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California workers protest cuts
By
J. Marquardt
San Francisco
Published Apr 14, 2005 9:57 PM
Leon Chow of the Healthcare Workers Union.
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Several thousand labor
union workers, retirees, their families and friends stopped traffic for two
hours on the streets surrounding the fancy Ritz-Carlton Hotel here on the
evening of April 5. They rallied and picketed against Gov. Arnold Schwar
zenegger and his wealthy supporters, who were dining inside the hotel. Speaker
after speaker denounced Schwarz enegger’s plans to slash education
funding; reduce pension, disability and death benefits to public employees; cut
nursing staffs; and weaken state labor regulations.
The protest was
organized by both state and local unions, including AFSCME Dis trict Council 57;
California State Employ ees Unions SEIU Local 1000; California Nurses
Association; California Teachers Association; Service Employees Interna tional
Union; and United Trans portation Union Local 1741, School Bus
Drivers.
The lively crowd held signs in Chinese, English and Spanish,
saying: “Nurses heal—Arnold wheels & deals,” “Arnold
can’t be bought—Big Business already owns him,” and
“Students —OUR ‘special interest.’”
Speaker
after speaker denoun ced the “governator’s” plans. A speaker
from the California Labor Council expressed the sentiments of the crowd:
“The cuts are for only one thing—to go after workers. We must fight
and keep it in the streets on behalf of the real heroes—the
workers!”
The protest had an impact. Within two days Schwarzenegger
started withdrawing some of his outrageous proposals. Feeling the heat from
firefighters across the state, he dropped his plans to reduce their disability
and death benefits. With labor picketing every public appearance Schwar zenegger
makes, more victories are sure to follow.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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