Texas Labor Against the War

July 19, 2011

This evening the Austin AFL-CIO Council [Central Labor Council] was privileged to have members of the Fort Hood Operation Recovery team as guests and presenters.  Visitors to the CLC meeting were Aaron Hughes, Scott Kimball, and Sergio Kochergin of Iraq Veterans Against the War; Lori Hurlebaus of the Civilian Soldier Alliance; Alice Embree of the Fort Hood Support Network (who is also a member of the Texas State Employees Union).

Aaron spoke of the need for solidarity among soldiers, veterans, and workers.  Soldiers are workers–they are public employees; and our unions have many veterans as members.  Many soldiers come from union families and go back to unions when discharged.  But the unemployment rate among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is 21% (12% more than the national average).  The rate is even higher among African-American and female veterans–about 30%.

Many soldiers suffer from war trauma and nonetheless are redeployed.  Suicide rates among active-duty troops are twice as high as that of the civilian population, and veterans with PTSD are 6 times more likely to attempt suicide.  20% to 50% of all service members deployed to Iraq and/or Afghanistan suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  One in 3 women in the military are sexually assaulted.  1 in 3 soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq say they can’t see a mental health professional when they need to, and nearly 20% of service members are taking some kind of psychiatric drug.

Aaron pointed out the huge expense of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  This money is needed at home–and we owe veterans the benefits and health treatment they need.

Most of the CLC delegates signed the pledge of support for Operation Recovery that our visitors passed around.  It states:  “I pledge to support the Operation Recovery campaign to the best of my ability.  In a war where soldiers are being injured faster than the military can treat them, I will work alongside veterans and service members to end the cycles of trauma and abuse.”  The pledge sheet further explains:  “Join Iraq Veterans Against the War and Civilian Soldier Alliance in our effort to stop the deployment of troops suffering from Military Sexual Trauma, Traumatic Brain Injury, and PTSD.  By signing our pledge, you agree to do what you can to help defend the rights of soldiers to heal and to hold accountable those who are responsible for deploying traumatized troops.  As the Operation Recovery campaign unfolds, we will be calling on you to help in a variety of ways.”

There was discussion from the CLC delegates, several of whom are veterans.  A Teamster rep described their program to get members back into jobs when they get home from the military.  A member of AFSCME indicated she has personal experience with veterans’ mental health problems and wants to get a group she works with in touch with Operation Recovery.  There was also interest among the delegates in U.S. Labor Against the War–USLAW brochures were available as well as Operation Recovery literature.

For more TxLAW stories on Fort Hood Operation Recovery, see http://txlaboragainstwar.org/2011/07/08/killeen-ivaw-its-audacious-and-a-little-crazy-what-were-doing-at-ft-hood/, http://txlaboragainstwar.org/2011/05/27/killeen-ivaw-operation-recovery-action-at-ft-hood/, and http://txlaboragainstwar.org/2011/07/17/killeen-under-the-hood-update-july-2011/

For LOTS of information about Operation Recovery, to sign the pledge, and to donate, see http://www.ivaw.org/operation-recovery

Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/operationrecovery
For more on the Civilian-Soldier Alliance, go to http://www.civsol.org/

–Leslie Cunningham, July 21, 2011

“THEY SAY ‘CUT BACK’!  WE SAY ‘FIGHT BACK’!”

We reprint Will Rogers’ report from Left Labor Reporter about the terrific, union-led Save Our State march and rally on April 6.  http://leftlaborreporter.wordpress.com/2011/04/07/spirit-of-wisconsin-alive-in-texas/

Judy Lugo speaks (photo Rene Renteria)

“Texas has won the race to the bottom,” said Texas State Employees Union president Judy Lugo. “But Gov. Rick Perry and Republican lawmakers in the state House of Representatives want to keep racing.” Lugo was speaking to a crowd of 7,000 Texans chanting, “no cuts” at a rally on the steps of the state capitol to protest the $23 billion cuts to the state’s budget that passed out of the state House of Representative last week.

“Right now, Texas ranks last among states in the number of children with health insurance, 44th in high school graduation rates, 49th in per capita spending on Medicaid, and 50th in per capita tax expenditures,” Lugo said. “These vital services that working people rely on will get much worse if the proposed budget cuts go through.”

photo Alberto Martinez, Austin American Statesman

Last week, the state house voted to adopt HB 1, which seeks to close the state’s $23 billion budget deficits solely by cutting state services. If these cuts become law, they could do irreparable harm to working class Texans.  A recent study by the state’s Legislative Budget Board found that the proposed cuts will eliminate 335,000 jobs and reduce personal income by more than $17 billion. State Senator Kirk Watson speaking at the rally said that the proposed budget cuts are “an evolving catastrophe.”

Scott Chase, president of the South Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce, which represents small businesses in this South Dallas community, told the crowd that the proposed budget cuts are “bad for business,” which is why his group was the first Chamber of Commerce in the state call on legislators to take a balanced approach to closing the budget gap rather than relying solely on cuts. Chase urged lawmakers to use all of the state’s $9 billion Rainy Day fund to help close the budget gap.

HB 1 would reduce funding for public education by $4.7 billion, resulting in mass layoffs for teachers and other education workers and increased class sizes. “We don’t want our children packed into overcrowded classrooms and we don’t want our state’s economy undermined by pink slips for our teachers and public employees,” Watson said.        

photo Rene Renteria

HB 1 would also reduce funding for the states health and human service agencies by $10.8 billion. Medicaid will bear the brunt of these cuts. HB 1 cuts $4.7 billion from the Medicaid budget and is $13.7 billion shy of the amount requested by the state Health and Human Services Commission to fund projected growth in the Medicaid caseload.

“We’re already getting calls from hospitals telling us that nursing homes won’t take back patients that they sent to the hospitals because the nursing homes don’t think that there will be enough Medicaid to take care of their patients because of the budget cuts,” said Dalia Martinez, a TSEU member in the audience who works at the Department of Family Protective Services’ Statewide Intake Center, a hotline for reports of abuse to the elderly and children.

photo Rene Renteria

The rally against the budget cuts was organized by TSEU and Texas Forward, a coalition of 50 organizations that advocate for better public services. The rally drew a wide range of working-class people. Community organizations like the Texas Organizing Project, a grassroots community group of low- and moderate-income people with 10,000 members in cities all over the state, and Rio Grande Valley Interfaith, COPS of San Antonio, TMO of Houston, and Austin Interfaith, all of which are Industrial Area Foundation groups, sent large contingents.

CWA telephone workers (photo Rene Renteria)

Union members  from all over the state and from a wide variety of industries were the backbone of the rally.  About a dozen telephone locals of the Communication Workers of America sent members to support their sister public sector union, TSEU. Speaking for the CWA, Richard Kneupper, assistant to the vice-president for District 6 told the state workers and teachers in the audience that “the work you do is important; without public workers, Texas doesn’t work.”

Teamster Local 749 in Dallas filled six bus loads of people to come to rally. Unions representing steelworkers, autoworkers, machinists, sheet metal workers, bus drivers, railroad workers, and many other private sector

photo Rene Renteria

unions sent large contingents of members to support Texas’ public workers. There were also members from AFSCME and the teachers’ unions on hand to offer their support.

Speaking for the labor movement, Becky Moeller, president of the state AFL-CIO  said, “When I have a hole in my roof, I don’t  burn off the roof to fix the hole; that’s what HB 1 does. HB 1 will throw people out of nursing homes; it will make it harder for people to get health care; it will cause people to get sick and die. It will also cause hundreds of thousands of hard-working Texans to lose their jobs, and to keep running, the machinery of Texas depends on jobs. We in the labor movement will do everything we can for as long as it take to defeat HB 1.We’re united like never before. WE ARE ONE.”

AFSCME and more (photo Bob Daemrich, Texas Tribune)

TSEU leads the march (photo Rene Renteria)

photo Rene Renteria

Solution to the money problem! (photo Rene Renteria)

TSEU Legislative Director Derrick Osobase (photo Rene Renteria)