Silver Spring, MD – Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) International President Larry Hanley released the following statement in celebration of the U.S. Independence Day.
“The Amalgamated Transit Union joins Americans in celebrating Independence Day for our nation. This weekend as we watch the spectacular firework displays and attend picnics and parades with our families and friends, it is a good moment to reflect upon the unity that our founding fathers declared at the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
“Today our nation seems more divided than ever. Our political system is broken with both parties deeply polarized along ideological sides. The income gap between the haves and the have nots continues to grow. Americans are rightly angry that we are living in a rigged system that puts the American dream out of reach for the majority of Americans.
“Meanwhile some political candidates are shamelessly using this anger to forward a political agenda of persecution, xenophobia and division.
“As our founding fathers did when they founded our country as a nation of immigrants fleeing the economic oppression of a greedy empire, we, the working people of America, must unify as one to fight the greedy corporate elites who want to accumulate as much wealth as possible and continue to destroy the middle class.
“At the ATU, we are a union of growing diversity with members from Central and South America, East and West Africa and countless other nations. Together with our riders, who come from all walks of life and nationalities, we have fought to protect workers’ free speech rights in Grand Rapids, MI, to push back against privatization attempts in Boston, MA, to call for stronger workplace safety in Pennsylvania, to save and improve transit service in countless cities, and much more.
“This is the unity we need in our nation as we face a critical crossroads in our history. We can continue on the dangerous path of hatred, anger and divisiveness that has plagued our country. Or, like our founding fathers, we can do the truly patriotic thing and come together unified to fight for a country where every citizen will have the opportunity to experience the truths that the signers of Declaration of Independence pledged that day in 1776 ‘that all men [and women] are created equal’.”