally in front of the Ohio Statehouse. The demonstration kicked off the campaign to repeal SB5, the law that strips government workers of their collective bargaining rights.
Joseph at Plunderbund offers this report:
I just got home from today’s rally at the Statehouse and I have to say I was impressed. This was definitely one of the best organized rallies I have been to so far – and I’ve been to almost all of them. Unofficial estimates put attendance at over 11,000, they had a good line-up of speakers and the crowd was fired up. More importantly, the effort to sign up signature gatherers for the referendum effort was in full swing.
With this level of organization and this level of enthusiasm, I fully expect SB5 referendum signatures gathered in record time.Teamsters from Joint Council 25 rallied in downtown Chicago with 10,000 other union supporters, according to the Associated Press. We saw one t-shirt that explained what Chicago's rally was all about. It said, "Wisconsin Today, Illinois Tomorrow." Wisconsin state Sen. Chris Larson -- one of the Fab 14 -- told the crowd the union movement is just getting started.
And in New York, Teamsters joined the "Rally for Jobs and Justice" in Times Square along with thousands to protest public sector job cuts. We don't have a crowd count yet but we do have this video of the event. George Miranda, president of Joint Council 16, helped organize the rally with the New York City Central Labor Council.
Photos to come.
