First, at 8:30 am I was in at the Laborer's Hall to show solidarity with our union brothers and sisters in what was supposed to be a pre-strike meeting of support for the new SEIU Justice for Janitors union. As it turned out the bargaining unit met for 17 hours the day before and finally came to an agreement at 1:30 am on a new, first ever, contract for the Janitors in Cincinnati. Our pre-strike meeting quickly became a celebration. For a new guy to this political organizing and coalition building stuff - it was a great way to start the day. Here is a link to their new contract.
Then I had to go to work.
Later that evening I met-up with two of my favorite Blue * Green activists, Susan and Phil, for an AFL-CIO fund raising dinner at the Convention center. Susan, who is an old hand at political organizing, kindly showed this new guy the finer points of political lobbying, schmoozing and mingling. She even introduced me to two current city council members and the Mayor's father. The keynote address was given by my favorite senator, Sherrod Brown. Although I had already heard him give the same speech twice at this Take Back America event it was good seeing him again and reminded me how important it is to have real progressive representatives in our Congress.
I must say though the high point of the event for me was meeting with the four - brand new - justice for janitors bargaining unit members . These were four Americans who had worked hard their entire lives and had been ill treated by the cleaning companies they worked for. Most of the janitors were hired on a part-time basis with no benefits, subject to immediate dismissal at the whim of their manager and treated with very little respect or dignity. These four individuals stood up - at no small risk to themselves - and demanded decency, respect and a fair wage. I felt like I was meeting with people like: Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King or Mahatma Ghandi. Ordinary people that came to do extra-ordinary things.
It was quite a day!
