Statement of AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee: It Is Time to Pass ENDA

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.afscme.org/press/16424.cfm

For IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, September 19, 2007
It Is Time to Pass ENDA

Statement of AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee On the Employment Non-Discrimination Act

Throughout our long history, Americans have fought to break down the barriers that deny opportunity and equality to our fellow citizens, and to make the promise of America a reality for all. Through civil rights legislation and constitutional amendments, we have worked to ensure that equal justice under law would be a standard for all who work and live in the United States. The passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) will write a new and important chapter in this proud story.

Discrimination in the workplace on the basis of race, religion, disability or sexual orientation has no place in the United States. Yet, discrimination exists. Today, throughout our country, millions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans face discrimination without the protections of federal law. In more than 30 states, competent and qualified workers can be fired simply because of their sexual orientation. That is wrong. That is un-American. An employee’s performance at work should determine employment – not characteristics which have no bearing on one’s ability to do the job.

Congress now has an opportunity to right this wrong. Immediate enactment of ENDA will send a clear message that the American Dream belongs to all of us. It will provide needed protection for millions of our fellow citizens who face unjustified discrimination on the job. It is time to pass ENDA. It is the right thing to do.

[Traveling_Home]

1. I got some probelems with AFSCME

120 Arrested in ADAPT confrontation with AFSCME
http://www.adapt.org/freeourpeople/aar/chicago/report05.htm

Action at AFSCME



For Immediate release

September 12, 2007

For Information contact:

Bruce Darling 585-370-6690

Marsha Katz 406-544-9504

Gary Arnold 773-425-2536

www.adapt.org

Over 120 Arrested When ADAPT Refuses to Sign Statement Supporting Institutions

Chicago--- Today ADAPT confronted Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) on their support of reopening the state's Lincoln Developmental Center institution, and AFSCME's refusal to endorse any legislation supporting home and community-based services for people with disabilities. AFSCME responded by asking ADAPT to sign a statement supporting institutions authored by AFSCME director Henry Bayer, and when that didn't happen, Bayer had over 120 people arrested for blocking the doors, elevators and parking lot of the AFSCME building.

It's impossible to negotiate human and civil rights issues with people whose only concern is their own pockets -no matter how many people are warehoused and deprived of their liberty as a result, said Mike Oxford, Kansas ADAPT Organizer. They typed up a statement supporting institutions and asking for money, and then couldn't understand why we didn't want to sign it.


ADAPT has met repeatedly with AFSCME leadership, receiving a commitment from Gerald McEntee, the union's president, to sign on to legislation that supports home and community-based services and supports for people with disabilities and the elderly. That promise was never kept, and was one of the reasons ADAPT visited the Council 31 offices.


For an organization that has its roots in the civil rights movement, their treatment of people with disabilities is even more despicable, said Randy Alexander, Memphis ADAPT Organizer. The union and its members make a lot of money by advocating to keep people with disabilities and older folks stuck in nursing homes and other institutions instead of being able to live in their own homes like other people. It's unconscionable that the union fights for workers' rights at the expense of our rights. In ADAPT, we know that you can't have one without the other.

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