A budget proposed by the Republicans that would gut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security… Hmmm.

A budget crisis in Sacramento where Democrats have already voted for painful cuts to offset half of the deficit… OK. Kinda.

A move in Costa Mesa, Orange County, to give pink slips to local union firefighters and contract-out local fire stations to a multinational corporation like Hachenhut…

Now our legislators are following Governor Brown’s lead to propose that the rest of the short-term deficit be covered by continuing the current tax rate, and putting it to a vote of the people.

But Republicans refuse to let us vote.

Democrats have a huge majority in both the Assembly and Senate in Sacramento. We are finally rid of Governor Schwarzenegger (thanks to the union members who worked so hard for Jerry Brown and other candidates who care about jobs, healthcare and retirement). Yet, in California, we need a 2/3 majority of legislators in both the Assembly and Senate to put measures on the ballot – just to allow voters to decide if they want to fund schools, firehouses and basic services.

As of now, every Republican has refused to allow us this vote.

Californians spoke loudly when they elected Jerry Brown and all the other constitutional officers. Californians voted to return all Democratic Congressmen and Congresswomen to Washington, DC.  Californians in Sacramento voted to take an Assembly seat from a Republican, the first time since our late Congressman Tom Lantos defeated a Republican during the Reagan onslaught on worker rights.

Here in California union members and voters are in sync. What’s wrong with the new Republicans?

In other news, the San Francisco Labor Council’s Public Employee Committee’s (PEC) negotiations over pension protection continue in the most intelligent, productive, and collaborative forum of any major metropolitan city that I’ve witnessed. The negotiations are being conducted under the leadership of our chair, Bob Muscat from IFPTE Local 21, along with the leadership of all of the public employee union leaders who have been deliberating these many weeks.

We are also keeping pressure on the streets to fight back against right wing corporate legislation attacking civil rights and worker rights and trying to eliminate workers’ voice at work and collective bargaining rights. We hope to see you at the bank action at Wells Fargo on May 3rd and gear up for Friday, May 13th at 4 PM when we will gather at Civic Center Plaza to protest the budget cuts in Sacramento which will devastate schools and state services.

And, if you have time after fulfilling your union duties, stop by the Democratic Convention in Sacramento this weekend, where we’ll be strategizing how to stop the Republican attack on worker rights and stem the tide to give the corporations control of how we do our jobs. Also, I am running for re-election to be the labor chair for the Democratic Party. The labor caucus convenes at 4:30 this Friday in Room 313 at the Convention Center in Sacramento. We will have a strong and open agenda. Speaker Perez will give us an update on the state and we will get updates from our colleagues at the California Federation of Labor on the attacks in Wisconsin, Ohio, and the California crisis that the Republicans are permeating. Superintendent Tom Torlakson and Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones will also stop by. And, as only labor and workers can guarantee, there will not be a silent moment in our labor caucus, the largest constituency of the Democratic Party.

Seems that what’s happening in Wisconsin is still the focal point of attacks on American workers by those who are too greedy to care. The ubiquitous Sarah Palin decided to hold a rally in Madison this weekend and supported the Republican’s unprincipled votes to eliminate workers’ rights, even after Wisconsin public workers, police, firefighters, nurses, teachers, and construction workers who repair and maintain our bridges, streets and highways agreed to concessions during this difficult time. Wisconsin is more intelligent than Sarah Palin and not many people showed up. (McCain and the Republicans must really be struggling with the lack of talent in their corporate camp…) Republican legislators are shameless and spineless and we shouldn’t spend much time dealing with the personal careers of a Governor Walker or a Sarah Palin. It’s Corporate America that is seizing this painful economic downturn to advance their anti-union, anti-worker agenda.

American corporations don’t care about America. If they did they would be lending money to stimulate the economy, especially after the U.S. government bailed out the banks that got us into this mess. Instead they are waiting to take their wealth and invest on the best margin, even if it means that the next deal is a non-union, outsourced factory in Mexico or Southeast Asia.

I will give you one sad example. My union, the brothers and sisters in the Bricklayers, Tilelayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC) is on strike in Las Vegas. Why? Because of the 30-40% unemployment rate and people “sitting on the bench,” the tile and marble contractors imposed a contract that cut high-skilled journeymen wages by over $9 per hour. Hey, let’s punch workers while they’re down. Take advantage of the downturn to increase our profits when work finally starts again.

Public workers, private sectors workers—it doesn’t matter. Republicans and the corporations that fund their elections will stop at nothing to destroy our voice at work, our rights, and our standard of living—all for a business model that is about nothing but Greed. The fights we are in now are defensive, but our resolve will be fierce and we will organize American workers—our union members and the million who want to be represented—to reshape our government to reflect the values of American workers.

This weekend hundreds of AFL-CIO Labor Council representatives met in Oakland, California to collaborate and reenergize our grassroots efforts to stop the extremist right wing attacks on workers in Wisconsin and throughout the nation. (Our political director, Amber Parrish and new community services director, Ramneek Saini, joined me at this conference.) After a wonderfully successful series of protests and rallies on April 4—where thousands hit the street in San Francisco’s financial district— we spent three painful but necessary days sharing stories and strategies about how we will not only fight the defensive battles to protect worker rights, but how we will elect representatives who support workers rights. We also agreed that we have to negotiate on our terms. Not the corporations’.

And let’s be clear: our agenda is creating and preserving good jobs as well as making corporate America pay its fair share. And we need to find paths to not only march on the streets, but to be effective with our message.

A real example: Saturday morning at breakfast some of our colleagues tried to act positively because the federal government didn’t shut down. That didn’t last long because it suddenly became painfully clear that the deal still eliminated jobs and unknown social services. How far do we have to go backwards? Why don’t we bargain on our terms? Workers’ terms.

The labor union movement is the only institution and constituency group in America that fights for workers and keeps a check on corporate greed. As our Labor Council President, Mike Casey, stated in his remarks at our conference, “Corporations wouldn’t be putting these anti-collective bargaining bills in the legislatures if they were afraid of me or Tim Paulson or Jerry Brown. They put these attacks on the ballot and in the state houses and spend their millions of profit dollars because they know the power of our union workers to fight for a living wage.”

In California, where our massive November Get-Out-The-Vote campaign elected a worker-friendly governor (against a corporation candidate who spent over $130 million to buy the election) and served as a model for stopping the anti-worker tide that poisoned so many other places in America, we feel even more obligated and responsible for strategizing on how to protect workers’ rights and create jobs throughout our nation.

And we will.

At our conference we shared best practices regarding job creation. Discussions included the worker-friendly transit expansion in Colorado, the jobs-creating legislative agenda in New Mexico, and the thousands of union jobs to be created in San Francisco, which I was asked to share, concerning the community benefits agreement (CBA) the Labor Council negotiated in the Hunters Point Shipyard—a deal negotiated on our terms which included 35% affordable housing, card check labor agreements for many industries, and workforce development monies to empower neighborhood workers.

Sunday – this morning – we were inspired by the visit of Senator Lena Taylor from Milwaukee, one of the Wisconsin 14, who left the state rather than be part of a state government that (behind closed doors) voted to eliminate workers’ rights.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been inspired by a leader who has the passion for justice and workers rights as Senator Taylor. California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano is my model of unrelenting leadership for worker and civil rights justice. But today I can say I have never, in the last few years, been inspired by anyone as much as I have by the leadership of Senator Lena Taylor of Wisconsin.

As a leader and legislator she left her young son and left the state rather than be part of a government that would strip workers’ rights. She talked about a roadmap to organize. She led the clapping when the music program started. She edited the AFL-CIO’s organizing “to do” papers in our packets (e.g. talk about workers rights, not “collective bargaining”). She shared targeting ideas about the political field plan for Wisconsin elections. She initiated chants – which we immediately obeyed. She stated that we had to stop making war around the world and if she had more time I’m sure she would’ve put together the offensive strategy for the Green Bay Packers in 2011. And damn! She cares about workers. She cares about justice. And she pushed us with the many paths to get there and keep them.

Viva Lena Taylor from Wisconsin: Viva the American Labor Movement.