I've been involved in my union for about 16 years. Recently, I got involved in the Occupy movement. I've been going to the General Assemblies, mostly on the weekends. Without having any official leadership, the Occupy movement allows everybody to have basically equal participation. It's very interesting.
I volunteered to be on the Occupy Outreach Committee because I could see that the Occupy protestors really wanted support from the labor unions and I basically helped coordinate between Occupy New Hampshire and our union, and did outreach to faith groups and other community groups.
One of the areas I was interested in was keeping the Occupy group from going too far in any one direction, specifically when it came to unions. In some of the initial discussions I had there, Occupy people were blaming unions for the current economic situation, because they think we get these huge state salaries and benefits. I'd say,
"Listen, we're not looking at this as just us. We, union members, feel that everybody deserves healthcare, you know? Everybody deserves a decent retirement. We're not trying to steer all this towards just us, we're trying to spread the middle class out to include everybody. It's not like we want a bigger slice of the pie--we want a bigger pie!"
Given that we have the first presidential primary in the nation, it was a natural for us to Occupy the New Hampshire Primaries. I went to the demonstrations outside the Republican Presidential Debates last weekend, with some other members of our union, SEA. We went down there together mostly to get the voice of the individual heard, rather than that of the corporations. We were there to criticize the current campaign financing situation where corporations have a voice over that of the individuals. We were there to point out many of the top Republicans' -- especially Romney's -- attack on jobs.
But it wasn't really specific towards Romney cutting jobs or Huntsmen cutting jobs or Santorum's attack on social issues; it was more to say, "Your goals are not focused on solving the economic problems of the middle class - and they should be."
The top thing I'm happy to see with Occupy is how it gives younger people this ability to become involved in the process and become active in demonstrating their concerns. I've never seen so many young people demonstrating like this since the days of the protests against the Vietnam War. In addition to providing our youth with a cause, the Occupy movement dramatically expands and unites our base of allies, resulting in a stronger voice in our fight for the Middle Class.
Ken Roos is an Administrator with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services and is currently serving as the first Vice President of SEIU Local 1984, the State Employees Association of New Hampshire (SEA).
