I’m in Ohio right now, where working
families just won an incredible victory.
Ohioans overwhelmingly voted to repeal Senate Bill 5—Gov. John
Kasich’s attack on middle-class jobs that was designed to destroy
collective bargaining rights in Ohio.
We pieced together a short, powerful video summing up the amazing
energy that went into this. I hope you’ll take a moment to watch:
Watch now.
Tonight’s victory represents a turning point in our collective
work to protect good jobs, working families and workplace rights.
But it’s more than that. It’s a long-overdue return to common sense.
From the very beginning of our jobs crisis, anti-worker politicians
like Ohio’s Gov. Kasich have used our poor economy to push a cynical
political agenda that favors the richest 1 percent at the expense of
the 99 percent. Today, Ohio voters rejected that agenda.
During this campaign, firefighters, nurses, teachers and other
public employees were joined by construction workers, bakery workers
and all kinds of private-sector workers. They came together to
ensure the survival of the middle class. And together, we’ll keep
doing it. Politicians who side with the richest 1 percent will find
their radical efforts stopped by working people who want America to
work for everyone.
Watch the energy and dedication that went into this huge
victory—and join us.
This is our moment, and we won with solidarity. We won
because the working people of Ohio—public and private sector, union
and nonunion—stood together.
But the solidarity went even further than that: Volunteers traveled
not just from neighboring Wisconsin—but from states as far away as
California and New York—to help get out the vote. And activists from
dozens of states as far away as Alaska gave up their nights and
weekends to call Ohio voters from home.
Solidarity means that when workers anywhere are under attack, we
will all do whatever we can to help. It means we’re in it together.
Watch our video. See what solidarity looks like.
I hope you’ll celebrate this moment in your own way. But the most
important thing is to find a way to keep your own energy going and
growing—so you can be a part of sustaining and growing our movement
for all working people—the 99 percent.
This fight we’ve taken on and won—and the threats we face going
forward—are about more than Democrats or Republicans, or 2012
battleground states. They are about good jobs and our right to a
voice on the job.
Together, we're building a new kind of politics. A politics
that works for the 99 percent, not just the 1 percent.
We’ve got to start getting ready now to win tomorrow’s victories.
Over time—together—we’ll build a future that works for working
America.
Thank you for being a part of this movement, and for all you do for
America’s workers.
In Solidarity,
Richard L. Trumka
President, AFL-CIO
P.S. America is waking up. Here’s one big reason we won in
Ohio—people can see that the firefighters, teachers, nurses and
snowplow drivers hurt by SB 5 didn’t cause our economic problems.
Wall Street did. Ohio voters saw through Senate Bill 5—they
understood it was a plan to make the 99 percent bear the burden of
Wall Street’s recklessness—and that it would do nothing to create
jobs.
Take a moment to watch the incredible energy that went into this
win.
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