GERALD MCENTEE leaned forward and gestured toward those attending Council 2’s convention.

“You are the real American heroes,” the head of AFSCME told them. “You are the ones who make the cities, states and counties work.

“You are the people who build and protect them, day in and day out. If it were not for you, Seattle, Spokane and Tacoma would not work.”

The future may look a little bleak and a little hard for many workers, McEntee added. But he urged them to keep fighting, to keep building their union, which was their main line of defense, and to keep organizing more workers.

The audience — attending the 46th biennial convention at the Tacoma Convention Center — cheered and applauded. Among them were 232 delegates, representing 80 Locals around Washington State, and 35 guests.

McEntee’s words echoed a theme the delegates heard repeatedly during the convention. County and city employees make America work, speakers said, yet they are being attacked as never before.

“People have made a public career out of fighting government,” Tom Keefe, columnist for the Teamsters Northwest newspaper, said at the people breakfast held Saturday morning. “They slam the government and they try to destroy the bargaining rights of government employees.

“This is an era of unfounded anger toward government. It needs to be brought into check.”

Keefe pointed out that the population of Washington State will double in 50 years. Yet the decisions made in the next 10 years will be pivotal to the kind of lives our children and grandchildren will experience in the state. Their quality of life will be determined by county and state governments and the work that they do. But their work is being strangled, he said.

“I am one of the people who truly appreciate the work of government employees,” Keefe added.

McEntee — a featured speaker at the convention — said he tells politicians teachers may be fine people, but the first people to see students in the morning are the bus drivers and the school crossing guards.

“At school, they get some breakfast and who do they see? It is the food service worker. At the end of the day, if the kid cannot go home immediately, someone else helps them out.

“The schools in America would not work without the support personnel as well in all of those schools.”

But there is little money for those who run the libraries, the social workers, firefighters and people who are on the front lines.

“Every time we go to the negotiating table what are they talking about? Zeroes,” McEntee said.

“I admire you. I think you are doing a great job. You are out there, building your union, organizing.

“Workers see the union as the only thin line between them and politicians who want to take advantage of them. You have that kind of union here.

“We have the people and the programs to oust Bush. You can do it.”

Also speaking on Saturday, US Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat who represents Washington State, said instead of tax cuts for wealthier Americans “we should have been making an investment in our work force.”

Our future is about investing in people, Cantwell said. She pledged that she will continue fighting that battle.

On Sunday, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy returned to the theme set by the previous speakers.

“If we stop fighting for the people who deliver quality service at the state, county and city level, I hesitate to think what will happen to the quality of life in our country,” he said.

“If we were to turn over to the private sector such things as inspection of water and food and responsibility for our streets, we would be in desperate shape.”

Lucy said the Bush Administration is the most anti-union, anti-worker administration in the history of our nation.

The programs and policies are directed against what makes this nation so great, he added.

“The test of a great nation is not whether you are creating laws and policies to make the rich wealthier, but what is happening to our nation,” Lucy continued. “Workers in states, counties and cities, through the basic services they provide impact health, safety, education, transportation, water, sewer and the environment and are important issues as they relate to the quality of society.”

Lucy added, “We have to bring into office people who have an appreciation of the work we do and undertake a spirited defense of the public sector.

“We want people who value the work you do. You are responsible and we cannot do it alone.

“We need you more than ever.

“Now.”

Dugovich re-elected Council 2 president