Des Moines, Iowa, January 14, 2013 – As Iowa’s new legislative session convenes for the 2013 session, Iowa AFL-CIO President Ken Sagar issued the following statement:
“After years of severe budget cuts and fiscal gimmicks that have only made life harder for Iowa’s middle class and now with a budget surplus, elected leaders have an opportunity to pursue legislation that will move Iowa forward and create an economy that works for all.”
“Instead of asking the richest to pay their fair share, Governor Branstad and House Republicans continue cutting the very services that Iowans need to get back on their feet. Working families didn’t break our economy, but we’ve been stuck with the bill in the form of slashed funding for our schools, hospitals, public safety, roads and bridges, and attacks on the wages and benefits of middle class public employees. At a time when the economy continues struggling to recover and many families are still waiting for employment to pick up, Iowans need more economic security, not less. ”
“It’s time for our elected leaders to stop the attacks on working people like restricting voting rights, anti-immigration legislation, and attacks on collective bargaining that don’t rebuild our state’s economy. The legislature needs to focus on the things that all Iowans care about: high-quality public education for our children, good jobs and wages that can support our families, expanded access to healthcare, investments to rebuild our infrastructure, and increase the minimum wage.”
The voters in Iowa sent a message at during the elections. This new session is an opportunity for Iowa to refocus and get back on track to putting more Iowans back to work, and keep our economy on the right track.”
Your right dog, Democraps screws the working man, always did yes. They give it all to the blacks. I like Phil but I wish he wasnt Union. Blodgett help Dougherty, got Urdahl the big money because they do what he tells them. I wish Kyle would of beat Urdahl, jay is greedy and greedy, greedy.
I see Phil Dougherty is with his Union friends here. I wonder what his Republican sponsor Gary Blodgett thinks about that? Thanks, Doc, for helping to stick us with this bolshevick for 4 more years.
Something else. I always had more money in my pocket when Republicans were in office.
The one thing I learned after a lifetime of work, the Government separates the working man from his money through taxation. I should be rich but I am not. It was always the Democrats that raised my taxes and screwed me worse than the Republicans.
Oh yea, they always blamed the Republicans for everything, but I quit swallowing that bullshit too. The Republicans do favors for their side of the issues, but the Democrats are just as bad and worse. They put more pork in bills at the expense of the working stiff and Po’folks that hurt the little guy much more.
As far as taxing the rich? That is a bunch of bullshit too. The rich just raise their prices and keep making more money while the working stiffs pay more for everything then need to buy. That is the worse form of taxation there is!
As far as I am concerned, business and corporations are nothing more than bill collectors for the Government to take the money away from the Po’folk! The Democrats are all for it and totally in bed with Wall Street too. Just look at this jerk we have for a President and his Wall Street buddies working in the White House. Obama is all about doing favors for his Wall Street buddies.
Better wake up folks. You union guys in this article are doing nothing more that kicking the citizens while they are down.
I was in a union for 20 years. I quit the union because the union protected lazy bums and drunks and scorned those of us that were productive. They told me I was not a good union member because I worked to hard. Give me a break. I liked my work, I didn’t work hard at all.
The union boys didn’t like me so I dropped out of the union and told the union to kiss my ass. I worked at the same job for another 14 years. I did my job received more pay and better benefits than the union fellows did because I was more productive.
I told the owner of the company to kiss my ass too. I would not bow down to either side. I did my job and if the boss wanted to fire me I could go get another job any where I wanted.
No regrets at all.
Unions have long ago lost there effectiveness and their credibility.
who is the guy to the left holding the papers?
There are good and bad on both sides. What we need to work for is whatever is best for the country.
I have worked for two union companies and in both cases all the union officials cared about was getting their union dues. Also our fund was continually drained by worthless trouble makers who couldn’t keep a job on their own but were the biggest supporters. It also seems ironic that even though Iowa has the right to work law if someone didn’t want to join our rep would tell us to break their car windows and harass them until they did join. To me they were worse then the so called bad company officials they were supposed to be protecting our rights from.
Not saying breaking windows is the thing to do and yes we take the bad with the good but with out the unions you loose the balance between the greedy CEOs and the hard working people who just want a better life for there family…. That’s how it is and everyone needs to understand unions will never go away ever this kind of talk has gone on for years and it will continue that’s part of the bad with the good …
@4ever49, While I agree with some of what you say, I don’t think that Sagar is only talking about public employees. I think that he is talking about all middle class.
My take is that AFL-CIO tends to represent private sector employees while AFSCME & SEIU represent public sector employees. Both fall into the “middle class” definition I think.
What I’m trying to say is that there are some,(alot) of middle class people that do not belong to any kind of a union. Take Winnebago employees for instance. Any kind of legislation that helps raise the middle class, helps all middle class, not just union members or public employees.
What a load of nonsense!
Sagar says voting rights are being restricted and that anti-immigration legislation is being promoted. It does not restrict your voting rights when you simply prove you are who you say you are. It protects your vote from being washed out by a contravening vote from someone who is not a legitimate voter. As to anti-immigration legislation, why do you think wages are so low? Could it be that by not effectively controlling illegal migration the supply of labor overruns demand and wages suffer as a result? Who couldn’t have seen that coming?
If the AFL-CIO truly wants to represent workers and better their situations then they need to do something about voter fraud and illegals driving down wages and taking the jobs.
Or, could it be that big labor is really about driving political agenda’s that benefit a certain party who in turn propels legislation that guarantees dues and fees to the unions?
Unions need to return to their first priority – representing their members at the bargaining table. Only then will their lot improve.