AFTers march to the U.S. Capitol during the Free Choice Rally (photo by Kaveh Sardari)

Signs up and waving, AFTers marched to the U.S. Capitol Dec. 8, chanting "Union power's on the rise! Now it's time to organize!" and adding their sea of blue to a sea of green, gold and red as more than a thousand unionists rallied in support of restoring basic worker rights.  Watch video from the rally.

"This is a fight we will win because we have so many fighters and champions across the country," said AFL-CIO president John Sweeney. He promised that the labor federation will be activating 250,000 union stewards in workplaces across America to help overturn the "deceitful" Kentucky River decisions of the National Labor Relations Board and to elect a president who will sign the Employee Free Choice Act.

After the crowd finished spontaneously singing, "… hey, hey, hey, goodbye" to the current anti-union Congress, AFT president Edward J. McElroy stepped up to the mike.

"It's a little cold out here today," he said of the frigid weather, but "not quite as cold as it is for the people [in Congress] who are going home, who opposed all of our legislation for the past dozen years," and not as cold, either, as it will be for anyone who stands in the way of worker rights during the 110th Congress starting in January. "The work for us has just begun."

"These classroom teachers get to the point, don't they?" noted Josh Williams, head of the Washington, D.C., metro labor council.

Williams then introduced NEA president Reg Weaver, who reminded the crowd that our nation was built on equality and opportunity. "Some people are trying to snatch that away from us. We ain't having that, folks," Weaver said. "We have true solidarity as we stand here today."

Maude Hurd, president of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, explained that ACORN is the largest grass-roots advocate for low- and moderate-income families, and that while it's not a labor union, its members do see firsthand the benefits of union membership.

"We know and see how their lives improve when they're able to be in a union," Hurd said. "Organizing has been ACORN's bread and butter. When labor is weakened, we all are weakened. But when labor is strong, we all are strong."

Her words were echoed by Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights: "Workers' rights are civil rights," he said. "Workers' rights are human rights. And the most important right of all is the right to organize."

Williams declared support for the Democrats' intention to set a labor-friendly agenda in the first 100 hours of the new Congress. "On our shoulders rests a great responsibility," he said, "and we shall not fail America."

"We're going to get workers a fair shake at last," added Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., the Employee Free Choice Act's chief sponsor in the Senate. "I quite frankly am tired of playing defense. It's time that we played offense. Let's get this job done." [Annette Licitra]

December 8, 2006