Mountaineer Workers Rising rally

[Omaha Steve]

Several elected government office holders are proud to stand / speak for WV workers: https://twitter.com/hashtag/wvwkrs

http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20150307/GZ01/150309281

by David Gutman

Thousands of people came to the West Virginia Capitol building in Charleston on Saturday to hear from the leaders of America’s most prominent labor unions at a rally to protest against the agenda of the new Republican majority in the Legislature.

For more than two hours, the crowd listened to labor leaders denounce charter schools, “right-to-work” laws, mine safety rollbacks and the revamping of West Virginia’s prevailing-wage law.

“For nearly 60 days, they’ve conspired with their big owners and their big donors and out-of-state corporations to lower your wages and to take your benefits,” said Richard Trumka, president of the national AFL-CIO, gesturing to the Capitol behind him. “Richest nation on earth, at its most rich point in time and we can’t figure out how to pay people decent wages.”

Workers in union T-shirts created splotches of color across the river-side steps of the Capitol. There was the United Mine Workers in camouflage, United Food and Commercial Workers in yellow, School Service Personnel Association in blue, Service Employees International in purple, United Steelworkers in neon yellow, the American Federation of Government Employees in navy blue, the Laborer’s International Union in orange and the Teamsters in blue beanies.

- See more at: http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20150307/GZ01/150309281#sthash.C77Wi5Cc.dpuf

FULL story at link.

Published on Mar 7, 2015

Thousands of people showed up for a labor rally on the steps of the state Capitol Saturday, March 7, 2015.