BERTOLONE SENDS A MESSAGE TO OUR CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS: THE SILENCE IS DEAFENING

Jim Bertolone is surrounded by the media at the
We Are One Rally at Rochester City Hall on March 2.
(photo:  Ove Overmyer)

February 18, 2011

Dear Democratic Party Labor Supporter:

The destructive nature of legislation in Wisconsin literally caused me to become ill this morning. Waking up to find out that one of our nation’s most liberal bases has fallen to the lies, distortions and misleading anger of the Tea Party is proof to me that our leaders need to stand up and be counted. The silence from our elected friends in regard to what’s going on in state legislatures is deafening.

For more than 30 years the Conservative movement has pushed failed ideas and ideology. Proven time and time again as a failure, they push for this ideology, not for solutions to real-world-problems, but instead to line their pockets with additional dollars. Their corporate greed, masked only by subtle and small efforts to increase the workforce, has dramatically increased productivity while real wages have dropped. They ask for tax dollars, then ship equipment, ideas, technology and workers overseas. They stand up, pitting American brother against American sister, bleeding our tax resources dry, in the name of job creation, when the exact opposite is proven true.

The rich hard-right spent over $1 billion to elect these anti-Labor governors and state legislatures. Even though you are in the Congress, we need to see you publicly stand up against those that would attack the very heart of the Labor movement, the right to collective bargain. There can be no neutrality on this issue, and it must be very public.

We are counting on your immediate strong public support.

Sincerely,

James V. Bertolone, President
Rochester & Genesee Valley Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO
Rochester Labor Council, AFL-CIO
American Postal Workers Union, Local 215