Posted: December 27, 2012
From: Rick Hicks, Teamsters Local #174 Secretary-Treasurer

Despite the Mayan calendar prophets of dooms, the world didn’t end on December 21st.  Nor did it end when the effort to recall Wisconsin governor Scott Walker fell short earlier this year.  In fact (and this is the crux of this column), union people rallied across this country with heightened determination and kept Daddy-Big-Bucks-Corporate-Shill Mitt Romney out of the White House.  We didn’t accept defeat; we strapped on our work boots and went out to doorbell and phone-bank.  We wrote letters, registered new voters, and talked to our neighbors and friends.

Despite all the money the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson pumped into anti-worker Mitt Romney’s campaign, he lost.  In a nutshell, the ‘Boots’ beat the ‘Bucks.’

True to their rabid, vindictive nature, the Koch coalition has struck back in Michigan through their duplicitous puppet Governor Snyder.  Like Scott Walker, he campaigned on one thing then did something entirely different.  In Retail, you call that ‘bait and switch.’  In politics you call it ‘Romn-esia.’

It would have been easy to throw up our hands and give into the constant anti-labor battering because, let’s face it, these people are like junkyard dogs…they just never stop.  But neither do we.  We are as resourceful as they are relentless. American workers are as courageous as the Koch Coalition is gutless.

So if they want to buy politicians to enforce the anti-worker laws they write, then we’ll back the people running for office who support workers.  And if they want to gut wages and benefits, then we’ll not only continue to fight for our members and the middle class, but we’ll keep organizing from the bottom up.

So lace up those work boots and get ready for 2013, because the battle for America continues.  And we’re not losing!

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