R.I. union leaders rally for workers in Wisconsin

[NewEngland4Obama]

PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island labor leaders are calling out the troops for a rally Tuesday to support Wisconsin’s embattled public employees in their battle with a new Republican governor trying to strip their bargaining rights.

It is a power struggle that one local labor leader — AFL-CIO president George Nee — is blaming on a national GOP attempt to crush organized labor.

“I think it is part of a national Republican strategy to break up the labor movement,” Nee said.

He said the reason is “pretty simple.” Recent data shows the majority of union members nationwide are in the public sector. They are “heavily involved” in politics, and “contribute a fair amount of money to the political process,” so “if you are running right-wing strategy, they are the enemy ... do what you can to take them out.”

The rally has been called for 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Rhode Island State House, as part of an effort by the national arm of American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees to spark “solidarity” rallies across the country for the workers in Wisconsin. By the end of the day Monday, a phalanx of other public employee unions in Rhode Island were summoning their own members to Smith Hill for the rally.

more

http://www.projo.com/news/content/rally_02-22-11_UAMKE41_v19.17882b2.html

[Little Star]

1. k&r

[corpseratemedia]

2. It's not 1980 or '84, there's no "morning in America," the republicans look like the brownshirts

they are with this unabashed class-war strategy and are thereby uniting normally conservative factions with liberal factions. When people see beyond political differences and see their common wage and class issues, did the republicans really want that outcome...lol