Massachusetts

The congressional Super-Committee recently failed to reach a debt agreement. However, 1199SEIU members in Massachusetts will not let that detour them from advocating for better jobs, more accountability from big banks and corporations, and saving programs for working families, seniors, and people with disabilities.

The congressional Super-Committee announced in late November that it could not reach an agreement after weeks of negotiating. During that time, 1199SEIU members wrote letters, made phone calls, held rallies and protests and lobbied Senators Scott Brown and John Kerry on the issues of saving Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.

The Super-Committee’s failure to reach a resolution was due to partisan disagreement. The Republican offer traded closing a few tax loopholes for massive tax giveaways for the wealthiest Americans while cutting programs that the middle class, seniors, and most Americans depend on. The GOP plan would have cut tax rates for the wealthiest Americans by 20 percent from current rates and by nearly 30 percent from what tax rates are scheduled to be in 2013.

Due to the threats by the Republican party to seriously undermine the nation’s debt, 1199SEIU members responded in kind. In July, 1199SEIU members participated in a “Medicaid or Millionaire” rally outside of Senator Scott Brown’s office to ask the senator to prioritize the rights of working people, seniors and people with disabilities. More recently, at the Wang Theatre in Boston, a “Stop the cuts” rally was held in conjunction with several community, social justice and labor groups in November.

Appealing to the congressional Super-Committee, the rally was attended by thousands of people and featured several guest speakers, all of whom asked the Super-Committee to not make cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security. After the rally, a march was held to Sen. John Kerry’s office where union members and allies took their message to the public and called for no more cuts.

In conjunction with the Occupy Wall Street movement, a rally was held at the Charlestown Bridge in Boston in mid-November. 1199SEIU members showed up in force. Marching from Dewey Square, the Occupy Boston site, to the bridge, union members chanted, held signs, and braved the cold and rainy weather to ask congress not to make cuts and hold the top one percent accountable to the rest of the country.

Now that Congress is at an impasse on the budget, it is vitally important that 1199SEIU members call their congressperson and encourage him or her to support jobs, not cuts in the new budget deal.

- See more at: http://www.1199seiu.org/though_super_committee_fails_to_reach_decision_1199seiu_members_still_active_in_advocating_for_programs_funding#sthash.YJNejc5t.dpuf

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