Labor Day Festival of Resistance

I was born one morning when the sun didn't shine. I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine. I loaded >> Our proposals are not crazy, though the UVM Medical Center says that they are. Uh they say they can't afford it. That our asks are not sustainable. We answer that their priorities uh are neither sustainable nor ethical. They offer us wage increases that don't match inflation while giving their executives raises that were higher as a percentage on average than support staff techs or nurses last year. In fact, the average raise that the top 14 executives got last year was more than what many support staff and makes techs make in an entire year. They do this while publicly pleading poverty, laying people off, and threatening to close down clinics. UVMMC also continues to cut our healthcare benefits, making it so that the workers cannot access or afford the care that they themselves provide. And perhaps most egregious, they continue to propose uh propose takebacks on safe staffing language and after months still have not countered with any with anything on safe staffing for support staff except for the answer, "No." But this isn't just about safe staffing levels and fair wages. This is also a wider fight for the common good. We propose stronger protections for our immigrant colleagues. We stand in We stand in solidarity with our uh with migrant farm workers at Migrant Justice by encouraging the hospital to join the Milk with Dignity program. And we demand that UVM Health stop standing in the way of universal healthcare either at the state or national level. Our fight is only one small part of a wider movement of ordinary people standing up for what is right. I hope you all continue to engage with us in our contract negotiations. I hope you all continue to support the Healthy Living workers whose union-busting bosses make my bosses look like saints by comparison. And I hope you all proudly support Proposition 3 that would enshrine our rights to organize in the Vermont State Constitution. During challenging times as these most certainly are, I remember the words of MLK, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." If we organize and stand together, we will bend it sooner rather than later. Thank you. >> Yeah, let's let's give it up for Jacob Berkowitz and that common good bargaining platform. All right, next up. You know, we've heard a lot about what's you know, workers are going through and the attacks that they're facing. But next up we're going to hear about what our community is facing, the attacks that we're facing. And to speak on that, to speak on the Burlington Forward resolution, we're calling it the Burlington Backwards cuz that's what it is. It's Farid with the People's Kitchen. >> As-salamu alaykum. Uh my name is Farid. I'm a member of the Vermont Workers Center and the Industrial Workers of the World. I'm also a volunteer for the People's Kitchen project which provides free food at the events like this uh and also we run our community in the different neighborhoods in Burlington. If you haven't eaten yet, there is like awesome tacos there at the at the food table. Please help yourself and get some for your family. Um thanks to the AFL-CIO for sponsoring the food as well as Bad Skill and uh uh other individual donors. Uh as well we will also want to thank the Digger's Mirth Farm and the People's Farm stand for all the produce donation. Um Burlington has been struggling and just like uh most other uh cities in in this uh country, uh we we've had our share of issues uh including uh homelessness, uh drug use and addiction, and uh poverty and misery, which every city is experiencing. But, Burlington is even more notable because we had so far to fall. Uh we you know, Burlington was the Bernie Sanders hometown, and there were a lot of institutions that uh survived from that era, but is being dismantled by the neoliberal uh council, uh the the uh city councilors, uh and especially in the last uh 12 years with the mayorship of Miro, Burlington's changed, and uh what's been going on is really like they like to to blame defunding the police as if that ever happened, when in reality um all all the all the problems that we're having is due to the fact that our government has been privatized. And that what we're looking at, like homelessness, that's like it's just a symptom of the inequality. So, uh the latest that the Burlington's ruling class has tried to come up with is this resolution called the Burlington Forward Resolution, which is kind of like the MAGA, like uh it's not really like making Burlington great again, but it's more like making Burlington more like Killington. Um it's basically like you know, making downtown uh pay to pay pay pay to play venue, and prioritizing businesses as the voices that needs to be centered in conversation about how we use our public spaces. But, downtown belongs to all of us. It's the heart of our city and if the public has a right to access a public space like that, then privatization works on three different levels. It's you know, privatization of assets such as the sale of the Burlington Telecom. Um there's also privatization of the public right of way, such as downtown or the waterfront. But, the most insidious of all is privatization of public processes, where decisions that used to have some sort of democratic control are now increasingly being made behind closed doors by fewer and fewer people. What we see happening globally is also happening here locally. And what we can do about it is we have to deal with like the the immediate symptoms and um mutual aid direct action is a great way to meet our needs in a way that's dignified and uh doesn't depend on the system. We want to change the system and also we need to bring direct democracy to Burlington. Right now, uh every town in Vermont there is direct democracy mechanisms that voters can uh can use, including initiatives, referendum, and recall. Now, Burlington is the only city in Vermont that doesn't have this direct democracy mechanisms in its city charter. And so, we need to change that. Um please help uh our other project, Proposition Zero. Uh we need to get 2,000 signatures to uh put a charter change proposal on the ballot in March, which will give us direct democracy. I think multiple problems we're we're dealing with multiple intersecting problems that are very complicated. I think our decision-making processes should be upgraded and we need more direct democracy. We need more people being being able to participate. So, the future for Burlington is either you know, we can go with people who want to run it to run Burlington like a business or people who see Burlington as a community to organize. So, please choose the latter and uh get connect with me or uh any of our volunteers at People's Kitchen table there and talk to us about propositions here. THANK YOU FOR COMING. >> THANK YOU, FARID. UM AND I JUST WANTED TO add one other thing that um we have a panel uh this Thursday, September 10th, um continuing this talk and not just talking about what's going on, but also talking about real solutions, like how we can actually improve the lives of people rather than just trying to target people further and make people's lives be more difficult than they need to be. Um so, that's again Thursday, September 10th. That's going to be at the Contois Auditorium at the Burlington City Hall uh starting at 6:00 p.m. Um and then yeah, I'm going to thank you for everybody. Um I think we also have uh some of our other speakers have petitions they have going around. Please, if you see them, ask about it. Um sign their petition. Uh attack on uh one of us is attack on us all. Um and I'm going to kick it over to Matt for the rest of the day. >> Yeah, friends, another plug for People's Kitchen right over there with some really delicious tacos. Thank you, Farid, for feeding the people and fighting for what we all need. So, we're going to have some long games. There's going to be a little uh egg race, which is a way that you can demonstrate your solidarity. I'll keep on playing some music. If you got some solidarity tunes that you want to hear, come on over and let me know. And uh here's one that I think hopefully everybody knows. And if you know how to sing along, join on in. When the union's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run, there can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun. Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one? But the union makes us strong. It is we who plowed the prairies, built the cities where they trade, dug the mines and built the workshops, endless miles of railroad laid. Now we stand outcast and starving mid the wonders we have made. But the union makes us strong. They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn. But without our brain and muscle, not a single wheel can turn. We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn >> Yeah, my name is Elizabeth Dunford. I work up at UVM in our undergraduate admissions office. Um so, I'm also a member of UVM Staff United and I helped plan uh Labor Day this year. I am a organizer with Vermont May Day Strong. We are a group of unions and community organizations that come together basically on a yearly basis to help plan May Day as well as Labor Day. We also help plan strike schools that are kind of one-off events where uh people can learn about uh solidarity and striking. And then we also have a people's summit in the kind of late fall time period. So, we are Vermont-wide. Um sometimes we kind of get siloed in the uh Chittenden County area just cuz there's a lot of people here, but um one of our strike schools that we held was actually in Barre in May. Um so, we're definitely an organization that seeks to um you know, branch out beyond just the Burlington area, but a lot of events do occur in Burlington. >> Uh so, I'm uh Jacob Berkowitz. Uh I'm the president of UVM Medical Center Support Staff United. Uh and I'm here uh in solidarity with all these other uh labor unions and community groups uh because we're in a time where we need to constantly be pushing for for change that comes from ordinary people. Um there are some politicians here that are great, but politicians aren't going to save us. Uh it's you know, ordinary working people need to stand up together uh more and more to to fight for what's to fight for what's right. Uh in my case, it's uh fight against uh UVM Medical Center for a for a fair and equitable contract. For others, it's um you know, we have the Healthy Living workers here who they're fighting uh extreme anti-union busting. Or you have uh Migrant Justice who is constantly fighting, you know, uh for for better working conditions for for for migrant laborers in the in the dairy industry. And these are these fights are all one. And so, it's uh it's important that uh that labor that labor union show up, too. Uh I am the president of uh you know, it's a 2,200 person union uh at the medical center. Uh as far as, you know, what that means, it's I'm helping to lead the bargaining table at um you know, uh have been for the last 6 months, me and my colleagues over at the the VFNHP, the technical professionals over there. And then I just help run the day-to-day operations. I do a lot of the public public uh events and just make sure that labor is in the loop on the the other fights, you know, make sure that we're part of a cohesive movement and not just siloed in uh in our individual fights. >> Yep, my name is Vivant Bospine. I'm with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Uh and I'm here to celebrate Labor Day with a ton of working-class comrades, homies who have been in the struggle, and also homies who have just been struggling under capitalism. Uh right now, we are having a number of extremely important crises that our class is engaged in. Uh for our unhoused folks, the Burlington Backwards resolution that the Burlington Democrats have put forward threatens to install surveillance cameras, increase the number of police, and cut important social services, including People's Kitchen that's serving food right over here. Um and uh really speaking, this is a moment for our class to realign uh and fight together against it. Uh but same with the UVM Staff United, we've got our hospital workers who are fighting for a fair contract. Right now is a great time for comrades to stand together and here at the PSL, we're always here to fight when the people are ready to take power. So, the PSL nationally, we are the Vermont branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and we believe in working class autonomous power. We're here to build people up and make sure that that the working class understands that they are the agents of their own destiny. The capitalist class is extremely aligned. They're they're they're all each others buddies, but the working class is deeply fragmented and it's events like this at Labor Day where people are able to talk to each other that the PSL loves because that's a moment for people to raise their class consciousness and understand exactly what the system of capitalism is doing to tear them apart from each other. >> Hi, I'm June Goodman. I'm the candidate for governor in the Peace and Justice Party. I think it's time for people to have more power and the rich to have less. And that we need to gather and support each other and build community. Because it's community that's resilient that's going to stop what's happening in terms of the disaster, economic disaster causing caused by climate change and the repression that's coming down from the federal government. We came a couple years ago and I think we've come a couple times. We're also involved with the May Day event. It's somewhat similar. May May Day is the International Workers Day. It came out of the Haymarket uprising. Um and it was an uprising in the US, but the rest of the world celebrates it and the US doesn't. So. It was for workers rights and so was we see Labor Day as also being for workers rights. Uh focus of my campaign is that I want to see a just inclusive society, equitable distribution of wealth and power, and sustainable use of resources for the benefit of all. I think with climate change coming at us and a federal government that's willing to let people die or actively kill people that we need to reorganize so that people have power and that that we the state needs to take an active role in helping us build from the bottom and create a different a different system of a social services. More of a community care center. Different system of employment to make sure everybody can contribute everything they're able to and that we all take care of each other. >> Okay, I'm Nelly. I'm um work I'm on the board of Migrant Justice. I'm working today trying to teach the people in Burlington about the work of Migrant Justice. Many people know already what Migrant Justice does, which is really nice to hear. Uh we are we stand for workers' rights, for labor rights of the migrant community in Vermont. Um as you know, the big industry in Vermont is the dairy industry, which is worked in almost in its totality by migrant workers. And most of them without documents. So, they get abused by their bosses. They don't get vacation days. They they don't have weekends. They don't have health insurance and so on and so forth. Some of the really important work that we do is Milk with Dignity. This is a program in which we try companies to pay for better rights for the workers um in the farms. So, the companies would directly pay the farms kind of a a subsidy or um or an or a um an amount that would help, for example, give good housing to the workers, give them free days, um help them with their like cover the workers' rights, the workers' needs. Mhm. Ben & Jerry, for example, is part of the Milk with Dignity program. They signed up a few years ago. They continue to support the program. And right now, we are actually trying to get Hannaford and the parent company, Ahold, which is a transnational corporation. They have their own brand name milk and dairy products, Hannaford milk, but a lot of that milk comes from farms in Vermont. So, we want them to help the farms in Vermont that that produce the milk that they buy and sell to everybody have the Milk with Dignity program. So, better housing, less abuses, the right pay, and so on and so forth. >> My name is David DeLaney. I I am the campaign manager for Tim Ashe, who's the Democratic nominee for state auditor. And I'm just here to talk to folks. A lot of people coming together to celebrate Labor Day, talking about working class issues. And since I want to fly the flag, as it were, and talk to people about how the auditor can help reduce the cost of living and make Vermont a more affordable place to live. The auditor is one of the statewide elected offices like treasurer, secretary of state, or attorney general. But the auditor's office is is different in several key aspects. Most importantly, it's not a policy-making office. The auditor has no discretionary funds. What the auditor does is it basically examines the performance of state programs and comes back to taxpayers with a report on their efficacy. So, that's pretty broad. So, it really depends auditor to auditor what that looks like. But if Tim's elected, what you can expect him to do is to be laser-focused on affordability. Because Vermont is becoming too expensive for ordinary people to live in. The cost of living has gone up too high. Uh you've got property taxes going up, health insurance costs going up. Um and people are really uncertain about their finance their financial futures. So, as auditor, you can expect him to point out where state government is falling short in their affordability goals and where they're succeeding. Um and you can expect him to be focused on what strategies can be used to reduce health insurance costs, which are among the highest in the country for Vermonters. Uh so, you can expect him to be identifying strategies to reduce health insurance costs, to reduce the cost of housing, to inoculate the federal budget from President Trump's uh cuts uh to federal spending. And you can expect him to be out in the community. You can expect him to be traveling across the state, talking to voters uh in Chittenden County and across the state about uh about their interests and their concerns and how the auditor's office uh can help them and about what he's seeing in state government. And in short, I would say uh Tim Ashe will be an auditor focused on affordability. >> I'm Sky. I'm one of the co-chairs at Trans Plus Students of Vermont. We are a student-led organization, primarily of students, but not entirely, that brings together trans people in our community um for organizing and just general community building. Um And And we're out here to just kind of get some recruitment, get some action going. Um we were at May Day. We had a Trans Day of Visibility rally on campus. Um on UVM campus, but we're also We have members from Champlain, from St. Mike's, from CCV, um who are all with us today. So, I'm one of the co-chairs, so I'm kind of the one the designated speaker. I'm kind of the designated like on-camera person. I spoke at May Day. Um but we build We're We of have community action of trying to get people out to go to events, but also just kind of make friends, honestly, and just have that connection of us not all being alone. T-Plus has expanded a lot over the last year. Um we were primarily on UVM campus until our co-chair other co- my other co-chair Ryan joined us um early last semester. Um yeah, so we're just trying to expand our reach. >> So, my name is Nana. Um I'm one of the co-chairs of the Green Mountain Democratic Socialists of America. Um you know, we're out here today to I think kind of just celebrate workers, celebrate our labor, um hang out with other workers, talk about the struggles and the fights that we still have going on. I've been organizing in Vermont specifically for a couple of years now. Um and I was a part of you know, last couple years for Labor Day and May Day and things like that. Uh DSA, Democratic Socialists of America, um we are a uh worker organization, we're a mass organization. Um uh I'm one of the co-chairs, which is kind of like the I guess president, if you will. Um so uh I kind of manage a lot of uh our higher-level stuff, but we're a organization that um helps get socialists elected, um helps uh you know, work for uh working-class interests, helps get uh you know, uh helps people form uh unions, get involved in their unions. Um and uh yeah, we we do a lot of like local projects around that, and we've actually got a couple of candidates uh that we got and helped uh we helped get uh elected this year. So, in the Senate, you know, it's it's still the primaries, but you know, I would say a lot of them are probably uh true wins, but uh Tanya Vyhovsky, um we have uh Jeffrey we have Matt Ghile, Minouski, I live in Minouski, and then we have Adam Franz, and we're currently running Alexander Barbella who is in Franklin County for Senate. >> Yeah, my name is Brian. I organize with BTV Cop Watch and we are a group that gives know your rights trainings and also helps people become comfortable with documenting law enforcement activity. Just out here to you know, have solidarity with everybody out here celebrating the labor movement and handing out some literature. We've been I've been at this event like a few times over the years. I'm it's been a few years since I've been tabling. Like I've generally helped with traffic safety marshaling stuff. If there's a march I'm usually doing that, but it's nice to be out here getting to connect with people a little bit more. >> Yeah, yeah, we're just a group of community members. I think organization is a strong word. I think like more of a network of people who are dedicated to keeping an eye on police and hopes that when you do so they'll kind of act a little bit better. We started back in 2019 in response to a couple of body cam videos that were released by the Burlington Police Department of like terrible violence against some black neighbors and we've been trying to do trainings and kind of group shifts around town. Group sensor. >> My name is Hannah Miller and I am here with a group called Teach Out Vermont and we are a zero budget community building organization that is trying to help LGBTQ educators in Vermont find each other and support each other in our professional environments. Education kind of touches everything. So, in some capacity, yes. I'd say some ways we're connected to the people here are that we often show up at the same places cuz we share a lot of the same values. Um I would also say that a lot of people here send their kids to public schools in Vermont and we are the teachers in public schools in Vermont and so we're connected in that way. And um we probably have a pretty similar vision for what we know is possible in Vermont for supporting our workers. I am part of the core organizing team with two other um core educators in Vermont. We are um public school educators and university educators and we get together and try to find ways to help other queer educators in Vermont find each other and connect and support each other and um to create a space where we can come and talk about challenges we may be facing in our professional environments. Uh hold on. Goals cuz we're teachers, you know, we have goals. We have a mission. Okay, so here's our mission. Our mission is to create a supportive network of LGBTQ educators in Vermont or the Wabanaki Confederacy that is diverse, inclusive, equitable, and sustainable. That's our mission. Queer educators in Vermont, in our work so far, we've learned that we have a sense of isolation in our professional environments. One of the things we say is that we're often the only they/them in the building, especially in rural Vermont. And so, we hope that educators or colleagues of educators walk by who can help them get connected to us. >> I'm trying. I'm trying to get out. >> I'm trying to