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Four buses of Tucson unionists go State Capitol for Day of Action

by on Mar. 01, 2012, under Arizona, Arizona Legislature, jobs, organizing, Politics, Tucson, unions

Four buses of unionists left Tucson this morning. (Image credit: Pamela Powers Hannley)

When I originally reported on the AFL-CIO Day of Action, I said four bus-loads of unionists were going to the Capitol to lobby Legislators and demonstrate against the anti-labor bills. Correction: that’s four buses just from Tucson. Additional bus-loads will be arriving from other Arizona cities.

As they loaded the buses, one participant told me that two years ago, 30 unionists went to the Arizona Legislature on the Day of Action. Last year, there were two buses of unionists. This year with six anti-worker bills in the Arizona Legislature, there are four bus-loads just from Tucson going to the capitol.

Maybe today will be Arizona’s “Wisconsin moment.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 1st, 2012 at 7:08 am and is filed under Arizona, Arizona Legislature, jobs, organizing, Politics, Tucson, unions. Tags for this post: , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • azjustin

    The unions, which once served a great role in supporting the American worker, have now become the bane of the taxpayers and the economy.

    • Your_Uncle_Karl

       ”the bane of the taxpayers and the economy”

      More properly, they are an obstacle to the right-wing, randian plans to completely disempower the working class.  Aside from that, like immigrants and the poor, they tend to vote their interests, i.e., democratic.  The right wing finds it easy to disenfranchise the poor and immigrants through restriction of voting rights in these communities, but cracking union solidarity is a tougher nut, requiring creating a fearful boogie man of unions.

  • alohapuna

    Unions have, no doubt, in many cases, overplayed their role. Nevertheless, if it weren’t for the existence of unions today, many workers would  find themselves beiing exploited to the fullest as they were back in the nineteenth century.

  • omen11

    Tucson should hire outside contractors to pick up garbage,run the water company and the other services provided by the city.It’s working in many states and you don’t have to worry about pensions,healthcare and all the vacations and holidays that we pay through the nose on a regular basis.No contracts!

  • justlikegreece

    I can just imagaine the “busloads” from “other” Arizona cities.
    Maybe in the future there WILL be a final “Wisconsin” moment…. But for now we can only hope they pretend to be rational citizens and not pee all over the hallways of the capital.  

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The Tucson Progressive

Pamela Powers Hannley writes the Tucson Progressive blog on the TucsonCitizen.com and contributes articles to the Huffington Post and Salon.com. She has had more than 30 years of experience in written, visual, and electronic communication—including freelance writing, photography, graphic design, and consulting. In addition to blogging for the Citizen, she is the Managing Editor of an international medical research journal.

Hannley has authored medical research articles, print magazine and newspaper stories, and numerous cancer prevention and self-help publications.

She has been a blogger since 2006, joined the ranks of Tucson Citizen bloggers in October 2010, and started contributing to the Huffington Post in 2011 and to Salon.com in 2012.

Hannley holds a masters’ degree in public health from The University of Arizona and a bachelors’ degree in journalism from The Ohio State University. She is a native of Amherst, Ohio but has lived in Tucson since 1981.