| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 2, 2002 |
|
|
Declaration of Workers' Rights in Philadelphia Union Summer Day July 2nd Philadelphia, PA On behalf of the 1.4 million members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, I bring greetings and solidarity and best wishes for a glorious and happy Independence Day. We are here to celebrate our history but more importantly we are here to make history. Today working America declares it's independence. 226 years ago the founders of our nation declared their independence from a foreign king who ignored their concerns, denied them their rights and took the wealth that they worked for. Today we are 21st century patriots who will die for our country to protect our communities and to defend our families. We are declaring our independence from corporate kings who ignore our needs, deny us our rights, and take the wealth we work for. Working America and corporate America live in two different worlds. In the past decade, profits have risen to all time highs while the number of workers covered by real pensions has sunk to an all time low. Corporate CEO salaries have soared while the minimum wage has fallen to its lowest point in four years. Corporate bonuses are breaking the bank while the lack of adequate health care coverage is jeopardizing working families. Corporations like Enron and WorldCom are cooking their books and deceiving investors, wiping out workers' retirement savings and job security. Corporate America has betrayed working America. We do the work and they take the wealth. The founders of our country declared political independence from a foreign king. They fought for political independence. Today, we're fighting for economic justice. They deny us a right to a voice at work and seek to divide us by race, nationality and gender. The largest employer in the United States pays a wage that can't lift a family out of poverty, has no pension, and fails to provide health benefits for over two thirds of its employees. Across the country, Wal-Mart is on trial for violations of worker rights. Worker Independence Day marks the beginning of the battle for the future of America. It's a battle between our vision of a future where hard work produces economic security and human dignity. And the Wal-Mart vision where workers are disposable and prosperity goes to the few at the top. Freedom doesn't come for free. And justice can't be purchased at a discount price. Forty years ago, John F. Kennedy said a torch had been passed to a new generation of Americans. Today, I stand with the students and the volunteers of the Union Summer program. They will carry the torch of a new movement for a new generation of workers. And today, we stand here to declare independence for a better future for the working men and women of America. Declaration of Workers' Rights When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for working people to affirm the bands that unite them with one another, and to protect and extend those relationships as the laws of nature and nature's God entitled them, a decent respect to the opinion of human kind requires that they should declare those rights to which all working people are entitled. We hold these truths to be self evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator and the Constitution of the United States with certain unalienable rights, that among them are: Life; the right to provide for ourselves a living wage that will enable us to support a family, health behefits when sick and pensions with guaranteed benefits that will provide for us when we are retired. Liberty; the right of free association with others, to form unions without interference, threat of firings, intimidation and reprisals by their employers, union busters, or government agents, and the freedom to engage in collective bargaining to set whatever standards we deem necessary. The pursuit of happiness; the right to live and work free of discrimination by race, sex, age, religion, national origin or disability, to be able to raise our children in a world free of child labor, and a work schedule that would allow us to enjoy our lives, families and the fruits of our labor. In past years we have seen an erosion of these rights. The alarming rise in the costs of medical care has put tremendous pressure on our health insurance and caused problems in negotiations with employers. This has exerted a downward push on wages and pensions. Our pension funds are at the mercy of the Enron-azation of the financial markets, which are under the control of the greed of the super wealthy. We watch as our standard of living decreases as we work more than one job even in a "good" economy. Our children are left alone as school budgets are cut and after school programs are eliminated. Our sons and daughters are pushed into the work force at an early age because our families need the help and we increasingly can no longer afford a college education. And try as we might to address these grievances we find ourselves blocked at every pass. We are divided, black vs. white, English speaking vs. non-English speaking, native born vs. Immigrant, city vs. Suburban and union vs. Non-union. When we work to join unions to bring us the benefits of collective bargaining we are confronted with hostile employers, a whole industry of union busing consultants and weak laws that don't protect our rights. Worse than that, we must deal with government agencies unable or unwilling to sanction employers who openly defy these laws and harass, intimidate and fire at will their employees who stand up and fight for their rights. We cannot as men and women of principal allow this to continue unabated. We, therefore the working men and women, together with our representative from labor, government and religious communities assembled here today in Philadelphia, birth place of American Liberty, publish and declare this "Declaration of Workers Rights." We further proclaim our intention to commit ourselves to the promotion of these rights and to stand together in the workplace or ballot box to protect these rights and each other. And for the support of this Declaration, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. |
|
 |
 |
