Washington, D.C. – Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva today announced his strong opposition to the new collection of anti-worker bills offered by the Arizona Senate and invited listeners to tune in to The Ed Schultz Show at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time today, where he will call on the legislature to abandon its fight against the working people of Arizona. The bills, formally titled SB 1484, 1485, 1486 and 1487, make it impossible for public employees to belong to unions and prevent all state and local government agencies from recognizing public employee unions.
“Blaming unions and working families for a lack of jobs is the same insulting distraction it’s always been,” Grijalva said. “These bills are a slap in the face of every teacher, policeman, firefighter, nurse and public servant who makes our lives better and only asks for the right to bargain for a decent wage. This is about a harmful political ideology, not helping the economy, and voters aren’t going to forget it.”
Grijalva questioned when Gov. Jan Brewer and the conservative Legislature will begin to assess the effectiveness of the policies they’ve instituted over the past several years. According to a new study from the Corporation for Enterprise Development, Arizona ranks 45th in the nation in residents’ ability to build wealth and fend off poverty. The study is available at http://bit.ly/wiZYdQ.
“We cut corporate taxes – the jobs didn’t appear. We slashed education spending to the bone – the jobs didn’t appear. We closed hospitals for lack of Medicaid support – the jobs didn’t appear. Now we’re going to wipe out a hundred years of labor rights for public employees. At what point do we step back and ask whether any of this is really working for Arizona?”
Grijalva will discuss the Arizona proposals and put them in a national perspective in this afternoon’s Ed Schultz interview at approximately 2:33 p.m. Tune in to your local listing or listen free at http://wegoted.com/ online.