CA Proposition 32:
A fraud to end all frauds against Unions
It was Lyndon Johnson who best understood that the key to political empowerment for the disenfranchised was to give them access to the electoral process. That's why he made passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 his top priority.
But it's doubtful he would think too kindly of a measure we might call the Rich Persons and Corporations Empowerment Act of 2012. During this election season, Californians undoubtedly will be hearing about it on TV and radio until their eardrums bleed. That's because it will be on the November ballot as Proposition 32, a wolf in sheep's clothing dressed up as the "Stop Special Interest Money Now Act."
In this state, we've come to expect ballot initiatives sponsored by business interests to be, essentially, frauds. But it's hard to conceive how one could be more fraudulent than Proposition 32. If there was any doubt left that the initiative process has been totally corrupted by big business and the wealthy, this should put it to rest for all time.
We'll start by examining what Proposition 32 purports to do.
On the grounds that "special interests have too much power over government," the measure bans direct contributions to California candidates by corporations and labor unions. It prohibits the collection of "political funds" from corporate employees and union members via payroll deduction, even if the employee or member voluntarily approves. (That's more stringent than the previous versions, which merely required that union members give written permission for political expenditures once a year.) Political funds include money spent for or against a candidate or ballot measure or for a party or political action committee, or PAC.
Sounds pretty good so far, doesn't it? "It looks temptingly like reform," says Trudy Schafer, program director for the League of Women Voters of California. "But it's not."
That's because Proposition 32 bristles with enormous loopholes tailor-made for businesses and their wealthy backers. To begin with, it exempts such common business structures as LLCs, partnerships and real estate trusts. If you're a venture investor, land developer or law firm, Proposition 32 doesn't lay a finger on you.
The drafters, who include conservative attorneys Thomas Hiltachk and Michael Capaldi, know full well that payroll deductions are how unions get almost all of their funds, and businesses get almost none of theirs.
The infusion of big money into politics has become a more important issue since the Supreme Court's infamous 2010 Citizens United decision awarding free speech rights to corporations, as though they are people. The decision liberated corporations to contribute to electoral campaigns virtually without limitation. That has turbocharged fundraising by so-called super PACs such as Karl Rove's conservative American Crossroads, the Mitt Romney-supporting Restore Our Future, and thePresident Obama-supporting Priorities USA.
The Proposition 32 campaign says the measure is carefully crafted to comply with Citizens United, but if that's so, it's just another sign of how flawed and deplorable the Supreme Court ruling was. At the moment, according to the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics, business outspends organized labor 15 to 1.
Today, no big business needs to mulct its employees for piddling weekly deductions for its PAC, when it can shovel out by the trainload any money it has collected via the sale of goods and services. Some corporations do take PAC contributions from employees by payroll deductions, but it's typically a tiny proportion, mostly concentrated among careerist midlevel executives and above.
"When corporations can just write a check from their general treasury, the idea that this is a meaningful restriction is ridiculous," says Richard L. Hasen, an election and campaign law expert at UC Irvine. The share of corporate political spending coming from employee payroll deductions "has got to be a drop in the bucket, and putting it in there is just a fig leaf."
What about the Proposition 32 campaign's claim that the measure is all about, and only about, reducing the power of "special interests"? In the interest of being fair and objective, we should be very careful about the word we select to describe this assertion. So let's keep things simple: It's a lie.
How can we know? We can start by examining the campaign's contributors. As it turns out, the claim that you need a big-money ballot campaign to wipe out the influence of special interests carries its own contradiction, in the same way a skunk packs its own stench.
Among the very top contributors to the campaign, according to public filings, are A. Jerrold Perenchio ($250,000), Thomas Siebel ($500,000), B. Wayne Hughes ($200,000) and Charles Munger Jr. ($992,000).
Perenchio, a billionaire Hollywood mogul, was the second-largest individual political donor in California from 2001 to 2011, with $16.9 million in contributions mostly to Republican and conservative interests, according to a compilation by the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting. He's contributed $2 million to American Crossroads and $500,000 to Restore Our Future.
Siebel is a Silicon Valley billionaire perhaps best known in California political circles for his introduction of Sarah Palin, then the newly minted GOP vice presidential candidate, at a 2008 rally as "the embodiment of pure, unadulterated good," the San Francisco Chronicle reported. In 2010 he donated $250,000 to American Crossroads.
The Kentucky-based Hughes is the patriarch of the Public Storage empire. His donations to American Crossroads: $3.5 million, making him one of its top donors in 2010. He's given nearly $2.3 million to California political entities in the 2001-11 period, exclusively Republican.
Munger is a physicist who was the third-largest individual political contributor in California in 2001-11, with $14.1 million in contributions, mostly to GOP interests. His father, Charles Sr., has long beenWarren Buffett's investment partner.
Whatever you might think about these individuals' political viewpoints, some things are crystal-clear:They're the special interests. They're the fount of the cash that, according to the Prop. 32 pitch, constitutes "the most corrupting influence in politics."
And most important of all: They're conveniently exempt from Proposition 32.
It doesn't matter that their wealth comes from corporations that would be barred from funneling money directly to candidates — Hughes from Public Storage, Siebel from Siebel Systems and Oracle, Perenchio from Univision. Their individual bank accounts remain unfettered.
If you've been wondering why people whose fortunes come from business would invest so much money to enact a measure that purports to limit the political influence of business, now you know.
Proposition 32 isn't designed to stop the flow of cash into California politics; it's designed to cede California politics totally to characters like this. Any of them could get anything he wants from Sacramento. Could you?
Another fact the Prop. 32 cabal doesn't want you to know is that donations to candidates and parties — the contributions most directly covered by the measure — constitute a tiny portion of corporate political spending in California. Power really resides in the initiative process, and that's where businesses put the big bucks.
Over the last two years, for example, the tobacco company Altria (formerly Philip Morris) has donated $33.5 million to California political campaigns. Less than $700,000 went to candidates or parties. Much of the spending went to defeat Proposition 29, this spring's tobacco tax initiative.
Then there's Pacific Gas & Electric Co. In 2009-10, PG&E spent $53.5 million on politics in California. Less than $600,000 went to candidates. Most of the rest financed the utility's majestically dishonest ballot initiative to kill public power programs.
Because under Proposition 32 such spending could be financed out of money that business and wealthy individuals — but not unions — can access, the measure would tilt the initiative playground even further in business' favor.
The treatment of unions and corporations as though they're equivalent political players is an ideological fantasy. Unions are organizations whose members have democratic rights to vote on their leaders and their policies, political or otherwise. (Nonmembers represented by unions in collective bargaining already have the right to withhold dues attributable to strictly political activities.) Corporation owners, or shareholders, don't have democratic rights unless they hold controlling stakes.
When a union engages in politics, you know it's generally reflecting the interest of its members. When a corporation does, whose interest is it reflecting? Could be a few dozen people, one huge shareholder, or a CEO and his cronies on the board.
Moreover, as the labor expert Joseph Rauh observed decades ago, giving a political voice to an increasingly disenfranchised working class is fundamental to the role of organized labor. The fate of bills "affecting working men and their unions," he wrote, "may be of as great importance to union members as the collective bargaining process itself."
The message the perpetrators of Proposition 32 are sending to you, the California voter, is that they think you're stupid. Really, really stupid.
When you go to the voting booth or fill out your mail ballot this November, stop for a moment and ponder this question: Should I hand over my vote to people who think of me that way?
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20120819,0,5536069,full.column
Michael Hiltzik's column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Reach him at mhiltzik@latimes.com, read past columns at latimes.com/hiltzik, check out facebook.com/hiltzik
Monday, August 20, 2012
Thursday, August 16, 2012
SF Council Votes for New Postal Bank Idea
Resolution to Investigate the Establishment of a new
http://sflaborcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/08-06-12Res2InvestigateEstbOfPostalBankingSystem.pdf
Whereas, expanding postal services and developing new sources of revenue are important
components of any effort to save the public Post Office and preserve living-wage jobs; and
Whereas, many countries, including Germany, France, Italy and Japan, have a long and
successful history of postal banking, where customers do their basic banking at their
neighborhood post office; and
Whereas, in the U.S. a Postal Savings system operated successfully from 1911 to 1967,
providing a safe and efficient place for customers to save and transfer funds – until it was
killed under pressure from the banking industry. Postal Savings was set up to attract the
savings of immigrants accustomed to saving at post offices in their native countries, provide
safe depositories for people who had lost confidence in private banks, and make it more convenient for working people than private banks (since post offices were open substantially longer than bankers’ hours); and
Whereas, postal banks, called Kiwibanks, are now thriving in New Zealand, with bank branches called PostShops in local post offices – “putting us in more locations than any other bank in New Zealand literally overnight (without wasting millions on new premises!)” [Kiwibank website] In an early “move your money” campaign, New Zealanders voted with their feet. In an island nation of only 4 million, Kiwibank attracted 500,000 customers away from the Australian big banks in just four years; and
Whereas, the giant banks that dominate the U.S. financial and political system are corrupt institutions that defrauded homeowners in the mortgage scandal, and engaged in complex multi-Billion dollar hijinks that brought on the 2007-09 financial crisis. The American working people have lost faith in these banks as a trustworthy place to put their hard-earned money; and
Whereas, a USPS bank would offer a “public option” for banking, providing basic checking and savings – and no complex financial wheeling and dealing. Postal banks could serve the 9 million people who don’t have a bank account and 21 million who use usurious check cashers, giving low-income people access to a safe banking system; and
Whereas, the Post Office is uniquely positioned, with a lot of branches around the country and an already successful business in money orders. It is a trusted and venerable institution older than the Constitution, at a time when people do not have much trust in banks. It is funded not with taxes but with postage stamps, which buy the labor and machines to transport your letter 3000 miles. It is the only U.S. agency that serves all its customers six days a week. And it is perhaps the last form of communication that protects privacy, since tampering with the mail is against federal law; and
Whereas, the Post Office should be saved and it can be saved. A Postal Bank, combining teller services with postal services, could help achieve this, while at the same time offering a competitive alternative to a runaway Wall Street banking monopoly that Congress seems unable to control; and
Whereas, the 2012 National Convention of the National Association of Letter Carriers unanimously adopted an almost identical resolution, calling for the postal unions to investigate the establishment of a Postal Banking System in the U.S.
Therefore be it resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council urges Congress and the Executive Branch to investigate the possibility of the establishment of a public Postal Banking System in the U.S. – drawing on the rich experience of successful postal banking in Germany, France, Italy, Japan and New Zealand – and using our unprecedented network of post offices to provide safe basic checking and savings to our hundreds of millions of postal customers; and
Be it finally resolved, that we forward this resolution to affiliate unions, area labor councils,
Calif. Labor Federation, AFL-CIO and Change to Win Federation, for concurrence and action.
Submitted by Lili Beaumont, NALC 214, and adopted by the Executive Committee of the San
Francisco Labor Council on August 6, 2012.
Respectfully,
Tim Paulson
Executive Director
OPEIU3 AFL
Postal Banking System
http://sflaborcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/08-06-12Res2InvestigateEstbOfPostalBankingSystem.pdf
Whereas, expanding postal services and developing new sources of revenue are important
components of any effort to save the public Post Office and preserve living-wage jobs; and
Whereas, many countries, including Germany, France, Italy and Japan, have a long and
successful history of postal banking, where customers do their basic banking at their
neighborhood post office; and
Whereas, in the U.S. a Postal Savings system operated successfully from 1911 to 1967,
providing a safe and efficient place for customers to save and transfer funds – until it was
killed under pressure from the banking industry. Postal Savings was set up to attract the
savings of immigrants accustomed to saving at post offices in their native countries, provide
safe depositories for people who had lost confidence in private banks, and make it more convenient for working people than private banks (since post offices were open substantially longer than bankers’ hours); and
Whereas, postal banks, called Kiwibanks, are now thriving in New Zealand, with bank branches called PostShops in local post offices – “putting us in more locations than any other bank in New Zealand literally overnight (without wasting millions on new premises!)” [Kiwibank website] In an early “move your money” campaign, New Zealanders voted with their feet. In an island nation of only 4 million, Kiwibank attracted 500,000 customers away from the Australian big banks in just four years; and
Whereas, the giant banks that dominate the U.S. financial and political system are corrupt institutions that defrauded homeowners in the mortgage scandal, and engaged in complex multi-Billion dollar hijinks that brought on the 2007-09 financial crisis. The American working people have lost faith in these banks as a trustworthy place to put their hard-earned money; and
Whereas, a USPS bank would offer a “public option” for banking, providing basic checking and savings – and no complex financial wheeling and dealing. Postal banks could serve the 9 million people who don’t have a bank account and 21 million who use usurious check cashers, giving low-income people access to a safe banking system; and
Whereas, the Post Office is uniquely positioned, with a lot of branches around the country and an already successful business in money orders. It is a trusted and venerable institution older than the Constitution, at a time when people do not have much trust in banks. It is funded not with taxes but with postage stamps, which buy the labor and machines to transport your letter 3000 miles. It is the only U.S. agency that serves all its customers six days a week. And it is perhaps the last form of communication that protects privacy, since tampering with the mail is against federal law; and
Whereas, the Post Office should be saved and it can be saved. A Postal Bank, combining teller services with postal services, could help achieve this, while at the same time offering a competitive alternative to a runaway Wall Street banking monopoly that Congress seems unable to control; and
Whereas, the 2012 National Convention of the National Association of Letter Carriers unanimously adopted an almost identical resolution, calling for the postal unions to investigate the establishment of a Postal Banking System in the U.S.
Therefore be it resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council urges Congress and the Executive Branch to investigate the possibility of the establishment of a public Postal Banking System in the U.S. – drawing on the rich experience of successful postal banking in Germany, France, Italy, Japan and New Zealand – and using our unprecedented network of post offices to provide safe basic checking and savings to our hundreds of millions of postal customers; and
Be it finally resolved, that we forward this resolution to affiliate unions, area labor councils,
Calif. Labor Federation, AFL-CIO and Change to Win Federation, for concurrence and action.
Submitted by Lili Beaumont, NALC 214, and adopted by the Executive Committee of the San
Francisco Labor Council on August 6, 2012.
Respectfully,
Tim Paulson
Executive Director
OPEIU3 AFL
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Farm Workers Need Help
ACE TOMATO WORKERS NEAR CONTRACT
After two decades, Ace Tomato workers are so close to getting their contract.
Tell the ALRB to implement the contract now by joining the virtual picket line.
Workers at Ace Tomato are tired of waiting. They are tired of dirty bathrooms, the lack of fresh water and decades of low pay. You might ask, why don't they vote for a union? They did--back in 1989! But, more than two decades later they still are waiting for their contract. And the Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB), California's legal agency charged with protecting the workers, did nothing but shuffle paperwork.
The UFW fought for and passed a law in California requiring employers to negotiate in good faith or face mandatory mediation. The way this works is a mediator speaks to both sides and neutrally sifts through both sides' documents and recommendations and at the end submits a report of terms to the ALRB which is essentially a contract. Both sides have the right to review this report and object. Then the ALRB either agrees with the objections to the report or rejects them. If they reject the objections, the report becomes a contract that both sides must legally abide by.
After several months of discussion, the mediator submitted his report to the ALRB on June 28. As expected, the company objected, but on July 25 the ALRB ruled against the company and ordered Ace Tomato to implement the final mediator's report as the contract.
It appears the company instead decided to follow their normal delaying tactics that have worked so well. They ignored the Board order!
When we heard the wage increases and other improvements were not happening, we asked the ALRB to go to court to force the company to follow the law and implement the contract the workers have been waiting more than 20 years for.
The ALRB could have and should have immediately gone to court when the company thumbed their nose at the law. Instead they sent the company a letter saying they would give them until 5 pm today, Tuesday, August 7th, to respond to the UFW’s request.
The workers are furious that the ALRB is again opening the door to the company's delaying tactics. Workers know from experience that given an inch, this company can keep up the delaying tactics for years.
Ace Tomato workers will travel to Sacramento tomorrow and hold a picket line in front of the ALRB's office demanding that the ALRB get a court order to tell the company to immediately comply with the law. Won't you join Ace Tomato workers and picket virtually by taking action and e-mailing the ALRB today?
http://action.ufw.org/ace
After you take action please share this campaign with your friends and family. You can send them an e-mail, post this campaign on your Facebook and/or Twitter page by clicking here or going to http://action.ufw.org/page/share/ace
Check out our website at: www.ufw.org and keep up with the latest news.
Check out the UFW's Social Networking pages. Click to visit our Facebook Fan Page, Facebook Cause, YouTube, Flickr, MySpace,and Care2 pages. Please link to us and become our "Friend" and follow us on Twitter too!
If you want to receive our alerts at a different e-mail address, send an e-mail to ufwofamer@aol.com
Please add us to your safelist: Please add ufwofamer@aol.com to your address book so that our messages don’t get trapped in your spam filter. If you have questions about how to do this, drop us an e-mail.
This email was sent to ruthhstraussmd@earthlink.net.
United Farm Workers, P.O. Box 62, Keene, CA 93531, http://www.ufw.org
After two decades, Ace Tomato workers are so close to getting their contract.
Tell the ALRB to implement the contract now by joining the virtual picket line.
Workers at Ace Tomato are tired of waiting. They are tired of dirty bathrooms, the lack of fresh water and decades of low pay. You might ask, why don't they vote for a union? They did--back in 1989! But, more than two decades later they still are waiting for their contract. And the Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB), California's legal agency charged with protecting the workers, did nothing but shuffle paperwork.
The UFW fought for and passed a law in California requiring employers to negotiate in good faith or face mandatory mediation. The way this works is a mediator speaks to both sides and neutrally sifts through both sides' documents and recommendations and at the end submits a report of terms to the ALRB which is essentially a contract. Both sides have the right to review this report and object. Then the ALRB either agrees with the objections to the report or rejects them. If they reject the objections, the report becomes a contract that both sides must legally abide by.
After several months of discussion, the mediator submitted his report to the ALRB on June 28. As expected, the company objected, but on July 25 the ALRB ruled against the company and ordered Ace Tomato to implement the final mediator's report as the contract.
It appears the company instead decided to follow their normal delaying tactics that have worked so well. They ignored the Board order!
When we heard the wage increases and other improvements were not happening, we asked the ALRB to go to court to force the company to follow the law and implement the contract the workers have been waiting more than 20 years for.
The ALRB could have and should have immediately gone to court when the company thumbed their nose at the law. Instead they sent the company a letter saying they would give them until 5 pm today, Tuesday, August 7th, to respond to the UFW’s request.
The workers are furious that the ALRB is again opening the door to the company's delaying tactics. Workers know from experience that given an inch, this company can keep up the delaying tactics for years.
Ace Tomato workers will travel to Sacramento tomorrow and hold a picket line in front of the ALRB's office demanding that the ALRB get a court order to tell the company to immediately comply with the law. Won't you join Ace Tomato workers and picket virtually by taking action and e-mailing the ALRB today?
http://action.ufw.org/ace
After you take action please share this campaign with your friends and family. You can send them an e-mail, post this campaign on your Facebook and/or Twitter page by clicking here or going to http://action.ufw.org/page/share/ace
Check out our website at: www.ufw.org and keep up with the latest news.
Check out the UFW's Social Networking pages. Click to visit our Facebook Fan Page, Facebook Cause, YouTube, Flickr, MySpace,and Care2 pages. Please link to us and become our "Friend" and follow us on Twitter too!
If you want to receive our alerts at a different e-mail address, send an e-mail to ufwofamer@aol.com
Please add us to your safelist: Please add ufwofamer@aol.com to your address book so that our messages don’t get trapped in your spam filter. If you have questions about how to do this, drop us an e-mail.
This email was sent to ruthhstraussmd@earthlink.net.
United Farm Workers, P.O. Box 62, Keene, CA 93531, http://www.ufw.org
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Phone and Mail Unions Unite in Action
CWA Stands Up to Verizon on August 11
Rally in Philadelphia.
Tens of thousands of workers will unite next week in Philadelphia -- the birthplace of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights -- to demand economic freedom and opportunity for all.
CWA and IBEW workers will be kicking off the activities with a rally at Verizon’s office. Meet promptly at 9:45 a.m. at 900 Race Street.
We will then march to Eakins Oval, in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where we will join more than 30,000 people from all over the country to stand up for the middle class and urge all Americans -- especially elected officials -- to stand with us.
It's time for everyone to stand up and be counted.
Photo of CWA President Larry Cohen:
CWA Supports a Public Postal Service
CWA stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the National Association of Letter Carriers in its battle to save the US Postal Service, CWA President Larry Cohen said last week at the biennial NALC convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Photo of CWA President Larry Cohen addressing the biennial NALC convention in Minneapolis.
“We will fight back, and we will be there together with you in that fight to save a public Postal Service as if it’s our own fight—because it is our own fight,” he said, according to the convention newspaper.
Addressing more than 8,000 Union members, Cohen said CWA’s fight against corporate greed at Verizon is not unlike letter carriers’ struggle against the Postal Service. “We get management, whether the Postal Service or Verizon, that wants to shrink us, to keep us in a box, until they can shut us down and throw us out,” he said.
He encouraged delegates to continue advocating for workers’ rights.
“When you cut our pay, we say no. When you cut our health care, we say no. When you destroy our retirement, we say no,” he said. “We stand up, we fight back.”
Over 1,000 Letter Carriers Protest Verizon Greedy in Show of Unity
Photo of Letter carriers (mail men and women) protest VeriGreedy in Minneapolis.
More than 1,000 members of the National Association of Letter Carriers last Thursday demonstrated outside a Verizon Wireless store in downtown Minneapolis in support of CWA’s yearlong fight for a fair contract. (Solidarity-ed)
CWA President Larry Cohen had addressed the delegates to the biennial convention earlier in the day, pledging CWA’s support in the battle to save the Postal Service. And in return, letter carriers poured in the street to rally against Verizon’s corporate greed.
“His remarks got the troops fired up,” said Pam Donato, who leads the NALC’s coalition-building and community services work. “We thought that maybe 200 people would show up, but when it came time to rally, I think we topped 1,000. It was massive.”
She added, “It was like breaking bread with family. It’s really a special occasion to rally with another group of workers, to support each other physically, putting to life what you do a lot of times with paper, pen and keyboard.”
Rally in Philadelphia.
Tens of thousands of workers will unite next week in Philadelphia -- the birthplace of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights -- to demand economic freedom and opportunity for all.
CWA and IBEW workers will be kicking off the activities with a rally at Verizon’s office. Meet promptly at 9:45 a.m. at 900 Race Street.
We will then march to Eakins Oval, in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where we will join more than 30,000 people from all over the country to stand up for the middle class and urge all Americans -- especially elected officials -- to stand with us.
It's time for everyone to stand up and be counted.
Photo of CWA President Larry Cohen:
CWA Supports a Public Postal Service
CWA stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the National Association of Letter Carriers in its battle to save the US Postal Service, CWA President Larry Cohen said last week at the biennial NALC convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Photo of CWA President Larry Cohen addressing the biennial NALC convention in Minneapolis.
“We will fight back, and we will be there together with you in that fight to save a public Postal Service as if it’s our own fight—because it is our own fight,” he said, according to the convention newspaper.
Addressing more than 8,000 Union members, Cohen said CWA’s fight against corporate greed at Verizon is not unlike letter carriers’ struggle against the Postal Service. “We get management, whether the Postal Service or Verizon, that wants to shrink us, to keep us in a box, until they can shut us down and throw us out,” he said.
He encouraged delegates to continue advocating for workers’ rights.
“When you cut our pay, we say no. When you cut our health care, we say no. When you destroy our retirement, we say no,” he said. “We stand up, we fight back.”
Over 1,000 Letter Carriers Protest Verizon Greedy in Show of Unity
Photo of Letter carriers (mail men and women) protest VeriGreedy in Minneapolis.
More than 1,000 members of the National Association of Letter Carriers last Thursday demonstrated outside a Verizon Wireless store in downtown Minneapolis in support of CWA’s yearlong fight for a fair contract. (Solidarity-ed)
CWA President Larry Cohen had addressed the delegates to the biennial convention earlier in the day, pledging CWA’s support in the battle to save the Postal Service. And in return, letter carriers poured in the street to rally against Verizon’s corporate greed.
“His remarks got the troops fired up,” said Pam Donato, who leads the NALC’s coalition-building and community services work. “We thought that maybe 200 people would show up, but when it came time to rally, I think we topped 1,000. It was massive.”
She added, “It was like breaking bread with family. It’s really a special occasion to rally with another group of workers, to support each other physically, putting to life what you do a lot of times with paper, pen and keyboard.”
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