Union supporters picket White House

WASHINGTON Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. ? Hundreds of union members picketed the White House Thursday but did not succeed in delivering a petition addressed to President Bush urging him to protect workers’ rights and pass labor-friendly legislation.

The demonstration was the latest in a series of events around the country designed to coincide with International Human Rights Week and bring attention to the labor movement. Rallies were also taking place Thursday in Boston, Chicago and Denver.

The Washington demonstrators gathered at a boisterous rally at the AFL-CIO national headquarters and marched to the White House, where they formed the large picket line and shouted anti-Bush slogans.

“Today, George W. and his buddies have turned the government into America’s number one union buster,” AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson said during the rally.

The AFL-CIO, an umbrella group that includes more than 50 unions, and dozens of allied organizations put together the mobilizing campaign.

Chavez-Thompson and other speakers encouraged Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act to secure workers’ rights.

That measure would require employers to recognize a union after a majority of workers sign cards authorizing union representation, provide for mediation and arbitration of first-contract disputes and authorize stronger penalties for violation of the law when workers seek to form a union.

Esmeralda Aguilar, an AFL-CIO spokeswoman, said the group faxed the undelivered petition to the White House after the rally.

Asked for comment on the letter, White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said: “All letters sent to the White House receive the proper attention and upon receipt it will be forwarded to the Department of Labor for further review.”

“The president stands firmly behind America’s workers and workers’ rights,” she said.

During human rights week, there are over 100 labor events scheduled at cities across the United States from Seattle to Miami and events in almost a dozen countries worldwide.

More than one- third of American workers, about 35 percent, were union members in the mid-1950s, and that number is now 13 percent. Only 8 percent of workers in private industry are union members.

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