Friday, February 25, 2011

Teamsters on the front line in IN

No, it's not Madison. It's Indianapolis earlier this week.
It was a wild week in Indiana, with thousands of protesters at the Statehouse all week and House Democrats fleeing the state to avoid voting on an anti-worker bill. In the end, we won this battle, though our fight is far from over in other states.
Teamster sister Rebecca Hanscom, organizer extraordinare from Gary, went to Tuesday’s rally. Here's her report:
There were at least 3,000 people at the Statehouse on Monday, and more on Tuesday after the Democrats left the state. There was a big turnout by Steelworkers and, as the week went on, more Teamsters. There was a lot of solidarity. Thursday was family day, with guitars and bagpipes and kids. It was energetic, exciting, full of hope and power – something we haven’t seen in the Indiana Statehouse in a long time. The best thing was seeing the young people there with their drums.
Aubrey Cheatham, business agent with Local 89 in Louisville, tells Rally Girl:
We’re continuing to rally the troops. Thursday we had 5,000 people at the State House. Wednesday was our biggest day with 10,000 people who came to the State House in protest of these ridiculous bills. Local 89 has been bussing people up from Kentucky and we’re going to keep it coming.
Our old friend.

Aside from bussing people to these rallies, we’ve been asking voters throughout the state to fill out a postcard that says, “I’m a Hoosier who opposes right to work for less.” We address them to the proper legislator; so far, we’ve sent around 650. We’ll send off another 350 on Monday.
We’re getting a lot of momentum because we have a lot of new tea bagger legislators who are just plain nutty.

This is what democracy looks like.