Date: Tuesday, October 1, 2013 5:00 PM
At: 450 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond, California
On Tuesday, October 1st, at Richmond City Hall, there will be a press conference and solidarity rally for the BART ATU 1555, SEIU 1021 and AFSCME 3993 workers and against the attack on all public workers and public services.
The BART managers have spent $400,000 on Thomas Hock of the Veolia Transportation company to break the union. This company is involved in privatization of public services and transportation in the bay area, nationally and internationally.
The BART board is also demanding that workers take a pay cut to pay for new trains when they have a surplus of $125 million. There should be a transit tax on the developers, corporations and billionaires who benefit from BART.
If BART wins, managers in every public agency will be making the same demands against all other public workers in Northern California.
Additionally, BART has bullied their employees and fired strike leaders such as ATU 1555 member George Figueroa on trumped up charges and also pressed criminal charges against this union leader.
Richmond city workers will also speak about the workplace bullying by Richmond City managers which continues unabated despite the removal of the Human Resources Director Leslie Knight. There is also an attack on public education through privatization and charters to bust up public education in Richmond backed by Meg Whitman.
The rally will be held before the Richmond City Council meeting which is at 6:00 PM.
Many employees are under assault including workers in Richmond who have faced systemic bullying by management past and present. Politicians such as BART Board representative from Contra Costa County Zakhary Mallett is joining in the attack on BART workers and it is time labor and the community elected labor and community candidates who will stand for working people and not on the developers and union busters. We need a labor party to really represent working people. We also need to unite all public workers especially those without contracts to join BART workers on October 10 when they go out.
For more information from BART workers
This rally is endorsed by United Public Workers For Action www.upwa.info
For more information call 510-233-5820 or 415-282-1908