Let’s Celebrate Our Blessings and Not Forget Those Being “Scrooged”
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
As we open this holiday season our brothers and sisters of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 94 have much to be thankful for, our members are fully employed, earning decent wages and enjoying health care and other benefits.
So while there is much for us to give thanks we should also remember the more than 14 million American workers who are currently unemployed. And let’s not forget the millions of others who are underemployed and struggling to feed their families; keep a roof above their heads; and who live in fear of getting sick or injured.
For too long we quietly went about our business as the scales of justice increasingly tilted in favor of bankers, the barons and power brokers.
Working-class America could not remain quiet forever.
Within our city the anger and resentment over the economic inequality has stirred and started a movement that took shape with Occupy Wall Street protests that has now grown and spread nationally.
Despite the early portrayals of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and many news sources, we learned these mostly young protesters who gathered at Zuccotti Park are not anarchists. These are men and women who are finally standing up to the injustice that has infected our country.
The Wall Street barons caused this economic fallout by making horrible, senseless and irresponsible investments in the name of big profits. By the time their greeddriven schemes inevitably failed they had wiped away trillions of dollars from our economy; destroyed countless pension plans and retirement accounts; decimated the value of people’s homes; and nearly caused the global economy to collapse.
What was their penalty? A government bailout funded with taxpayer dollars, and a Congress which promises to never raise their taxes.
Today the Wall Street barons continue to make their money while the rest of our country struggles with a 9.1% unemployment rate and a “we’ll never raise taxes” Congress that refuses to pass the American Jobs Act which would put people back to work.
Making that unemployment rate all the more despicable, is the knowledge that American corporations are currently sitting on more than $2 trillion -- yes, that is Trillion with a “T” in assets that remain untouched.
The Zuccotti Park protesters have announced that they have had enough, and they have taken to the streets to bring awareness to these injustices. They are speaking up for the bottom 99% of the population that has seen the American dream become almost unattainable and calling for the top 1% (who control nearly one-fourth of the nation’s wealth) to be held accountable.
They have called for an end to corporate welfare, the preservation of Medicare and Social Security, collective bargaining, the right to organize -- all issues our unions support.
Yet, rather than honor these peaceful voices calling for economic and social justice those young protesters were at first met with a Mayor who used the same oppressive, strong-arm techniques that were used against our fore-brothers and fore-sisters of the labor movement.
The city’s initial response came with pepper spray and Billy clubs, confinement within orange-netting as if they were cattle and then placed under arrest for exercising their First Amendment Rights.
My brothers and sisters this movement -- not unlike the early labor movement -- was born of oppression.
The earliest organizers of unions were beaten and killed for exercising their rights to organize and form a union. From the Great Railroad and Pullman Strikes of the 1800’s, to the Coal Strikes and Steel Strikes that followed to the Auto Workers Strike in Flint that changed America forever, the oppression that our fore-brothers and fore-sisters faced provided them with the resolve to make workers rights a movement.
And, now Mayor Bloomberg’s early oppression has also created a movement. The Occupy Wall Street protests have spread across the country to Washington, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami, Portland, Oregon, Seattle and Denver. On October 5, 2011 we saw more than 10,000 members of labor unions and regular Americans march in solidarity with the protesters at Zuccotti Park.
They marched because they understand the message and know it is time for Americans to demand economic equality. Now, is our time to seize this movement and work toward obtaining true economic equality and preserve the middle class!
While there is much work to do, remember to take the time to celebrate your families and have a safe, joyous and blessed holiday season!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
In solidarity,
