W.S.L.C.
WSLC Convention delegates hear: Resist. Persist. Repeat.
Shuler: ‘Resistance is working. But persistence will get us where we need to be’
But the mood was inspired, even jubilant at times, as union delegates from across Washington state gathered Tuesday to talk about efforts to resist that Trump agenda while persisting with progressive efforts to improve the lives of working families.
“Have we been here before? Has it ever been easy to be in the labor movement?” asked AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler in her keynote address. “Now is the time to remember why we are in the labor movement for the first place. It‘s because we care about people. People we love. People we will never meet.”
She rattled off a list of successes here in Washington state, including the recent passage of “the most generous paid family leave law in the country” and last fall’s labor-led Initiative 1433 that is raising the state minimum wage to $13.50 and allowing all workers to earn paid sick leave. In addition to these wins at the state level, Shuler reminded all that efforts to oppose Trump’s destructive agenda are working.
“While Donald Trump may have won the election, he has not one a single major policy fight,” she said. “Resistance if working. But it is persistence that will get us where we need to be.”
WSLC President Jeff Johnson had opened the convention with Tuesday’s news that months of activism and organizing to defeat GOP efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act have been successful. Two more Republican senators had just announced they were opposed to the latest version of Trumpcare that would cost millions there health coverage and dramatically drive up costs for people with pre-existing conditions. So for now, that effort appears dead in the water.
“It’s encouraging to see that more and more people are seeing that health care is a human right,” Johnson said, later adding, “I find great optimism in this time of resistance.”
“This (union) organizing fundamentally agrees that the best thing for economic growth is good wages for families so they can be good consumers,” he said.
The governor earned raucous applause when he explained why he vetoed and major business tax cut rammed through in 11th hour budget negotiations amid property tax increases for homeowners.
“At 3 in the morning, when they put a tax increase on Washington families and tried to pass a tax cut for business with no accountability or assurance of good jobs, I vetoed it and that was the right thing to do,” the governor said.
Inslee was followed by state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who got a hero’s welcome for his successful lawsuit to block Trump’s Muslim travel ban. He was presented the 2017 Power to the People award by the WSLC.
“I want you to know we have now filed 11 lawsuits against the Trump administration. So far, we’re 3-0,” Ferguson said. “When this administration attacks the men and women of this state, you can count on the fact that my office will be there for you.”
He pointed out that, in case anyone accuses him of engaging in this resistance for political reasons, he has also fought to hold the federal government accountable under the Obama administration, suing to demand better health and safety protections for Hanford workers. The feds’ own reports have documented that these workers are being exposed to harmful vapors and other dangers, but the government has failed to take action to protect them. That lawsuit is ongoing.
“Like that Pete Seeger song goes, I have the ‘hammer of justice’,” Ferguson said. “I can hold everybody accountable to rule of law, whether it’s Comcast or the President of the United States.”
Perhaps the most poignant moment of Tuesday’s convention action was when delegates heard from Jorge Barón, Executive Director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. Trump’s aggressive immigration and detention policies have created a climate of fear among immigrant families and disrupted the lives of thousands.
“Even as we are gathered here, just up the road on I-5 (in Tacoma), there are 1,500 detained in the Northwest Detention Center run by a private corporation that profits from human misery,” Barón said.
WSLC President Jeff Johnson presented Barón with this year’s President’s Award for his team’s extraordinary efforts to fight for the rights of immigrant workers and their families in Washington state.
A King County prosecutor, Dhingra described how the Trump-era climate of fear and concern for the future in her community, and among people of color in particular, inspired her to seek public office for the first time.
“This is me stepping up,” she said.
On the convention agenda for Wednesday are author/commentator Bill Fletcher Jr. on racial justice, North Carolina AFL-CIO’s MaryBe McMillan on “right-to-work” laws,” and Nancy Altman of Social Security Works.