I came across this May 20 You Tube video of a rally for three workers fired for union organizing at the Albany Airport Holiday Inn Express. Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings is there with Sen. Neil Breslin and Assemblyman Bob Reilly, and it's Jerry who is seen comforting one of the fired workers, former breakfast hostess Becky Wallis, when she gets a little emotional after speaking. The mayor is also the only pol whose speech is part of the union video. It can't hurt his re-election campaign, which I do not mean cynically.
Critics (including me) often complain about the costs inflicted on state taxpayers by the public-sector unions which have bought the state Legislature. But there is also a cost to not having a union contract, which is borne mainly by the unprotected workers as well as by the rest of us who must live in a morally coarsened society where people can be tossed aside for demanding dignity.
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