Town Halls: 'It's Essential to Tell Them How Their Decisions Affect Us'

Minnesota CWAers Speak Up for Workers, Families During State Shutdown

As CWA members across the country gear up for town hall meetings when federal lawmakers head home in August, Minnesota activists are getting good practice at holding legislators accountable.

During the state government's three-week shutdown, union members and allies turned out for town hall events to question legislators about their budget priorities and concerns for working families.

The shutdown, forced by Republicans who refused to raise taxes on millionaires, ended Wednesday with a budget deal that involves more borrowing but no new tax revenue.

"We need services now more than ever, and all the Republicans keep saying is that 'We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem,'" said Cheryl Gella, Legislative Political Action Team coordinator for CWA Local 7250, recalling some of the issues she, fellow CWA members and 50 other concerned citizens raised at a town hall meeting last week in Blaine, near Minneapolis.

Local 7250 LPAT coordinator Cheryl Gella and other Minneapolis-area union members turned out last week for a town hall meeting to hold lawmakers accountable for the state's government shutdown. Gella stands near the empty chair of Republican state Sen. Pam Wolf, who failed to show.

The Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation hosted the meeting and invited State. Rep. Tim Sanders and Sen. Pam Wolf, both Republicans, to attend. Only Sanders showed up. Even though he listened, Gella said no one seemed to be able to get through to him as he parroted the "spending, not revenues" line.

"Someone from the Transit Workers came up and said he'd be laid off if they cut transit funding, which they are doing, there were teachers who talked about what's happening to education, a single woman who is a realtor and has no health care," Gella said, listing just a few of the speakers.

With 21-year-old twins in college, she raised the dual issues of soaring tuition and dire funding cuts for state universities. "I'm concerned about education, I'm concerned about our roads and bridges, I'm concerned about the accountability that the state should have for their citizens," Gella said. But when she asked Sanders why he wouldn't budge on taxes, he simply repeated his talking points.

Still, Gella refuses to be discouraged. She's planning to attend more town hall meetings, speak out whenever possible and continue her practice of writing emails and making phone calls to elected leaders. She encourages all CWA members to join her.

"It's absolutely essential that we take advantage of every opportunity to speak directly to our legislators and members of Congress, to tell them how their decisions affect us personally," Gella said.