Tuesday, February 22, Annapolis, MD - At a rally in support of the Wisconsin Public Employee Union Workers, Maryland’s Secretary of State, John McDonough, challenged those who don’t think it’s possible to balance a state budget and provide collective bargaining rights to union workers. “Let them come to Maryland,” he said, to see how it should be done.
“There’s this idea that to be fiscally responsible, to balance a budget, to look out for the tax payers, that that’s somehow inconsistent with collective bargaining. If they believe that, let them come to Maryland, because in Maryland, we negotiate with dignity and respect. We don’t always agree. Sometimes it gets rather stressful, but we balance our budget. We have fiscal discipline, but we do it collectively as neighbors and friends together for a better state,” McDonough said, speaking on behalf of Governor Martin O’Malley.
About a dozen Maryland state officials and an estimated 100 union workers united in a rally to support the Wisconsin public employee union workers who have been demonstrating for the past week in an effort to protect their collective bargaining rights. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has vowed to eradicate the public sector union’s right to collectively bargain. Similar bills in the Ohio and Indiana legislatures also threaten collective bargaining rights for public employee unions in those states. The rally, named the “Enough is Enough” rally, was organized by the Association of Federal, State, County, and Municipal Employees union (AFSCME) and attended by the Maryland Education Association, building and trades and other unions, as well as, union supporters.
Workers Rights Are Human Rights
“People around the world are watching crowds of ordinary citizens in the Middle East,” announced Senator Jim Rosapepe (D, Prince George’s and Anne Arundel Counties), “And people around the world are watching crowds of ordinary citizens in Madison, Wisconsin. And what do they have in common? They are people struggling for universal human rights.”
Then, he began a chant that became the theme of the rally: “Workers’ rights are human rights!” The crowd joined in: “Workers’ Rights are human rights!”
“You have a million politicians behind me, eager to stand with you today,” Delegate Tom Hucker (D, Montgomery County) said, “Because we know what you know, what Scott Walker doesn’t know, that collective bargaining rights are a universal human right. They are recognized by the UN in the collective Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. This is the fight of the year here. This is the fight of the decade. We need to make sure that our rights are not rolled back in Maryland or Wisconsin or anywhere else in this country.”
“All free countries recognize the strength of unions,” Donna Edwards, Secretary-Treasurer of the Maryland State and District of Columbia AFL-CIO, declared, “When dictators come into countries, the first thing they do is abolish the unions and go after union leaders. We see that in country after country. We cannot let America become that kind of country.”
“It’s a civil rights issue,” Glen Middleton, executive director of AFSCME, announced, reminding the crowd that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at a sanitation workers’ rally in 1968 the day before he was assassinated: “Forty-three years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. died on behalf of AFSCME sanitation workers, so they could have the right to bargain.”
Delegate Sandy Rosenberg (D, Baltimore City) drew on the lessons of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in which 100 workers died 100 years ago. “That fire led to significant reforms, significant protections that were not at risk until now,” Rosenberg said.
Shouts from a counter-protest across the street could be heard during some of the speeches.
The Tea Party Perspective
Bill Oldfield, co-founder of the Annapolis Tea Party, who helped organize the counter-protest, explained why he was there. “We’d just like to communicate to the public, our elected officials, and to public sector employees that we’d like them to share in the same sacrifices that all of us private tax paying citizens have had to take and share in that with us. We’re showing solidarity with them. We know they do a good job. We know they work hard, but they have to understand that the tap is running dry. And we are all sacrificing. We can’t afford more taxes. None of us can and we don’t have defined benefit plans. We don’t have defined healthcare plans. We’re asking them to understand some parity,” Oldfield said.
Oldfield explained that his sacrifices are typical of his group. “I was laid off in February 2009. I had to start my own company. I’ve been doing it from my own savings account. No government assistance, no grants, no loans, no nothing. I’ve already asked for a bunch of them, but haven’t been giving any of them, so I said fine forget it. I’ve worked at night, unloading trucks, doing whatever I had to do to start a new sustainable consulting company, because basically the only jobs available to me were many, many miles away, huge commutes at much lower wages than I was receiving before. I said, well, I’m 48 years old and I don’t have a pension. All I have is what I saved up. I may as well just stick my neck out and go for it, because I have nothing to lose,” Oldfield said.
Oldfield estimated between 30 and 50 attendants at his counter-rally, but noted that not all were tea party members. “Most of us in the tea party, Oldfield said, “are entrepreneurs that one time used to work for a company that is no longer there. Now, I can’t fault large employers. I can’t argue with the government. I’m taking personal responsibility.”
Senator Richard Madaleno, Jr. (D, Montgomery County), who spoke at the rally, claimed that big business is exactly who private sector workers should be mad at. “In the private sector, they lost their jobs. They lost their union. They lost their pension. And what’s their reaction, not to get angry at big business, but to get angry at their brothers and sisters in the public sector and say, ‘I lost my pension, you lose your pension.’ Why are we at that point in our time?” Madaleno said.
“I really wish these people who want to blame unions would go back and look at why we are in these bad economic times. I think it has more to do with Wall Street and banks than it does with union workers. Nobody wants to say that out loud, but it’s the truth,” said Betty Weller, Vice-President of the Maryland State Education Association.
The Governor Calls for Unity
Secretary of State McDonough, however, insisted that Governor O’Malley is very much opposed to some ideas coming out of Wisconsin, particularly “this idea of dividing public employee versus private sector employee versus taxpayer, stating that “[this division] is anathema to the very principles that make up the United States of America” and that “All Americans are interested in the same things, a good education for their children, a good job, a good home, a good economy. This is as true for those who work in the private sector as it is for those in the public sector.”
Donna Edwards, Secretary-Treasurer of the Maryland State and D.C. AFL-CIO, reinforced this message of unity. “All unions have lifted up all workers. We have been working for workers for hundreds of years,” Edwards added, “We stand with all workers, not just union workers. We have lifted up the middle class in this country and now we are going to draw the line.”
Lt. Governor Anthony Brown insisted that anti-union thinking has no place in the state of Maryland. “We view all our unions,” Brown said, “as our partners in the difficult work that we’ve done in the last few years and that we still have left to be done.”
“We’ve had our disagreements,” Brown recalled, “We’ve asked our public employees to make sacrifices. Furloughs. We know those are tough decisions and forgoing COLAS and step increases. Those are painful decisions, but through thick and thin, we will always remember that we’re going to make progress together. We can sit down together at the table. We are not going to use a recession or a budget deficit as an excuse to eliminate collective bargaining in the state of Maryland.”
Del. Keith Haynes (D, Baltimore City) summed up the mood of the rally when he said, “Working together works!”
Beth Borzone - Beth Borzone, a professional educator since 1995, is a budding freelance writer. She currently teaches U.S. and Global History on the high ...
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