San Francisco union workers participated in nationally coordinated "We Are One!" rallies yesterday to condemn corporate greed and to show support for union workers in Wisconsin who have had their collective bargaining rights stripped. Photos by Luke Thomas.
By Luke Thomas
April 5, 2011
As many as one thousand workers and civil rights activists attended a solidarity rally on the streets of San Francisco yesterday to show support for their union brethren in Wisconsin and to demand corporate America pays its fair share of taxes.
The rally, organized by the San Francisco Labor Council and part of a nationally coordinated “We are One” AFL-CIO campaign, began at the San Francisco headquarters of Bank of America, terminating at the San Francisco Federal Reserve building after passing by the offices of Chase Bank, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and the Hyatt Regency Hotel along the way.
Workers alight outside Bank of America on California Street where the San Francisco rally began.
In rememberance of Martin Luther King who was assassinated in Memphis while supporting striking city sanitation workers and defending collective bargaining rights, rally participants carried placards and chanted pro-union slogans as they marched along California Street to Market Street.
“Each of us is suffering more, has less of a future because of corporate greed,” said SFLC Public Workers Committee Chair Bob Muscat. “It is the one common enemy that we all share. It is the number one problem in this country.”
As an example of corporate greed, Muscat said corporate giant General Electric pays no taxes. “To make matters worse, $14 billion in profits and they are now going to proceed to cut employee health and retirement benefits of all GE employees. That is corporate greed,” he said.
San Francisco Labor Council Public Workers Committee Chair Bob Muscat.
“Make no mistake, ladies and gentlemen, what’s happening is a calculated attack on working families and on the middle class all across this country,” added Firefighters Local 798 President Tom O’Conner.
“We are here to tell corporate America and the politicians that serve them, that it is time to stand up and do the right thing. It’s time to pay your taxes and it’s time to give back to the community that gives to you,” O’Conner added.
“And behind us is giant corporate entity that takes our tax money, that takes $199 billion in bailout money and then asks for a $6 billion a year in tax breaks, the same Bank of America that’s foreclosing at a rapid pace across this country, the same Bank of America that’s refusing credit to small business men and women, the same Bank of America that has given out hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to corporate insiders.
“It’s time to tell the Bank of America and all their corporate citizens it’s time to pay bck the people that bailed you out. This is about faireness. It’s about standing up to corporate bullies. This is about doing what’s morally right for America.” O’Conner added.
Firefighters Local 798 President Tom O’Conner.
Luke Thomas
Luke Thomas is a former software developer and computer consultant who proudly hails from London, England. In 2001, Thomas took a yearlong sabbatical to travel and develop a photographic portfolio. Upon his return to the US, Thomas studied photojournalism to pursue a career in journalism. In 2004, Thomas worked for several neighborhood newspapers in San Francisco before accepting a partnership agreement with the SanFranciscoSentinel.com, a news website formerly covering local, state and national politics. In September 2006, Thomas launched FogCityJournal.com. The BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, New York Times, Der Spiegel, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, 7x7, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian and the San Francisco Weekly, among other publications and news outlets, have published his work. Thomas is a member of the Freelance Unit of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521 and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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April 7, 2011 at 2:14 pm
SFLocal-
Gotta admit – good lefty talking point recital. I would just add that there is more than one Koch brother and you forgot to mention an “attack on the middle class.”
And let’s keep it “local”
April 7, 2011 at 12:53 pm
There’s Seej again towing the right wing, Scott Walker, Koch Brother, Adachi, Moritz party line calling public servants greedy while the CEO of AIG made over $30 million last year, General Electric didn’t pay a dime in taxes on $15 Billion in profits last year, and Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion.
Calling public servants greedy because of a finincial crisis caused by corporate greed isn’t fair or balanced.
April 6, 2011 at 9:29 am
Yes, stop the greed. Stop the greed of public employee unions bankrupting our great City.
Was that O’Connor railing against “greed” and calling someone else a bully? Oh, that’s grand. O’Connor’s fire union has extorted wages 35% above the market as reported to the Budget and Finance Committee- talk about GREED…
April 5, 2011 at 12:35 pm
Thank you, thank you, thank you to Luke Thomas for covering this important rally. Mainstream media is purposefully turning a blind eye to the plight of average workers.
However, the union is a day late and a dollar short. To add another catch phrase, they need to learn the meaning of “No man is an island….”
Where were these union members when Supervisor Sean Elsbernd and the media whores who pander for the Chron and Examiner called the MUNI worker’s health care “Christmas bonuses?”
I asked then what will these people call your benefits when they come to take them from you and no one said a word:
http://www.fogcityjournal.com/wordpress/1589/stay-tuned-ce-nest-pas-ma-faute/
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure aka: it would have been a lot easier to curb anti-union sentiment when it started. Shame on the union for hypocritically waiting until this landed in their own backyard.