(The International Brotherhood of Teamsters issued the following on February 17, 2011.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rallies and protests are spreading like wildfire throughout the Midwest and beyond as American workers are finally standing up to the big corporations and their political stooges. It isn’t just union members who are fed up. It’s everyone who depends on a paycheck.
In Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, New Hampshire and Minnesota, people are flooding statehouses to say “no” to declining wages, “no” to economic instability that threatens their families, “no” to greedy CEOs and predatory corporations that try to suck every last penny from their wallets, “no” to the politicians who campaign for the middle class and then dance to the tune of the super-wealthy after they’re sworn in.
For decades, politicians have distracted Americans with cultural issues like guns and religion while they’ve done nothing to solve the real economic problems that are wrecking the middle class.
What they’re trying to do in Wisconsin and Ohio and New Hampshire and Michigan and Indiana and elsewhere is to silence unions. They know that unions make it harder for corporations to pass laws that weaken protections for middle-class families — protections like Social Security and pensions, food and product safety laws, collective bargaining rights and minimum wage requirements. Can you believe that in Missouri they want to get rid of child labor laws, and there’s a Tea Party U.S. Senator who agrees?
Now is the time to make your voice heard. Now is the time for the media elite to finally notice there’s something in America called “middle-class workers.” Now is the time to gather your family, grab a sign and take to the streets to deliver a message to the big corporations and their political puppets. Now is the time to tell them what they’re telling them in Wisconsin, “We’re not gonna take it anymore.”
Click here for a current list of upcoming Stop the War on Workers rallies.