> To learn about some of the organizing that's going on, check out the latest > news at http://www.workdayminnesota.org/ > > I was at the rally on Thursday afternoon. Seemed to me there were an awful > lot of bus riders and representatives of other unions out there. Along with > AFSCME Council 6 (state employees) and AFSCME 3800 (U clericals), I saw MAPE > folks (other state employees) and SEIU folks (for the school bus drivers). > There were probably others as well that I didn't recognize. > > It would have been great to have more people there, but coordinating a > strike is not easy work - the ATU 1005 folks have a lot of other things to > do besides finding transportation for getting folks to rallies. If you have > ideas on how they could do that, I would suggest contacting the ATU 1005 > office at 612-379-2914. > > Given that much of the public sentiment I've seen thus far (especially from > bus riders) seems to lie with the union and against David Strom and his ilk, > I think the union has done about as well as they can at communicating their > issues. If there's not more progress being made, I don't think the union can > be faulted for that. They're not the ones refusing to negotiate. > > And while I would agree that there may not be enough going on to deal with > the larger issue of transit funding, I would again say that's kind of hard > to do along with coordinating a strike. There is a lot going on that the > public does not see. > > I do know that this strike, along with the AFSCME 3800 strike of last fall > and the state employee contract negotiations last year, has led to some > coalition-building to address the larger issue of health care coverage. You > can learn more at the MAPE web site (http://www.mape.org/) - look for the > link to "# Affordable health care should be a right! (PDF for posting)" > > Mark Snyder > Windom Park > MAPE 0301 > *forwarded by:
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