Labor & Employment Law

20,000 Expected for ?We Are Indiana? Rally

By James Parks

More than 1,000 people rallied to save Indiana?s schools this past Saturday.

As many as 20,000 people are expected to converge on the Indiana Statehouse March 10 to join a ?We Are Indiana? protest against Gov. Mitch Daniels? anti-worker agenda.

Although the so-called ?right to work? bill is off the table, there is still a long list of bills pending in the legislature that restrict workers? rights and attack their middle-class lifestyle.

Jeff Harris, a spokesman for the Indiana AFL-CIO, said rallies also will be held in local communities that day.

So far, more than 35,000 Hoosiers have participated in protests across the state over the past 15 days. Today, those at the Statehouse plan to mourn the “death of the middle class” with a New Orleans-style funeral procession.

On Saturday, some 1,000 people braved the cold and rain for a rally to “Save Indiana’s Schools.” Indiana AFL-CIO President Nancy Guyott told the crowd:

There?s an anti-worker agenda being pushed through this legislature, make no mistake about it. Only by standing up and fighting against these attacks will we be able to protect working Hoosiers.

Meanwhile, Democratic members of the state House began their third week out of state in an Illinois hotel. They left the state to prevent a quorum to consider the anti-worker legislation.

“We will stay out as long as it takes,” said state Rep. Terry Goodin.

The principles we are fighting for here are the very principles that our party is founded upon: working families, public schools and Hoosier children. . . . We cannot turn our backs now. We cannot go back and erase 50 years of what our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents fought for.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on March 08, 2011 (boomark / email).