Received this via email today and wanted to pass it along via my blog. As someone who writes mostly about LGBT issues, you might wonder how collective bargaining and LGBT rights are connected. Here are a few points:
- Collective Bargaining is a method by which individuals, who don’t have an adequate voice as individuals, join together so that as a group, their voice may be heard and their needs understood and met. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and Trans persons ought to understand that need to have a collective voice. Any attack by a conservative-led government to limit the voice of some will impact the voice of all, especially other marginalized groups or disempowered individuals. We have to stick together and support each other or we will all lose in the end.
- While it might seem logical for Big Business to support LGBT rights and issues, the reality is that too often pro- big business/corporation politicians are also anti-LGBT Rights politicians. If we allow them to gain power by taking out Unions and the voices of workers, it will be our voices next.
- Non-discrimination in the workplace is a worker issue, and belongs as part of a collective bargaining dialogue. Some in the LGBT community see union workers as not progressive, but in reality, Unions are big supporters of our issues. Let’s give the same level of support to them.
For Immediate Release
Contact: Marty Marks, 412.352.0317; Justin Krebs, 732-801-5705
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING: WHAT’S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT?
AFL-CIO and Laughing Liberally launch webisodes and website on collective bargaining
“It’s About Having a Voice”
On Friday, June 17, the AFL-CIO and Laughing Liberally will team up to release a series of webisodes that answer the question: “What does collective bargaining actually mean?”
Although politicians in Wisconsin, Ohio and New Hampshire and some Pennsylvania state legislators have aggressively worked to destroy the collective bargaining rights of working families, many voters still don’t understand what collective bargaining actually means or why anti-working families’ interests and corporate CEOs and there bought-and-paid-for politicians are so keen on ending it.
That’s why the AFL-CIO has joined forces with the progressive, comedic, activist group Laughing Liberally to create a series of webisodes that explain what collective bargaining is and why it’s so important that workers have a voice on the job.
“When workers in a company that recognizes collective bargaining rights negotiate for better wages and benefits, it raises the standards for all workers in the community – with or without unions,” said Bryon Shane, a Pittsburgh bus driver and member of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 85.
The videos debuted at Netroots Nation as part of a larger website that shows why the recent attacks against workers’ freedom to have a seat at the table are so detrimental.
“Although attacks on workers’ rights are not a laughing matter, in the age when Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert make more sense than the politicians they mock, using a little levity may prove a good way to get across a very important message about collective bargaining, especially to younger workers unfamiliar with the concept,” said Marty Marks, Pennsylvania spokesperson for the national AFL-CIO.
The website went live today, Friday, June 16, 2011. To check it out visit: www.collectivebargainingfacts.org