Union Members Demand "Hands Off" Unions, Workers' Rights, Health Care, & Social Security
Erin Oberson, RN (MSNA) raises a fist at the Hands Off rally in Augusta.
Union members from all over Maine joined thousands of Mainers last Saturday at more than 20 Hands Off rallies across the state to oppose President Trump's abolishing of collective bargaining rights for federal workers and efforts cut Medicaid, the VA, Social Security, public health and more. Below is a speech Erin Oberson, a member of the Maine State Nurses Association, gave at the rally in Augusta.
We nurses are protectors of public health and advocates for our patients. We know – through both science and experience – that health is not just about medical treatment. It’s also about the world we live in – our jobs, our families, our communities, and the support systems we ALL rely on. Those include Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Veterans Affairs Administration.
Right now, those support systems are under attack. The current administration wants to weaken and privatize these programs that have helped millions of people stay alive, housed, and cared for. Without these programs, our most vulnerable seniors, low-income families, people with disabilities, and veterans will suffer.
And while they are attacking social programs, they are also stripping away protected union rights from federal workers, including 15,000 of our VA nurses. They know that when we are united, we can hold them accountable. So, they are trying to break our solidarity! We won’t LET them!
Why is the current administration doing this? Because they don’t believe in a society where we take care of each other. They want a society where the wealthy and powerful get richer while the rest of us struggle. They say people should be responsible for only themselves – at the same time handing out billions in tax breaks, subsidies, and bailouts to giant corporations.
To be clear: Our nation’s public programs were created for a reason – during times of struggle like the Great Depression, the World Wars, and Vietnam. During times when our economic system failed everyday people. Seniors were dying in poverty, veterans were left without care, and millions of Americans lacked basic services to live.
And you know what? The administration KNOWS these are popular programs with voters so they can’t get rid of them overnight. Instead, they have a plan to turn these public programs into money-making systems for private corporations.
They are trying to pave the way for their billionaire besties to skim money off the top. For example, they can help seniors “manage” their social security accounts for a fee.
How do they justify doing this? First, they have to break the system. They slash funding, cut staff, and change policies until the program no longer properly functions. Then, private corporations swoop in, offering to fix it for A PROFIT. We can’t let this happen.
We must stand up for a society that values people over profit – Hands off our public services!
We must fight to protect these public programs, and we must fight to protect our unions. We need to tell them – Hands Off!
Our seniors, our communities, our patients, our veterans – we ALL depend on this. Hands off our public services and hands off our union rights!
Stay tuned for more actions to fight back against these illegal attacks on our rights, our health and our economic well being.
IAM member Mark Vigliotta in Portsmouth