"I'm Fighting Harder Than Ever"

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and every other politician who spent 2011 beating up on public workers and slashing the services they provide should be forced to talk directly to people like Ellen Vidal.

A teacher turned social worker, Local 1088’s Vidal assists mentally and physically disabled adults, then heads home to care for two adopted children who’ve had severe medical issues of their own. So has Vidal, who endured numerous surgeries after a bad root canal. For the better part of two years, she hung a bag of IV antibiotics from her blinds at work so she could infuse herself every four hours.

And still, Vidal gives her time to rally and lobby and leaflet and do whatever else is needed to fight for workers’ rights, to protect Medicare and Social Security, and to try to save services and jobs in her state that are so essential to her desperate clients.

“The richest of the rich are receiving tax breaks and bailouts while friends and family are losing their homes and their jobs. I know people who have served this country in the military and now their families qualify for food stamps. That’s just wrong. I’ve always stood up and said something when I think something is wrong, but now I’m fighting harder than ever.”

So are many other CWA members in New Jersey, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and other states where public workers’ collective bargaining rights are under attack, the rights of all workers are being threatened, and severe budget cuts are destroying jobs, cutting back police, fire and social services and leaving roads, bridges and parks in disrepair.

Local 7250’s Cheryl Gella worries about all of it — will her college-age twins find jobs, what will happen to a relative with high blood pressure and no insurance, will she and her husband, a rail worker, actually receive their employers’ promised pensions and retiree health care?

“I am an activist because it’s still ‘we the people’ who vote politicians into office, and we can still make a difference,” Gella says. She regularly emails and calls lawmakers and attended town hall meetings when Minnesota Republicans shut down the state government this summer rather than raise taxes on millionaires.

The public pressure that Gella, other CWA members and angry voters around the state brought to bear on lawmakers led them to vote for a budget bill that restored state services after two weeks. Although it didn’t include tax hikes on the rich, agencies reopened, construction projects resumed and 22,000 workers were able to return to their jobs and paychecks.

“It’s absolutely essential that we take advantage of every opportunity to speak directly to our legislators and members of Congress, to tell them how their decisions affect us personally,” Gella.

In Ohio, Local 4502’s Dave McCune has seen state politics shift so ferociously against workers that members he never expected to be politically active have been moved to speak out and act.

McCune says: “No one can be neutral in this fight. “Everyone has to ask themselves: are you on the side of protecting workers’ rights or taking away their rights? I’m for protecting workers’ rights — for this generation, for our children and our grandchildren. It’s a moral issue, plain and simple. That’s why I’m involved, and it’s an honor to work side by side with thousands of Ohioans, union and non-union, who feel the same way I do.”