We must stand by the unions for creating the middle class, By Rep. Ronald G. Waters

According to recent news reports, the union-busters are headed to Pennsylvania. Americans For Prosperity—a Tea Party group founded by the Koch brothers that tried to kill President Obama’s health care reform bill— now wants to break up the unions. Their signature is all over these attempts by Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker to take away the collective bargaining rights of public sector unions. Now, they’ve set their sights on three states: Ohio, Indiana and our commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Like the rest of the country, I am looking at what is happening in Wisconsin. I have joined over 380 of my colleagues, state legislators from 50 states and two territories around the country, in signing a letter of support of the Wisconsin Democratic legislators. I am also proud to join six legislators in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in signing this letter.

As a proud member of AFSCME, I carry my union card in my wallet everyday without fail. Unions created the middle class, and lifted up the working poor to create an environment for them to make a better life for themselves. For me, being a member of the union means standing strong with workers who simply want a better life for their children, health care for their families, and reasonable working hours.

It troubles me when Tea Party Republicans such as the Koch Brothers go after the hardworking people who have made our country what it is today. Union members are the teachers and the police officers, the firefighters and the construction workers, the nurses and the postal workers. Union members are the ordinary folks who get up each day at the crack of dawn. They take the early bus to put food on their table, support their families and put their children through college. They are not millionaires who are getting rich at the expense of the working class and the middle class, as some would allege. Rather, people who join the labor movement are the salt of the earth. They are for us, and we are for them.

There was a reason why unions were formed, and there is a reason why unions must continue their good work. If anyone has their eye on the Keystone State to bust up the unions, we must make it clear they are simply not welcome here in Pennsylvania.