Urged on by union leaders, civil rights leaders and sympathetic lawmakers, more than 1,000 people descended on Congress last week to demand lawmakers restore and strengthen the Voting Rights Act.
Voting rights is still a problem.
The lobbying followed a mass rally on Capitol Hill, organized by the Democracy Initiative. The rally was the culmination of a months-long march of unionists, civil rights activists, clergy, environmentalists and others from Selma, Ala., to D.C., demanding restoration and improvement of the law.
They all demanded lawmakers approve the Voting Rights Advancement Act, legislation introduced in June to overturn the two-year-old U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gutted the enforcement sections of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Several of the speakers vowed that if Congress didn't act now, marchers would be back, with sit-ins and risking arrest, just as the original civil rights marchers crusaded, sat in and were arrested 50 or more years ago.
Larry Cohen, the former president of the Communications Workers of America, said:
We will continue to work, we will continue to fight, we will continue to march until we have justice, the right to vote and democracy in our country. We will mobilize millions. ... We care about workers’ rights, which are in a shambles and are a disgrace, but we can’t win these fights if 30 million people can’t vote.
The legislation, introduced by top Democrats on committees that handle civil rights bills and Congressional Black Caucus members, just picked up its first GOP backer, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. It also would outlaw voter suppression laws that curb or ban voting by African-Americans, women, Latinos, workers, students, the elderly and others.
More than 40 hospital tech workers at Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester, MA marched on the boss yesterday. Holding signs that read "Recognize Our Union" and "Health Care Workers Deserve Good Health Care," the group marched from the hospital atrium to the CEO’s office to present a letter requesting recognition of their chosen union, Teamsters Local 170.
A majority of the more than 200 workers in the unit signed Local 170 authorization cards. But instead of respecting the wishes of its employees, hospital management refused to recognize the union. Local 170 immediately filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board.
Jennifer Fontaine, who has helped lead her coworkers in the organizing drive, explained on Facebook:
We marched to the CEO'S office with a large group. We had support from our nurses and friends. The secretaries in his office had their jaws on the floor. Our committee member Heather Daniels who made the appointment was ushered into Mr. McLaughlin’s office before he slammed the door in our face. We opened the door and Kim proudly read the demand letter. He stopped her 3/4 of the way in and said he refused to recognize us. Our union head Mike Hogan told the CEO we will see him in 42 days. The CEO said no he wouldn't and Mike stuck HIS hand out and introduced himself. Mike told him to take a good look at us and the CEO said I know some of them. Mike said to the CEO he was going to know us better and we deserve better health care.
The tech workers at Saint Vincent Hospital, who are mostly women, are vital to the hospital’s operations. They perform professional technical work in radiology, surgery, respiratory, pharmacy, sterile processing and other departments.
Saint Vincent is owned by Tenet Healthcare, which makes more than $15 billion in annual revenue. The hospital’s unionized nurses recently settled a contract with management, retaining their strong health insurance. But the techs like Jennifer and her coworkers are stuck with substandard health insurance which has left many of them buried in medical bills, facing debt and heavy workloads.
The irony of poor health care in a hospital is lost on no one, as the workers said in a statement:
How can health care workers like us be subjected to such terrible health care?
Donna Franciosa, a 40-year employee at Saint Vincent, said:
We need to be reinstated with the health care coverage afforded to other union members. We deserve a fair wage and benefits package – and fair staffing levels. We have made this hospital the "premier" success for Tenet – now it’s time for our success.
As Teamsters, we know coming together and standing up to the boss isn’t easy. And it’s especially scary when you don’t have a union contract protecting you. That's why the courage of Saint Vincent workers is so powerful and inspiring.
While workers around the country are under attack, some workers – like the brave hospital workers in Massachusetts – are fighting back. We can’t wait to welcome these future Teamsters to our union!
In 1966, Cesar Chavez led striking farm workers on a 340-mile pilgrimage to Sacramento. They'd had enough of poverty wages, long hours, a lack of fresh drinking water, pesticides, heat. More important, they wanted to show that their strike was about justice and dignity. They did.
The march started in Delano, where grape farmers struck for five years, ultimately winning a first contract for more than 10,000 workers. The march ended at the Statehouse steps in the hopes that Gov. Pat Brown would sponsor a bill to grant union rights to farm workers.
(Brown) refused, despite the urgings of more than 8,000 UFW members and supporters who gathered outside the Capitol at the end of the 25-day march.
Farm workers did not get those rights until his son won passage of the bill – the Agricultural Labor Relations Act or ALRA – that granted the rights nine years later after a week long march from San Francisco to the Modesto headquarters of the huge Gallo winery, which had rebuffed vineyard workers' demands for a union representation election.
More than 15,000 people marched into Modesto, convincing Jerry Brown and state legislators that the UFW retained a sizable and influential constituency and great organizational ability. That had very much to do with passage of the ALRA and the consequent success of the UFW in winning union contracts. The law, however, was barely enforced by Democrat Brown's successors as governor, Republicans George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson and Democrat Gray Davis.
Farm workers are again marching to Sacramento, this time from Madera, 200 miles away. They're marching because they're still dying in the fields. They want to persuade Gov. Jerry Brown to support the Fair Treatment for Farmworkers Act, which would make it easier for them to join a union, and another bill that would grant them overtime. Ironically, Brown vetoed the bill in June.
Teamsters from Local 601 in Stockton helped put up the marchers and joined them Wednesday in the march to Sacramento. Doug Bloch, Teamsters Joint Council 7 political director, explains why:
We work in canneries side by side with United Farm Workers members and nonunion people who would benefit from the bill. Local 601 has a heavily Latino membership. They go to the same schools and the same churches as the farm workers. Our members are canning fruits and vegetables that nonunion folks are picking. The farm workers pick it, we process it.
Teamsters Joint Council 7 membership in the agricultural industry is huge, ranging from the Pacific Ocean to Yuma, Ariz. The Central Valley is the heart of California agriculture, and the Teamsters are the largest union in the area with 40,000 members. Teamsters process fruits and vegetables, bag lettuce and deliver produce, dairy, meat and poultry.
Rome Aloise, Joint Council 7 president, will join the last leg of the march on Sunday from South Side Park to the Capitol. More Teamsters and Teamster trucks -- including a brand-new one from Joint Council 7 -- will be at the rally at the capitol on Sunday.
You can help the farm workers by signing the petition here.
