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AFGE Workers With Airline Workers & Labor Protest At Oakland Airport End The Shutdowns

by Labor Video Project
AFGE Federal workers including TSA, Coast Guard and EPA rallied at the Oakland airport along with airline workes and labor to protest the government shutdown.
sm_afge_oakland_march_end_the_shutdown_1-25-19.jpg
AFGE workers with other airline workers and hundreds of other workers protested at the Oakland airport on January 25, 2019 the Trump governmen shutdown. Workers from TSA, the Coast Guard and EPA talked about how they are being effected and are being forced to work without pay. Many workers called it slave labor. Also airline workers talked about the danger to health and safety and the union busting tactics of this government shutdown. As the protest was taking place the Trump government announced that he would re-open the government but only open it for a three week extension until February 15, 2019 when if they did not agree to a wall he would take other actions.

Yvonne Williams, president of ATU 192 and president of the Alameda Labor Council also threatened that if the shutdowns did not end, labor would have a "real shutdown" of the country.

Additional media:

Unions Representing Air Traffic Controllers, Pilots, and Flight Attendants Just Issued an Incredibly Dire Warning
“We cannot even calculate the level of risk currently at play.”
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/01/shutdown-air-travel-statement-unions-warning/

CWA-AFA President Urges General Strike
https://www.afacwa.org/fierce_urgency_of_now

General Strike Needed To Defend King's Dream
https://www.salon.com/2019/01/20/a-call-for-a-national-general-strike-part-2-times-up-for-deferring-mlks-dream/

Production of Labor Video Project
http://www.laborvideo.org









§No Government Hostages Says AFSCME unionist
by Labor Video Project
sm_afge_oakland_rally_afscme_gov_hostages_1-25-19.jpg
An AFSCME unionist protest Trump's using government workers as hostages.
§AFGE TSA Member Susan Braverman Speaks At Oakland Airport Rally
by Labor Video Project
sm_afge_1230_tsa_susan_braverman_oakland_rally_1-25-19.jpg
AFGE TSA member Susan Braverman talked about what the effect on the government shutdown is on her life as a TSA worker.
§ATU 192 Yvonne Williams At Oakland Airport Rally
by Labor Video Project
sm_afge_oakland_atu_192_yvonne_williams_rally_1-25-19.jpg
ATU 192 president Yvonne Williams at the AFGE federal workers rally called for a strike to really shut down the government if the shutdowns continue.
§TWU 556 SWA Workers Joined The Rally
by Labor Video Project
sm_afge_twu_556_swa_solidarity_1-25-19.jpg
TWU 556 SWA flight attendants joined the rally protesting the goverment shutdown and it's effect on th airline workers and flyers.
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Comments (Hide Comments)
by Solidarity Forever
On Wednesday, January 23, 2019, federal workers rallied at the Senate Office Building and sat-in at Senator McConnell's office to demand he bring the 2 bills to the floor on the worthless wall at the US/Mexican border: Trump's version of a concrete-steel wall and the Democrats' version of drones and sensors. McConnell had spent 33 days refusing to bring Trump's version to the floor of the Senate to allow a vote, which should be illegal. The Democrats' wrote their drones & sensors bill this week. The sit-in participants were arrested as their fellow union members rallied inside the Senate Office Building holding up empty paper plates with their chant for paychecks, not food banks. The next day, the 2 bills were brought to the floor of the Senate and defeated since neither obtained 60 votes, and both won bipartisan support, which means Trump never had the votes for his bill. The Democrats are now trying to promote spending $5 billion on their drones & sensors "smart" wall, which may very well go through.

Throughout this game of chicken by the Democrat-Republicans, many of the 800,000 unpaid workers who could do so, such as TSA agents, called in sick and worked at other low pay jobs. They only make $25,000 to $30,000 a year.

The biggest losers were the thousands of contract workers, such as janitors, and even paralegals, as the government contracts out lots of jobs to avoid paying benefits, a union-busting tactic. They do not get back pay since they were not direct employees of the government.

The day after the failure of either bill to pass, LaGuardia airport management finally closed some of the airport to air travel. It should be illegal to operate any airport without FAA agent approval of every flight. During the entire 35 day shutdown, FAA agents were not approving of the flights; the private profit airlines were approving of themselves. If it were illegal to operate any airport without FAA agents, there would never be any shutdown. And of course, it should simply be illegal to allow any shutdown as this is state-sponsored terrorism, slave labor and destruction of the entire economy.

We must thank labor for ending the shutdown.
Victory, Victory is our cry!
The class struggle is the reason why!
L’chaim! Prosit! Salud! Cheers!
Labor Creates All Wealth!
Solidarity Forever!
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