Quotes from Press Conference

Thanks Rey and Oona!

Here are quotes, guys:

Jack Ahearn, President of the NYC Central Labor Council:

"We are confronting an assault on labor that is so corrosive, so sweeping and so destructive that if allowed to succeed, it will roll back nearly a century of American reforms in the work place."

"Across our nation, public employees and union members are being made the scapegoat for our country's economic problems. State budgets are in the red and desperate elected officials would like to place the blame on those who work hardest to maintain public services. Teachers, police officers, fire fighters, transit workers, sanitation workers: hard working men and women who make up the middle class of our great nation and who represent the foundation of a strong economy."

"Dismantling the right to collectively bargain seeks to destroy the very principle many union organizers literally gave their lives to achieve. Wisconsin, the state where government workers were first given the right to organize and collectively bargain, has now become a battleground where a governor would replace job growth with public service job cuts to advance his own political agenda."

"Let's be clear. Attacking workers' rights anywhere is a step backwards for everyone. Attacking public employees is an assault on the fabric of our society. Attacking the role of unions in America demeans the very principles upon which our nation was founded. We shall not let these attacks go unanswered today, tomorrow, or ever."

Mark Maierle, labor leader with International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 317 (Affiliated with AFL-CIO), Milwaukee WI

"Unions work very hard to make their employers successful. A successful employer, whether it's public sector or a private company, is critical to this country and to the economy, and that's what union workers do. They're there everyday, they do the work, they do the best job, they make fair wages, they have a decent retirement that they can rely on, and they can commit to those employers because they know at the end of the day, they're gonna be taken care of. They have a pension, they have health care, and it's a win-win situation. And right now, there are forces out there who are bound and determined to make this a win-lose situation, and we are not gonna stand for it. We will not stop this fight."