Unions: August rally in Philly "no slap at" Dem Convention
Union leaders are planning a massive "Workers Stand For America" rally on Eakins Oval in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Aug. 11, where they will unveil a "2nd Bill of Rights." The idea is to get elected officials at the national, state and local level to sign on to the document. Then unions will tell their members which politicians signed up.
Unions: August rally in Philly "no slap at" Dem Convention
Chris Brennan
Union leaders are planning a massive "Workers Stand For America" rally on Eakins Oval in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Aug. 11, where they will unveil a "2nd Bill of Rights." The idea is to get elected officials at the national, state and local level to sign on to the document. Then unions will tell their members which politicians signed up.
Ed Hill, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, first spoke about the event in March after the winter meeting of the AFL-CIO. Then, like now, union leaders were furious that the Democratic National Convention will be held in union-unfriendly Charlotte, N.C.
Hill, who is boycotting the Charlotte convention, today claimed the Aug. 11 rally here was never meant to be "a slap at the Democratic National Convention. He spoke about the Philadelphia rally with Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Hill said union anger about Charlotte and plans for the Philly rally were both discussed at the AFL-CIO's meeting. But that doesn't mean they're related issues, he added.
"One didn't germinate the other one," Hill said. "When it came out, people put them together and said X led to Y. That’s simply not the case."
We first wrote about this back on April 25, the day after the primary election. It sure sounded then like the two events were related.
pathetic union sheep bahhhhh— Robert Longfellow- Where else would thug Trumka have his party? Goonions and Philthydelphia...perfect together.— MilesLong1
- All the union haters that have employer paid benefits, overtime pay and sick leave should volunteer to give it up to help their employers make a bigger profit. If you don't your just a hypocrite and a coward riding on the back of what unions fought for.— brian47
- Ya know... it ain't even any fun ragging on these people anymore. Just Sad.— sillybilly
- The union leadership who makes 1% income off of union dues will still recommend that their unions vote Dem. Nothing to see here please move along.— Timo3004
Comment removed.- this country is going to find out real soon what life without strong unions is like. we're headed for a re-enactment of the gilded age. serfdom here we come!
— Ryan - sounds like nirvana. can't wait
— barry m goldwater - My neighbor just had a non union guy replace a capacitor for his air conditioner only cost him $650. Those non union guys really save you $ and they work until they drop dead. God bless 'em!— GlennboWilson
- Working class? What exactly is that? Isn't anyone that works working class? Or are you using code words for Unions? And since less than 10% of the population is actually part of a union; what do you think this Labor Party will be all about? I can see the slogan now: The Labor Party - Raising the costs of everything we touch! Or how about this one "No one will work unless they are Union"!— SPENDSPEND
- sarah, you are very misinformed. Better get your facts straight before opening your mouth. Most retired union workers pay out of pocket for health insurance and live on fixed incomes with no cost of living increases. They are far from rich. Sorry you're so envious. Perhaps you should look for a union job.— SCZ
- Their savior Obamateur didn't lift a finger to help them recall Scott Walker, and yet these fools will still stay on the plantation and blindly back him anyway.— Only in Philly...
- Comment removed.
- While the LIBS and union leaders (part of the "rich") only focus on the CEOS.."rich", the TRUTH is most union workers retire in their 50s, get free health care for life, are mad because they don't get a pay RAISE while those of us who pay for them, the vast majority of middle class folks, work into our mid-60s, get yearly healthcare increases and have had pay CUTS!! Please explain why I should support that???— sarah89
- "The United States has essentially a one-party system and the ruling party is the business party." Noam Chomsky
It's time for those who support working class jobs to form our own party, the Labor Party. We have to stop relying on the Dems. Look at Nutter, Chris Doherty and Cuomo on the state and local levels and then look at Obama and Clinton with their outsourcing of American jobs, via trade pacts.— flyersfan89 - Chomsky notes seeing many positive elements in the commune-like living of the kibbutz, in which parents and children lived together in separate houses, and when asked whether there were "lessons that we have learned from the history of the kibbutz", responded,[30][31] that in "some respects, the kibbutzim came closer to the anarchist ideal than any other attempt that lasted for more than a very brief moment before destruction, or that was on anything like a similar scale. In these respects, I think they were extremely attractive and successful; apart from personal accident, I probably would have lived there myself – for how long, it's hard to guess."
Oh. now here's a guy that we should all follow? NOT - The hotel industry should set the hotel room rate at $900 per night for this week. Every hotel within 90 miles should be set at $900 per night. This will give these unions a taste of what they attempt to do each day to consumers & taxpayers. Heck, the hotels are only trying to earn a "living wage", right? $900 per room, per night. Take it or leave it. My guess, the unions would say they were getting screwed. Guess artifically inflated the cost of hotel rooms for a union convention is different than artifically inflating the cost of labor, right??? hahahaha...ridiculous.
In Philly, the unions are aHUGE reason why the convention biz is in the toilet and no organization would ever seriously consider Philly for their event. Hotels lose BIG TIME because fo this. Maybe a little payback is in order. $900 per night, per room. Hope & change, hope & change...forward. Hahahahaha....— kelprod2 - These people are so bent on forced unionization that they boycott their own convention, because it is not held in a forced-unionization state. Their own party has distanced themselves from the hardcore labor movement. That should tell you something.— MattPSU
- PSU. A University guy, eh? Hope you like working a minimum wage job. 'Cause that's all you're going to find if you don't support workers. — ChrisWZD
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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
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Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans. E-mail tips to ransomj@phillynews.com
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Sean Collins Walsh is from Bucks County and went to Northwestern University. He joined the Daily News copy desk in 2012 and now covers the Nutter administration. Before that, he interned at papers including The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News and The Seattle Times. E-mail tips to walshSE@phillynews.com
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