Hello, my name is Andrew Rasmussen. I am a middle school teacher in Des Moines. I am a member of a public employees union…and I am not, as some would have it, a public enemy!
From Wisconsin, to Ohio, Indiana, and elsewhere, public employees and their unions have been cast as the problem in state budget crises. We are told that we are overpaid and have gold-plated benefits that are wrecking the states’ bank accounts. Well, I am here to tell you all not to believe the lies and distortions because contrary to what you may hear from the easily duped Tea Party crowd public employee unions are not the problem, they are one of the last groups holding back the complete corporate takeover of our country.
First, to dismiss the idea that I am a member of a privileged class in this state that is somehow wrecking the state budget. A study released just this week by the Iowa Policy Project shows that when you compare public sector workers with private sector workers of equal education and age, private sector workers are paid MORE than public sector workers. In fact, male public-sector workers earn nearly 12 percent less and female public-sector workers earn over 16 percent less than private-sector workers. This remains true even when you include our health insurance benefits in the equation. So you see we are a BARGAIN not a PROBLEM!
Iowa’s public employees teach and care for your children, provide you with police and fire protection, work to protect our environment, and try to ensure your health and safety and we do so at a price that is cheaper than equally qualified employees in the private sector. Talk about a bargain, a study reported in the Harvard Educational Review found "a statistically significant and positive relationship between state teacher unionization rates and student achievement." So why is our Governor and the Republican controlled Iowa House trying to pass a bill that would narrow our collective bargaining rights?
The simple answer is that they need to find money in their budgets for their corporate tax giveaways and other incentives for their rich friends. You see, they need funding to continue the class warfare that they have been waging for the last 30 years. That’s right class warfare is being waged right now in Iowa, but it’s a war of the richest 1% and corporations against the middle and working classes. And it is way past time that we start fighting back!
What evidence do I have that we are the victims of class warfare? A quick check of economic statistics will show you the carnage of this war. A huge share of the nation's economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household. The average income for the bottom 90 percent of us? $31,244. Sound like a war? Who’s winning? Since 1950, the corporate income tax has gone down while income and payroll taxes have gone up. Sound like a war? Who’s winning? Wall Street profits rose 720% from 2007 to 2009. Unemployment increased in that same period by 102% and Americans home equity has fallen by 37%. Sound like a war? Who’s winning? This hasn’t just happened by accident, this has been a concerted 30 year effort to take power and money away from the middle and working classes and send it up to that Top 1% that now own two-thirds of our country’s wealth.
But it is not just about the money. What is happening in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and now here in Iowa is a concerted effort to destroy democracy in the workplace by removing the rights of workers to come together and bargain at a table on equal terms with our employers. The enemies of the middle and working classes do not want to sit at that table with us as equals, they want to take that table and smash us over the heads with it.
Being able to form a union and bargain collectively is democracy in action and instead of needing less of it, this state and nation needs more of it. When unions are strong, EVERY worker benefits. Studies have shown that even non-union workers have better pay and benefits when unions have strength. You see, we aren’t just fighting for our own pay and benefits we are fighting for every worker in this state.
If you lose the last strong unions in this country it will free up corporations to completely take over our political system and finalize our transition from democracy to oligarchy. They have bought and paid for one political party and they have made inroads to purchasing the other one as well. Unions are the only contributors to political campaigns that can gather the kinds of funds that can compete with corporate wealth in a world where our Supreme Court in the Citizens United case has decided that corporations are now considered people with the right to spend money freely to influence elections. Democracy is already on life support and when our enemies rid this country of unions the plug will be pulled and we will all become spectators to a country run of, for, and by the moneyed class.
Well, I happen to love democracy and that is why I will fight for my brothers and sisters in Wisconsin, in Ohio, in Indiana, and anywhere else where the well-funded corporate puppets of the political class try to take away our rights! Those of us here today need to have the willingness to stand up like the working class people of Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio who are showing that people power can still combat corporate power. It is time to take to the streets and to the halls of power to save our middle and working classes chance to realize the American dream.
My name is Andrew and I am a proud public employee, not a public enemy. Stand with me for democracy, economic justice, and preserving the American dream!