Thousands Rally In Philadelphia Against Wisconsin Governor's Anti-Union Efforts
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Organized labor in Philadelphia officially entered the "Battle of Wisconsin" today with a boisterous rally across from City Hall.
It was a massive show of support for unionized workers in the Dairy State.
The overarching theme of the rally was "We Are One," as thousands of people from virtually every union in the area got together to hear their leaders talk about what they see as a full-frontal assault on organized labor by Wisconsin governor Scott Walker.
"Our message today is that they're not trying to balance the budget -- they're trying to destroy collective bargaining," AFL-CIO Philadelphia president Pat Eiding told the crowd, estimated in the thousands. "They're trying to destroy the only thing we have from being poor, to being able to be the middle class. It's our working people they're coming after!"
And if Walker succeeds, Eiding added, labor leaders fear the crush-the-unions movement will spread to all corners of America.
Watch this video...
Reported by Pat Kurtz, KYW Newsradio 1060.
