Our Unity Can Beat Back Janus!

OUR UNITY CAN BEAT BACK JANUS!

The Supreme Court today issued its ruling in the Janus case.

It follows the lead of other efforts by the federal government to take healthcare away from millions of Americans, allow harm to the environment, undercut voting rights and recently sow confusion in the lives of children of detained families.

Janus was the outcome of decades of campaigning by billionaires to undo unions altogether. They are starting with the public sector.

Janus targets public sector workers, invoking a twisted argument that says that everything carried out by a union in the public sector - from fire fighters to police to nurses in public hospitals, and many more - falls under the First Amendment's protections.

This ruling allows union members to stop paying dues based upon their First Amendment rights.

Janus is not really a fight about the US Bill of Rights, but about efforts by those American elites to take down unions and build greater wealth and power. It is a head-on attack on the long-established rights of collective bargaining, without which working people are virtually powerless against corporate might. [See Special Edition, April 2018, "Janus is the enemy of working people".]

We can and will stop it.

Last Friday Governor Cuomo issued a statement of commitment for safe staffing standards. In the same statement he ordered the NYS Department of Labor under existing law to protect our rights to penalty-pay for meal breaks and rest periods, to overtime and protection against mandatory overtime.

The statement, together with the order to the Labor Department, are an enormous win for our union!

Our members led the way. Safe Staffing Saves Lives! This slogan was heard throughout the state-- in our meetings, and at community meetings, before legislators, town councils and at rallies. We made this slogan real: people in all walks of life came to understand the fundamental healthcare: only with enough nurses can the job be done.

We must continue the fight to achieve safe staffing and enforce our labor rights.

We have demonstrated our unity. We can and will keep that unity strong.

Strong unions protecting working people and the nation.

The fight against Janus is on-going.

Our unity can defeat Janus.

We are up to this fight!