Over 500 Chicago Teachers Union members came together with their sisters and brothers from the Illinois Federation of Teachers and hotel workers supporting UNITE-HERE to picket Hyatt Hotel and then march to Daley Plaza where up to 10,000 union members rallied in support of union rights. Educators joined hotel workers hoping to unionize Hyatt Hotels, which are owned by the same Pritzker family that has funded anti-teacher groups like Stand for Children.
Kunckle Up!! - We Are One Rally -McNary 4-9-11
William McNary is the Co-Director of Citizen Action/Illinois and the president of USAction, the largest national coalition of progressive organizations. Speaking at We Are One rally Chicago Illinois Apr. 4, 2011
“Today, the people of Illinois are speaking out with one voice against the assault on the middle class underway in Wisconsin and many other states,” said Jorge Ramirez, president of the .eChicago Federation of Labor. ‘We won’t let those attacks on collective bargaining and retirement security happen here. Across Illinois, working people, their families and communities are joining together to defend the American dream against an assault by powerful corporate and political interests.”
Today’s event included a program of speeches and entertainment in Daley as well as a number of marches that converged on Daley Plaza. Speakers included community leaders, a student, and union members and leaders from Wisconsin and Illinois (see attached for complete list).
The Chicago rally is the largest of more than a dozen such ‘We Are One” events held throughout Illinois this week, including in Bloomington, Carbondale, Champaign, Collinsville, Decatur, Gurnee, Kankakee, Ottawa, Peoria, Rock Island, Rockford and Springfield. They are part of the national ‘We Are One” campaign by the AFL-CIO and allied groups.
Jen Johnson a history teacher at Lincoln Park High School and a member of the Chicago Teachers Union. She is a union activist and school leader, dedicated to her colleagues and knows that her teachers’ contract protects students’ education rights.
Among the crowd were hundreds of hotel housekeepers and teachers from across the state who had rallied outside the Hyatt Regency Chicago earlier in the day. They were protesting the billionaire Pritzker family, which owns the Hyatt hotel chain.
Fat-cats strangling the workers
Police estimated a crowd between 5,000 and 6,000 people at Daley Plaza. But organizers say as many as 10,000 people from across the state attended.
Crowd Footage from CBS 2 News Chicago
Union workers claim the Pritzker family has been trying to take away the collective bargaining rights of workers at its hotels and has supported proposed legislation to weaken teachers’ unions in Illinois.
Crowd Footage from NBC 5 News Chicago
View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.
The rally at Daley Plaza was one of more than a dozen “We Are One” events that have been held this week across the state, in cities such as Bloomington, Peoria, Champaign and Carbondale.
Demonstrators chanted “This is what democracy looks like” and “What’s disgusting? Union busting” as they crowded into Daley Plaza Saturday afternoon until the plaza was filled to every corner.
Thousands of Illinoisans from every corner of the state today rallied at Chicago’s Daley Plaza with special guests including Wisconsin State Senator Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee), labor and civil rights leader William Lucy, and teachers, firefighters and other public service workers from Illinois and Wisconsin to show solidarity and stand up for the American middle class against political and corporate-funded attacks. Senator Larson was one of the 14 Democratic senators from Wisconsin who sought refuge in Illinois to block Gov. Walker’s extreme legislation. Lucy worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King during the Memphis sanitation workers strike in 1968.
The week of April 4 through 9 was chosen in honor of Dr. King, who was assassinated on April 4, 1968 while in Memphis to march with sanitation workers represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). King gave his life for the right of workers to bargain collectively for a better life and a pathway to the middle class-the same rights and freedoms that Republican Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin and his counterparts in other states are trying to strip from teachers and other public- and private-sector workers.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in Memphis 43 years ago, where he had travelled to support AFSCME sanitation workers striking for the right to collective bargaining. That struggle continues today in Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, New Hampshire, Michigan and other states throughout the country as working people fight back against attacks on their rights and the middle class.
Legendary soul and R&B singer and musician Aaron Neville recorded the song "America the Beautiful" especially for this video.
http://www.afscme.org
Endorsing organizations
Chicago Federation of Labor * Chicago Teachers Union * Illinois AFL-CIO * AARP * ACLU * AAUW * Action Now * Citizen Action/Illinois * Coalition of Black Trade Unionists * Common Cause * Grassroots Collaborative * HCAN * Human Rights Campaign * Interfaith Worker Justice/Arise Chicago * Jobs with Justice * La’M’ers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law * MoveOn.org * NA&CP * National Council on Independent Living * National Gay and Lesbian Task Force * National Organization for Women * National Urban League * Planned Parenthood * Sierra Club * United Students against Sweatshops/SOUL
http://www.substancenews.net