SPECIAL ALERT !! Protesters Draw Police

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.local21.com/1latest-news.htm

Protesters Draw Police
Chris Woodard
KTTC TV

ROCHESTER, MN -- They've been pounding the pavement for several months and now a group of laid off employees are going to such extreme measures, the police are getting involved.

Their fight isn't new but what they're doing to make sure someone hears them out, is moving the situation to a whole new level.

From the outside this protest didn't look any different than all of the other ones these employees have held.

The problem is, this time they didn't stay outside because they wanted to make sure their message was being heard loud and clear.



Same protesters, same spot, same community support.

But this time fired employees and their union mates are making sure they're heard by more than just the passing motorists.

Shortly after this protest began things moved inside where people angry with the hotel's new ownership delivered their message face to face.

It was only a matter of time before police got involved and broke up the unwanted party.

Taking things inside and getting police involved was a new extreme for the protesters.

All this despite the fact that a federal investigation into their firing has already come back in their favor.

Union member David Blanchard says, "Regardless of what had happened with the charges we felt that we had to continue to put the pressure on this employer to do the right thing"

That federal investigation determined the new owners of this hotel discriminated against the union workers and violated the terms and conditions of employment.

The two parties are scheduled to meet in court next month. But these picketers are still hanging around because for them, that's not soon enough.

Protester Gregory Wright says, "Holiday Inn owners can fix this anytime they want to fix it. They have to step forward and fix it, be done with it. They can do that without a court case. Why do yo need a court case to do the right thing?"

These protesters say the only thing that could get them off the sidewalk, is the fired employees being offered their jobs back.

[undergroundpanther]

1. Kick and recommend!

Funny here we see the rigid wall the wealthy erect to protect themselves from accountability for their wrongdoing.The rich thug bigot is protected by the state.Because the state is for the wealthy, the state will protect a rich man over a poor one.I think the rich need confrontation face to face in public and let them be burnt with shame and social ridicule when they exploit and become bigoted and use the state guns(cops) to avoid facing and settling a dispute like adults as EQUALS .I hope the wealthy owners realize they cannot hide from their own evil they do to others for money, forever. May all wealthy people who are bigots or mistreat their employees be confronted face to face,to see hear and if they are not a narcissistic asshole_FEEL, the effects and consequences of their own BAD choices and bad overweening ambition,that is inherent in their lack of a moral core and their bad personalities...the very traits that make them feel entitles to be a petty dictator to the people that make the'business' he thinks he owns possible at all.

[gratuitous]

2. Do you have enough goons, robber barons?

Are you sure?

Because this isn't going to end anytime soon, and while the American labor movement has been largely somnambulent for much of American history, it has woken up from time to time. And the results have been ugly and bloody. Holiday Inn can indeed fix this whenever they want to fix it.

[Forkboy]

3. Workers need to start ratcheting up the pressure on all fronts.

I love seeing this.