Labor & Employment Law

Holt Baker: We?re Fighting for Basic American Freedoms

By James Parks

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker addresses massive rally in Indiana yesterday.

Working people in Indiana and across the country are fighting for the same basic freedoms our Founding Fathers fought for, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker told a crowd of more than 25,000 at a rally in Indianapolis yesterday.

?We are here because of the right of freedom of association?the right of free men and women to join together,? Holt Baker said. 

Whether that be in the church of our choosing, the political party of our choosing or the freedom to associate together to improve the condition of ourselves and our families.

This is what America is all about?because without these freedoms we don’t have a free society.

Holt Baker told the crowd that she knew they would not let Gov. Mitch Daniels and the Republicans in the legislature destroy the middle class and take away workers’ rights in Indiana.

I look out at all of you, and I know what democracy looks like. It looks like all of you. Workers, community, men and women, students and seniors. All standing as one?united in your resolve to protect the right to bargain.

While she was in Indianapolis, Holt Baker met with Rep. Bill Crawford, one of the Indiana House Democrats who left the state three weeks ago to prevent the legislature from enacting Daniels? anti-worker, anti-education agenda.

In a telephone town hall meeting Wednesday night, Crawford and the other House members told voters they are going to stand firm and fight to save the state?s middle class. Crawford and some of the other House Democrats spoke to the rally. They were in town temporarily because the legislature was not in session that day.

Holt Baker told the Hoosiers to stand firm for their rights and the American people are behind them:

 ?the American people are watching and they know what is going on. The  covers have  been pulled off?and they get it. They see governors and legislators who, on the one hand, want to take away the worker?s chair at the table, but, on the other hand, has plenty of seats at the table for their billionaire corporate backers.

The American people have made their decision, and they are overwhelmingly on the side of workers and collective bargaining.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on March 11, 2011 (boomark / email).