Our retirees fighting across nation

We have been sending retiree volunteers all year to states where public employees have been under attack after the last round of elections that had such severe consequences for organized labor and progressive government.

It was not just the swing of 61 seats in the House of Representatives but the elections of unfriendly governors and state legislators in states such as Wisconsin, Florida and Ohio. These elected officials continue to enact anti-labor legislation reversing a century of enlightened enfranchisement.

But the good news is that labor and its allies are fighting back. One Wisconsin labor leader said that this attack was akin to labor’s Pearl Harbor. It has awakened us.

To help in the fight, the American Federation of Teachers appealed to our UFT Retired Teachers Chapter to do what we do best: fight for a good cause. And 75 RTCers volunteered.

They stepped up to the plate in the snows of Wisconsin earlier this year and in the summer heat of Florida where they fought attempts to decertify teacher unions. Now they are in Ohio helping in the fight to repeal the bill that renders collective bargaining toothless.

In this and some future columns, I’d like to let some of those volunteers speak for themselves about their impressions and experiences. Here is an Oct. 18 email from John Franzese, who was in Wisconsin and is now helping out in Ohio.

Hi Tom!

I arrived yesterday in Cleveland and started working today at the WE ARE OHIO headquarters located in a union building.

We were ushered into a room and briefed on what we were going to do.

The first part of our work for today was manning the phone banks.

I have to say that as a much smaller local than the UFT they had something that was really awesome.

We used computers that dialed the numbers, and the people’s names and a letter of what to say came up on the screen. The computer program also kept track of the caller’s opinions and recorded all information.

The only thing that I did was talk.

After making phone calls for two hours it was time to hit the streets.

We were partnered with other AFT members. My partner, Michael Turner, came from Santa Barbara, Calif. We drove about 35 minutes outside of Cleveland and were able to go door-to-door for two blocks when the skies opened up and we were drenched.

Back to the union building for more phone calls.

Tomorrow we will go to the Cleveland Teachers Union Hall Local 279.

When talking to people on the phone, I found they are fed up with the governor and his cronies and really want Issue 2 (Senate Bill 5), which eliminates collective bargaining for public employees, to be voted down.

If it is voted down it will take some of the fire out of the governor, who wants to take away the rights of teachers, police officers, firefighters, nurses and health care workers. The SB 5 law that was passed and takes away the rights of our brothers and sisters to bargain collectively is wrong.

Union members are so happy to hear about others such as myself coming from far away to help out with their cause.

“Why would you come to help us?” a member asked.

“Because your fight is our fight!” I answered.

It’s gratifiying to do this work, and I am happy to once again serve our union.

The fight here is no different than when I went to Green Bay, Wis., in July. We are all in it TOGETHER!

In Solidarity,
John L. Franzese