Powerful Speeches, Resolve to Battle Management Mark Mass Meeting

Inspiring speakers at the MMM included Chicago Teacher’s Union Financial Secretary Kristine Mayle, who stirred transit workers with a detailed recounting of that union’s successful seven-day strike last year, which pushed back Mayor Rahm Emmanuel’s plans to hand the city’s educational system over to charter schools and judge teachers based on their students’ test scores. Mayle said that this ignored the proven fact that poverty is the main reason for low student achievement. Closer to home, newly-elected Public Employee Federation President Susan Kent talked about creative approaches to winning a good contract. She said that it is the task of public employee unions to “re-humanize” public sector workers “so the public can see who cares for them.” This was especially apparent in the recovery from Hurricane Sandy, which was the subject of a Local 100 video portraying the hard work of transit employees who brought the City’s transportation network back in record time.

New York State’s top labor officials, Vinnie Alvarez, President of the New York City Central Labor Council, and Mario Cilento, President of the New York State AFL-CIO also addressed the Mass Membership Meeting, expressing their strong support for President Samuelsen and recognizing the TWU’s role in the recovery from Hurricane Sandy. They echoed a theme also developed by President Samuelsen about the devastating blow suffered by workers in Michigan who saw “right to work” legislation rushed through their state house last week. All three labor leaders made the point that if legislation that could strip unions of the right to collect dues via checkoff could succeed in Michigan, it could surface anywhere.