The State of Our Union: AFSCME Strong!

In his State of the Union speech last night, President Obama emphasized the importance of unions in building a strong economy. "Middle-class families," he declared, "are not going to feel more secure because we allowed attacks on collective bargaining to go unanswered."  Those words, though brief, tell volumes about the importance of strong unions in building the middle class and why we need to stand strong in the face of such attacks coming from Wall Street and corporate interests that are more concerned, as President Obama noted, about their quarterly earnings than improving the wages of hard-working people who help them make those profits.  The most recent of these attacks on workers' rights was brought before the U.S. Supreme Court this week by a corporate-backed group determined to stack the decks on behalf of the wealthy. This case, called Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, is aimed specifically at public employees nationwide who work every day to improve their communities. They are teachers, fire fighters, police officers, emergency personnel and people who ensure that our neighborhoods are clean and safe. Many of them are members of AFSCME, and they will not let these attacks against their collective bargaining rights go unchallenged. President...

By: AFSCME Blog Feed