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The National AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler joined Georgia labor leaders and local workers for a “Workers Over Billionaires” rally at the IBEW Local 613 Union Hall as the AFL-CIO’s “It’s Better in a Union: Fighting for Freedom, Fairness & Security” nationwide bus tour hits Atlanta.
On all levels of government, Georgians are seeing attacks on working people’s basic rights, union jobs, and the social programs they all rely on, all in the name of putting even more in the pockets of greedy CEOs.
Workers are the backbone of Georgia and the rest of the country, and they gathered for this rally to demand that lawmakers put working families over billionaires.
The national bus tour is highlighting how workers across the country are joining together to demand the freedom to organize a union, protections for essential social programs, and dignity for all working people.
Shuler criticizes the exorbitant salaries of CEOs like Delta, contrasting it with the hard work and low pay of frontline workers.
“Does it make sense to anyone in this room that the CEO of Delta makes $27 million a year to sit in that corner office in the air conditioning while baggage handlers and flight attendants and mechanics sweat their asses off,” she asked. “It makes no sense. They are the ones doing the actual work to make the company succeed.”
She also mentions Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ wealth and the poor conditions of Amazon workers.
The speaker emphasizes the importance of worker power, freedom to unionize, fairness in profit sharing, and job security. They highlight success stories like the Bluebird workers in North Valley who formed a union for better conditions and the UAW’s efforts to secure good union jobs in the electric vehicle industry. The speaker calls on all workers to join the fight for freedom, fairness, and security.
“Bezos is sending his wife into outer space while workers at his Amazon factory down the road here in Atlanta are throwing off their backs and peeing in bottles because they’re so overworked and underpaid,” she said. “Does that make any sense? They have rigged the game and have millions of dollars and special interests. They have politicians like Donald Trump who just handed them another tax cut.”
Shuler also says they seek fairness in the context of getting their fair share of the profits they are creating, like their Teamsters siblings at Local 728.
“Just pay us what we deserve. We are talking about fairness and the basic right that we all have to a job that will be there for us and not get exported to the lowest bidder overseas,” she said. “Freedom, fairness, and security: those are the three things every worker here in Georgia deserves.”
President of Georgia AFL-CIO Yvonne Brooks said Atlanta and all the states represented do not run because of billionaires.
“We run because the workers are doing the work, if the workers weren’t there, it wouldn’t happen. This would be nothing when you clock into your shifts, you are creating wealth for these billionaires, and we deserve to share it, but a lot of lawmakers have forgotten about us and only thinking of themselves,” Brooks said.
Brooks also says the bus tour has been making stops to uplift the voice of workers and demand the end of the attack on their jobs, social programs, and union contracts.
“We will not stay silent, and we will not back down. It’s about time Georgia workers and all the workers in the southern region got freedom, fairness, and security that we are owed, and we refuse to back down. We are not backing down,” she said.
Local worker Teresa “TK” Kennard has worked for Waffle House for over 16 years, while seeing minor changes over the years, she says workers need to be paid more. She says she’s seen coworkers staying in motels, sleeping in their small cars while these corporations are paying them $3 an hour.
“We’re getting paid $3 an hour while these bastards are making $10,000 an hour, and they have nothing to do, not realizing without what we do as your workers, you wouldn’t be able to make $10,000 a year,” she said. You wouldn’t be able to own the yachts and condominiums and take trips to Europe. Everybody deserves to be paid more and this is ours.”
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