Together, we will win in November

5/1/12

As classified employees working in California’s schools and community colleges, we live with the constant threat of cuts, furloughs and layoffs. Those of us who still have our jobs know someone who has lost theirs. We have seen friends, family members and neighbors lose their homes. Some have lost their healthcare and many others cannot afford to keep it. Adult children have had to move back in with their parents. College graduates can’t find jobs.

We didn’t cause this economic meltdown or create the mess we’re in, but there are those who want to blame us. They want to strip us of our rights, destroy our pensions and privatize our jobs. This is wrong and must end now.

It is time to invest in public education and protect the future of our children. It’s time to rebuild, not tear down the middle class; to honor, not attack union members and what we do for our students. Together we can make it happen—right now in 2012. By taking action, we’ll improve our future, our working conditions and our standard of living, while helping public education.

As CSEA members and classified employees, we need to protect our rights to raise our collective voice on the many issues that affect us—public education funding, health and retirement security, and our right to participate in political action. These things that we hold dear are under attack. There are those who want to take away our rights and destroy the middle class that our parents and grandparents built. Our very right to bargain collectively and enforce the protections of our union contract is in jeopardy.

There is a measure that has been placed on the November ballot by Orange County millionaires, the Special Exemptions Act, which makes false claims about campaign finance reform.

Its corporate backers claim this ballot initiative is about special interests, but it’s really about protecting their interests. It is designed to strip middle-class workers from having a voice in political action. Proponents claim it would rein in campaign contributions by both unions and corporations. But in fact, the deceptive wording of the initiative specifically targets union members, while a big loophole leaves corporate campaign contributions essentially unscathed and unchecked.

If we were to be weakened by passage of the Special Exemptions Act and less able to fight back, they would return to finish us off by taking away our collective bargaining rights, Education Code protections and our hard-earned pensions. We wouldn’t be able to fight back to stop them when they come to strip away everything CSEA has fought for and won over the past 86 years.

The challenge we face is not about the right or the left. It is about right and wrong.

The choice is clear.

We must, and will, take action to preserve our right to speak out and to advocate for public education. We will act right now to provide desperately needed funding for California’s public schools and community colleges by passing a funding initiative.

By working together, our actions will decide the outcome of the 2012 elections. We are determined, once and for all, to end the nightmare of cuts, layoffs and furloughs.

We are proud of the work you do in our schools and communities every day. I am confident that we will be successful. Together we will win.