Standing together

COEUR d'ALENE - The best defense is solidarity, and a sign of strength is standing together.

So was the message on the back of Patrick Blum's new, red T-shirt, one he bought Monday at the 'We Are One Labor Rally' at the Human Rights Education Institute - the local pro-union and collective bargaining rally that coincided with similar gatherings across the nation to commemorate the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination.

"We need to show our support for the blue collar worker, for the middle class," he said, putting on the shirt, with its 'Stand With Idaho' slogan on the back, over the shirt he was already wearing.

"Those are not the people we should be attacking. Those are not the ones we should be going after. The wealthiest Americans, the ones who aren't paying their fair share of taxes are the ones" on whom politicians should focus to alleviate deficits.

King was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968, while supporting AFSCME sanitation workers on strike there.

Monday, local union members, supporters, educators and activists marked the date with a rally to remind working Americans that the fight isn't over - especially in the face of a political divide grabbing headlines across the country regarding collective bargaining and worker rights.

"We stand in solidarity with the working class," said Brad Cedarblom, president of the North Idaho Central Labor Council, the group that has 1,384 due-paying members from 20 different locals across North Idaho. "We stand in solidarity here in Coeur d'Alene."

For all the attention the Midwest has received on the intense political topic, the "outright assault" on workers has hit Idaho, too, he said.

Bills that curtail collective bargaining for teachers must be repealed, he said, and workers must band together before legislators try to expand the prohibition to all public employees next year. That bill, which has been printed but not yet discussed, could come up in the Legislature next session.

"I don't believe these politicians are representative of the people of Idaho," he told the 105 people who attended. Unions "are under attack as it never has been before in my life."

On the 43rd anniversary of his father's death, King's eldest son said in Atlanta that if his father were still alive, the civil rights icon would be fighting alongside the workers rallying to protect collective bargaining rights.

"He would be very concerned that some Americans have chosen to focus on dismantling workers' rights," Martin Luther King III said according to an Associated Press report. "Dad was killed in that context. He would want us to be engaged in that activity today."

The planned rallies are part of a coordinated strategy by labor leaders to ride the momentum of pro-union demonstrations and national polls showing most Americans support collective bargaining rights as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and other GOP leaders in states fight to reduce or strip those benefits.

"Unions did not create the economic mess we're in today," said Dan Wilson, member of the United Steel Workers Local 338, at the Coeur d'Alene rally. "But as always, it's the American working class who will pay the price."

But at the local gathering, people spoke of optimism. They said the solidarity will stem the tide of 'anti-union' before it can go any farther.

"I think this is going to help repeal those awful Senate bills," said Joanna Adams, referring to the education reform bills, as she left the hour-and a-half-long event. "My concern is for the education of my children and my grandchildren.

Many in the crowd wore pro union shirts, like the one Blum, a former teacher in Texas and disability activist, bought.

"It's only going to grow," he said of the counter-movement. "The more you attack workers, the more you attack the middle class, the more they're going to fight back."