TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2009
AFL-CIO's John Sweeney: Thank you

Retiring AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has sent the following e-mail message to union members and supporters on the Working Families e-Activist Network, which includes those on the Washington State Labor Council's e-mail list. (If you don't receive e-mails from the WSLC, get on the list!)

Watch President Sweeney's Speech Online President Sweeney's inspirational speech to the AFL-CIO Convention is posted here, where you can also send President Sweeney a personal note. The AFL-CIO is broadcasting the convention live. Watch it here.      Dear Working Families e-Activist Network, At the opening session of the 2009 AFL-CIO Convention in Pittsburgh, I had the opportunity to thank my family, staff and labor leaders from across the country and around the world for their commitment, personal sacrifice and hard work during the past 14 years. Today, I want to thank you. I've loved our labor movement all my life. There is no greater honor than the opportunity to serve working people. It has been an amazing 14 years, and together we transformed the debate over globalization and helped redefine the global labor movement as a champion of workers' rights. We called the hand of the greedy corporations that sent our jobs overseas, scammed our mortgage markets and nearly destroyed our economy. We brought health care and labor law reform to the top of our national agenda. We seated a pro-working-family majority in the United States Congress. We elected a champion of working families as the first African American president in the history of our country. We changed the direction of our country, and we should be just as proud of how we changed our movement. We built the strongest grassroots political operation in our country and brought hundreds of thousands of union volunteers into the fight to protect the dreams we share. We knew we were faced with building a movement on changing ground, and we reached out to organizations and workers outside our walls. At the opening of our 2009 convention, I'm filled with optimism. We've helped create one of those rare moments when history invites dramatic improvement in the human condition. But the excitement over our possibilities is tempered by the realities of our times. We're seeing glimmers of an economic recovery, yet nearly 20 million of our brothers and sisters are still without work. The poor and the out-of-work are no longer invisible or abstract figures—they're our friends and neighbors, our mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters. We're on the cusp of the greatest advance in labor law reform in 70 years, but we're taking heavy fire from the corporate captains of deceit. We're closer than ever to winning our long struggle for universal health care, but our success has kindled a firestorm of meanness stoked by politicians playing on fear, racism, nativism and greed. Every one of our achievements represents unfinished business—and the tasks we're challenged with are daunting. But if there is one thing we've learned over the past 14 years, it is this: Miracles present themselves on the shoulders of commitment, unity and action. At the center of these is unity—the solidarity that flows through the marrow of our movement. For us, solidarity is more than just a strategy, it's a way of life. We believe in helping each other. We care about our brothers and sisters. Solidarity is what gives workers the collective courage to form a union, to fight back against a greedy employer. Solidarity is what compelled thousands of first responders and construction workers to risk their lives at Ground Zero eight years ago last Friday. Solidarity is what saved 155 airline passengers who could have drowned in the icy waters of the Hudson River. Solidarity is what compels a firefighter to dive into an inferno to save a stranger, a teacher to refuse to give up on a child or back off from a battle with a school board. Now it is up to you to bring even more solidarity, revive our economy and make it work for everyone. We will pass the Employee Free Choice Act and help millions of America's workers lift their lives and realize their aspirations. We will guarantee every family in America health care when they need it. And we will be true to our enduring mission of improving the lives of working families, bringing fairness and dignity to our workplaces and securing economic and social equity in our nation. That's our mission, that's our job—let's get at it. John J. Sweeney AFL-CIO President Labor Warrior At-Large

 

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2009
"Stop Scaring Seniors" protest today in Seattle

A group of senior citizens from the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans plans a "Stop Scaring Seniors Protest" today at 11 a.m. at Fisher Pavilion, home of KVI Radio (4th Ave and Denny Way in downtown Seattle) to demonstrate that seniors aren’t scared, they are angry about right-wing radio’s manipulation of elder Americans’ emotions.

Seniors from across the Puget Sound who are disgusted with right-wing campaign scare tactics to frighten older Americans and derail health insurance reform plan to picket in front of the Fisher Pavilion and call on the radio station to quit spreading the myths of "death panels."

"Shame on the con artists who spew out lies about 'death panels' to frighten older Americans and sidetrack the health care reform the nation needs," writes Will Parry, editor of the PSARA newsletter The Retiree Advocate.

At today's protest, seniors will carry picket signs to remind KVI that under President Obama’s reform efforts:

• Medicare will be stronger, not weaker.

• There will be no co-pays for preventive care.

• The proposed House bill gradually eliminates the prescription drug "donut hole"

• It will penalize hospitals that have a pattern of discharging patients prematurely

• It will provide insurance reforms that will curb profiteering at the expense of the sick.

“Right wing conservative radio hosts are using outright lies to scare seniors into believing that heath insurance reform will hurt them,” said Maureen Bo of the PSARA. "KVI’s Kirby Wilbur and Sean Hannity are prime examples. These two and all the conservative right-wing talk show hosts should act responsibly and stop the lies and scare tactics."

The Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans is an affiliate of the national Alliance for Retired Americans, an activist senior organization of some three and one half million members. Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans advocates to protect and expand Social Security and Medicare. The PSARA also actively supports universal health care including quality long term care and universal, affordable prescription drugs under Medicare.

^{Copyright © 2009 --  Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO}