This week’s Battleground Bulletin reports on AFSCME members and our allies who have been fighting across the country this week to create good jobs for American workers.

AFSCME Members Lead “America Wants to Work” Week

AFSCME members have taken to the streets this week alongside labor and progressive allies to pressure Congress to pass meaningful jobs legislation and protect workers against state attacks.

(From R-L) Jesse Jackson, AFSCME Sec.-Treas. Lee Saunders, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Rev. Al Sharpton. (Photo by Luis Gomez)

• In Washington, DC, AFSCME members joined event sponsors AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Lee Saunders, Rev. Al Sharpton and AFT President Randi Weingarten for a Rally and March for Jobs and Justice and the official unveiling of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall. “We not only had hope, but we had faith. Faith that brought us from the back of the bus to the White House said Saunders to a crowd of more than 10,000 spectators at the MLK Memorial’s official dedication Sunday.

• In Iowa, AFSCME members and their families are leading the charge in a special election to fill a vacant seat in the Iowa Senate. Democrat Liz Mathis, a well-known local television news anchor and child welfare advocate, will face Republican Party leader Cindy Golding and the Constitution Party’s Jon Tack. Should either of Mathis’s opponents win the election, anti-worker legislators in the Iowa Senate would attempt to push through legislation, like this year’s Frankenstein budget, that a narrow pro-worker majority previously has blocked.

• In Connecticut, labor activists, community allies and elected officials gathered in New Britain to urge independent U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman to vote for President Obama’s jobs plan. Lieberman is the only member of the Connecticut delegation to Congress to who does not endorse the plan. “The time for political games is over,” said AFSCME Council 4 executive director Sal Luciano. Luciano claims that the pending jobs legislation would save or create 11,500 Connecticut jobs.

Nick LaMorte, CSEA Reg 1 and Area Labor Federation President, addresses thousands of people protesting the Walker-style attack on working people in Nassau County.

• In New York, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano is proposing draconian cuts in public services as part of an “economic emergency” bill that would allow him to unilaterally discard union contracts. Similar to Gov. Walker and Gov. Snyder he is creating a crisis to justify attacks on public service workers. Monday, a massive rally led by members of CSEA and joined by members of DC 37 and DC 1707 who bused in from New York City, members of the NY Building Trades and other area labor allies convened at the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola, NY to fight back against this shameful power grab.

AFSCME members, their families, labor and progressive allies, community leaders and worker-friendly elected officials will continue to fight back against the attacks on working familes in Congress and state legislatures across the nation.

Breaking News 

News from the front lines of our fight for workers rights:

WI: Walker’s ‘special-interest session’ offers more corporate favors
Scot Ross, The Capital Times, 10/19/11

OH: Ohio SB 5 Headed For Rejection
Tom Jensen, Public Policy Polling, 10/19/11

MI: Michigan’s budget could get infusion
Tim Martin, Associated Press, 10/17/11

OH: Redistricting future unclear
Alan Johnson, Columbus Dispatch, 10/18/11

WI: Wisconsin official whose house was raided returns to work
Patrick Marley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 10/17/11

CA: 30 Under 30 San Diego County Leader No. 18: Geshalem Perez
Encinitas Patch, 10/18/11

IN: Union rally calls for bridge repairs
Jeff Harrell, South Bend Tribune, 10/18/11

ALEC Ties Bring Down British Defense Secretary, Threaten Prime Minister David Cameron
Brendan Fischer, PRWatch, 10/18/11

Action of the Week

Ofc. Jennifer Pierce speaks in front of a crowd of first responders, healthcare workers and elected officials in the Russell Senate Office Building (Photo by Khalid Naji-Allah)

A rally for the Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act was held in the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, DC on Wednesday. Speakers included Vice President Joseph Biden, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, several U.S. Senators – including Majority Leader Harry Reid – and two first responders who spoke out in strong support of putting more public safety officers back to work. Meridian Police Officer Jennifer Pierce (AFSCME CT Council 15) was one of the two workers who spoke at the rally.

“As police officers we are trained to run toward the problem, and I am hoping some of the politicians here in Washington can learn to do the same,” said Pierce. “Run toward the jobs problem and vote for a