King Day Gathering Challenges Ohio Gov. Kasich’s Attacks on Workers

by James Parks, Jan 14, 2011

When Teresa Laws takes the bullhorn this evening, she will raise her voice to speak out for some of our most vulnerable citizens: children and those who need constant home care.
Laws will be one of  the speakers when more than 400 union and civil rights activists gather at Cincinnati’s City Hall to condemn Republican Gov. John Kasich’s plan to strip Ohio child care and home health care workers of their right to bargain for a better life. The event is part of the annual AFL-CIO King Day celebration, which began yesterday in Cincinnati.
Throughout the conference, activists will send a message that Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of social and economic justice is not dead even in this tough political climate. Workers who provide vital services to the Cincinnati area—including home and child care providers and transit workers—will share their stories and concerns about Kasich and his allies’ attempts to blame and punish low-income workers for the state of the economy.

Laws, a 13-year home care worker from Cincinnati, says she is angry that Kasich wants to eliminate her collective bargaining rights.

I may not be the CEO of a company, but my job is just as important.  Without home-care workers, the state would be spending three times as much to keep their patients in institutions. And their quality of life is much better when they’re able to stay at home. We have a voice that allows us to be heard. When he tries to take away collective bargaining, he is trying to take our voice.

Ella Hopkins, a Cincinnati child care provider who also plans to attend the gathering, adds:

I struggle every day to get by in this tough economy, just like every other Ohio working person, and do the best I can for my family, and for the Cincinnati families who depend on me to care for their children while they are working. Why does Gov. Kasich want to make it harder for all of us to support our families and do the right thing for the parents and children we serve?

In conjunction with the celebration in Cincinnati, working Americans around the country will hold roundtables, marches and rallies to remind their lawmakers that King’s vision for the nation included not only civil rights but also an economy that served all Americans—a vision that is far from fulfilled. 
This conference couldn’t come at a more crucial time, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker told the conference participants yesterday. After the 2010 elections, activists have a choice, Holt Baker said, ”whether to build a nationwide movement, including community and progressive allies, to protect workers and refocus our states and local governments on rebuilding the middle class instead of tearing it down.” More than 40 years ago, King faced a similarly hostile political climate, and in his last speech, King stood in solidarity with working people seeking  justice and dignity (see video above).
Holt Baker quoted King who once said:

What will we tell our sisters and brothers in need?  Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.

 We must choose in this crucial moment of human history.