Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) is given credit for writing the following poem during WWII, which has relevance to what we see happening today in our Nation and our state. He wrote about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group.
“First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
Here in Missouri, it’s 2011. It’s time that you speak up, whether you are a member of a union or not. For that is because of legislation geared to destroy the ability of our friends, neighbors and family to associate and collectively seek livable wages, reasonable pensions, health insurance, and job safety and security.
If you or a member of your family work for a paycheck, then you should be aware of Senate Bill 202, “Paycheck Deception,” which has passed the Missouri Senate and is headed over to the House. It is a direct attack on the ability of firefighters and teachers, social workers and nurses to collectively bargain, and is the same sort of attack on public workers that we’ve seen in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana.
It seeks to deceive voters in the August 2012 primary, and because it would be on the ballot it would not be subject to a veto by Governor Nixon.
The Republican super-majority in the Missouri Senate could spend its time creating jobs that would help get hundreds of thousands of working families back on track from this devastating economy. Instead, it passes a partisan political attack that is meant to silence the voice of working Missourians. Working people and our unions create a check on corporate power, and the CEOs funding politicians don’t want anything getting in their way.
Public workers are critical to our communities and deserve to have a voice at work. If this attack is successful, it will affect all employments, not just the public workers.
Remember Pastor Niemöller’s words.
Urge your representative to OPPOSE SB202.
