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Politics & Government

Elk Grove Residents Join Labor Solidarity Rally at Capitol

Public employees spoke out Tuesday against attempts to cut back collective bargaining rights for their colleagues in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, a Republican assemblymember introduced a similar bill in the California legislature.

Some Elk Grove residents joined several thousand people at a lively rally in solidarity with Wisconsin’s public workers at the state Capitol Tuesday night.

Efforts by Republican Gov. Scott Walker to curtail collective bargaining rights in the public sector have unleashed mass protests in the Badger State, and a Republican assemblymember unveiled a similar bill in the California legislature Tuesday. In Elk Grove, where nearly one in three adults works for the state, union members say the two struggles are connected.

Teachers, nurses and other public employees sang “I’ve got the light of the union, and I’m gonna let it shine,” and other protest songs as they began to arrive at the west steps of the Capitol around dusk. The crowd chanted “We are one, we are one.”

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Yvonne Walker, who lives in Elk Grove and is president of Service Employees International Union 1000, took the podium at the rally. “It’s important for us to let the workers in Wisconsin know that they are not alone, that their fight is our fight,” she said.

SEIU 1000 is the largest state worker union in California, with 95,000 members, 5,000 of whom are Elk Grove residents.

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Like Wisconsin, California faces a crushing budget deficit. Labor unions in both states have negotiated a variety of contract concessions. In California, those concessions include furloughs and wage cuts.

But stripping workers of the right to bargain collectively sets a dangerous precedent, Walker and other union members said.

“Every union should have the right to collectively bargain with an employer,” said Toby Boyd, a kindergarten teacher at Prairie Elementary School in the Elk Grove Unified School District and a board member of the California Teachers Association, District E.

Mia Pinto-Ochoa, an Elk Grove resident and registered nurse at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in South Sacramento, attended the Tuesday rally with her 11-year-old son Aidan, a student at Joseph Sims Elementary School.

“The Wisconsin governor, by trying to eliminate workers’ collective bargaining, is attacking our civil liberties and democratic rights,” said Pinto-Ochoa, a member of the California Nurses Association-National Nurses Organizing Committee. “If his bill passes in Wisconsin, then the GOP Tea Party will try to use this policy as a tactic to attack unions, freeze wages and kill pensions.”

Across the street from the Capitol, a couple dozen counterprotesters voiced their support for Wisconsin's governor. One held a sign: “The free lunch is over.”

Meanwhile, Assemblymember Allan Mansoor, R-Orange County, introduced AB 961 Tuesday, which would eliminate California public employees’ right to bargain collectively for retirement benefits. Legislation currently under consideration in Ohio would also weaken collective bargaining rights.

"I stand in solidarity with the courageous legislators in the Midwest who are taking brave steps to do the right thing for all of their citizens; not just public employee union campaign contributors," said Assemblymember Mansoor in a news release. "We need to recognize that although union members and their families are hardworking taxpayers, we represent the will of all Californians, not just public employee unions."

Dan Silva, an Elk Grove resident and SEIU 1000 member who works as a criminal justice specialist for the California Emergency Management Agency, sees the matter differently.

“If Gov. Walker succeeds in eliminating collective bargaining for public employees, his anti-union approach will become policy across the U.S.,” said Silva. “We’re talking about the lives of real people, their kids and living standards. We need to support our sisters and brothers there, because it’s an all-out battle for our human rights, and way of life.”

Pinto-Ochoa said she hoped revolts like the one in Wisconsin, where workers have camped out in the state capitol for several days, would spread to other states.

“People from unions all over the country need to rally at every statehouse,” said Pinto-Ochoa. “It’s the public servants who always get attacked, and we won’t stand for it.” 

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