Activists Support Union Drive At WYPR

Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 East 25th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218 Email mobuszewski at verizon.net; Phone 410-366-1637

Activists Support Union Drive At WYPR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 27, 2014

Contact: Max Obuszewski 727-543-3227 or mobuszewski at Verizon.net

WHO: The Baltimore Nonviolence Center was formed to foster and promote nonviolent means of taking direct action against injustice. It has been involved, for example, in doing nonviolence trainings.

WHAT: The Baltimore Nonviolence Center was asked to help organize a demonstration to support the drive to form a union at WYPR Radio, Baltimore’s NPR Station. So Baltimore activists will go to the station to encourage management to discontinue its efforts to stymie the union organizing campaign.

WHEN AND WHERE: Thursday, August 28, 2014 at noon outside WYPR, 2216 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218

WHY: A number of workers at WYPR want to have SAG-AFTRA represent them in collective bargaining. In response station President Anthony Brandon has hired the notorious law firm Jackson Lewis, known nationally for its anti-union perspective. It has played a controversial role in countless labor-management struggles. WYPR Radio will be a better station with a union.

The game as played in Washington, D.C. is set up for the 1%. If you’re part of the 1%, your voice gets heard in Washington. If you’re part of the 99%, you will be ignored. And those doing the bidding for the 1% rarely support unions. In fact, the anti-union movement has gone after teachers, police officers, firefighters and working class families.

In response, Rep. Keith Ellison introduced the Employee Empowerment Act with civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis. This legislation would give workers the same legal options for union organizing discrimination as for other forms of discrimination. Today, workers face numerous forms of discrimination and can be illegally fired for standing up for their rights. Companies have quickly learned to fire workers first and ask questions later. And a majority of the members of the Supreme Court are anti-union.

Thus progressive activists believe that Union Organizing is a Civil Right. So we must join in support of workers attempting to form a union.

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs