CWA Members in St. Louis Greet Christie at $10,000-a-Plate Fundraiser

A lively crowd including Missouri CWA members protested Tuesday as N.J. Gov. Chris Christie arrived in St. Louis for a fundraiser.

With signs supporting public workers and decrying corporate greed, a lively crowd of Missouri CWA members and allies gathered outside the St. Louis Ritz-Carlton on Tuesday as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie arrived for a $10,000-a-plate fundraiser.

"The rally was very energetic with shouts and spontaneous chants," said Richard von Glahn, organizing director for CWA Local 6355, the Missouri State Workers Union.

Noting that the crowd, about 75 strong, was about evenly split between public and private sector union members, von Glahn called it "an important show of solidarity that says we will not let working people be divided in the way that Scott Walker, John Kasich and Chris Christie are trying to do. People know union busting when they see it, whatever industry or sector it is happening in."

Christie stopped in St. Louis en route to California for his speech Tuesday night at the Reagan Library, where he took his scorn for public workers to a national stage. Just moments into his so-called "Real American Exceptionalism" speech, he hailed the late president for firing striking air traffic controllers in 1981.

Christie called it his "favorite Reagan story" and waxed poetic about Reagan's "courage to lead." He used that as a springboard to boast of his own "leadership and compromise" in New Jersey, where public workers, including 60,000 CWA members, are facing devastating cuts and changes in their health care and pension benefits.

Get updates on contract talks in New Jersey at www.cwanj.org.