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Legislatively Speaking
Legislatively Speaking: Unions
 

By Noel Miller, CT State Grange Legislative Director

  AUGUST 1, 2024 --

July 13, 2024 was a scary event at the Trump Rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a young white male shot at the former president and killing a male in the stands protecting his family. Also injured were two other males. The reason is still unknown, but the false rumors have exploded as to who is responsible. This proves how divided this country is and that the hate needs to be turned down.

The Republican National Convention has started in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, being praised as a peaceful and unifying event. One of the speakers was Sean O’Brien President of the Teamsters Union. Stating that the

Teamsters have not been invited to a Convention for either party in 120 years, He was thankful to be invited by Mr. Trump. I have seen Mr. O’Brien, a truck driver from Boston Mass, speak at Congressional Hearings before. But his speech started with cheers and standing ovations from the crowd, but as he spoke about the ultra-rich taking away union jobs, for their profits, buying union business and breaking them up by selling off the assets for their profits, and freezing wages and benefits to union members to increase their profits, and disrespecting union members for the work that they do to make the profits that the company makes. As he spoke you can see that the audience was shocked, stunned, and the applause and cheering died down. At the end of the speech you could tell the only one cheering were the blue collar union members who understood what he was saying. Mr. O’Brien also spoke out against big corporations like Amazon, Walmart, and others that do not pay fair wages and benefits and fight employees from voting to unionize its workers, or corporations that will not honor contracts by using outdated laws that were made to break up unions. As a union member for years I applaud Mr. O’Brien for the courage of his “Stick it to the Man” speech. If you are a union worker or family, you know exactly what he was talking about and hit the nail right on the head. I hope he gets to the DNC convention to give them the same inspiring speech.

Unions have built this nation from coal miners to auto workers. During his speech he talked about the essential union workers that kept America going during the Pandemic, how they risk their own lives to report to work to keep the nation open, yet today we never appreciate the sacrifices they made.

The subject of Project 2025 must be addressed. It is a 900 page guide for policies for the Federal Government by the Heritage Foundation, which has proposed policies for the last 50 years, starting with President Reagan’s “Trickle-down Economics.” Plans are to dismantle the Federal Government, by firing staff and replacing them with loyalists to the President, closing the Education, Environmental Protection, Labor, Health, and other agencies, removing the guard rails that are there to keep us safe. We all need to read up about this plan because if it happens, we will be no longer be the land of the free. This is no joke this is real.

Talk about union jobs I read an article that a local Cannabis Shop employee wants to form a union for better wages and benefits. More power to the people.

 

 
 
 

 
     
     
       
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