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Midwest Machinists Cheer Protests’ Diversity

Dépèche transmise le 26 février 2011 par Business Wire

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--From across the country, local members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) are speaking out in support of the coalition of union members on the front lines in Wisconsin and Ohio.

“Students whose college tuitions are rising, jobless American whose unemployment benefits have run out, seniors whose Medicaid and Social Security is the next right wing target, the forgotten poor for whom no one speaks – all must be embraced.”

“The protests across the industrial core of our nation have captured international attention. But what has received very little notice is their diversity,” said Wisconsin District 10 Directing Business Representative Russell Krings. “Teachers and painters, state employees and steel workers, service employees and machinists, sheet metal workers and musicians are all playing a part. And their ethnic, racial and gender diversity reflects how All-American these protests really are.”

“Expanding these protests is the next step,” said Wisconsin District 66 Directing Business Representative Rick Mickschl. “Students whose college tuitions are rising, jobless American whose unemployment benefits have run out, seniors whose Medicaid and Social Security is the next right wing target, the forgotten poor for whom no one speaks – all must be embraced.”

“With one-fifth of America’s workforce idled by this Grave Recession, we need jobs,” declared Ohio District 54 Directing Business Representative Dean Wright, Jr. “We cannot balance local, state or federal budgets without more revenue – the revenue that comes from full employment. JOBS Now must be our rallying cry.”

“Collective bargaining rights must be preserved, for this generation and the next,” said Cleveland, OH-based Continental Airlines Flight Attendant Sheryl Kee. “It’s inspiring to see so many members, from so many different unions, who understand the importance of this basic civil right.”

The IAM is among the nation’s largest industrial trade unions, representing nearly 700,000 active and retired members under more than 5,000 contracts in aerospace, manufacturing, transportation, shipbuilding and defense-related industries. For more information, visit www.goiam.org.