When the AFL-CIO “It’s Better in a Union” bus tour stops in Cleveland Sunday, it will be a cross between a union rally and a punk rock concert.
Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, and Timothy J. Driscoll, president of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, will speak. So will Austin Keyser, vice president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers District 4, which includes Ohio.
Two punk bands will also rally and perform. Dropkick Murphys is a well-known band in the genre, whose tour has them in Cleveland when the AFL-CIO bus pulls into town. Brute Squad is a local band whose members all belong to unions, including the American Federation of Musicians Local 4.
The AFL-CIO “It’s Better in a Union” bus tour stop will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. Aug. 10 at Heritage Park on Riverbed Street in the Flats.
The bus tour started July 9 at AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C. The bus is scheduled to stop in 26 states. Along the way, the tour has and will include joining picket lines and rallying for laid off federal workers.
It has stopped at Veterans Affairs and Medicaid-funded facilities and hospitals that have faced, or are slated to face, funding cuts because of Trump administration policies. These include the administration’s tax and spending policies contained within the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” that Congress passed in July. Many VA facilities were hit hard by federal layoffs. The bill that passed includes Medicaid cuts.
On Wednesday, the VA announced that it was terminating collective bargaining agreements with several unions.
Cleveland and Canton are the only Ohio cities on the tour, said Mike Gillis, an AFL-CIO spokesman. He said the tour’s theme is freedom, fairness and security.
“We want the freedom to collectively bargain,” he said “We want the ability of workers to achieve fairness in the workplace with unions and security in their jobs and their careers.”
He said the AFL-CIO is supporting the Protect America’s Workforce Act. The bill seeks to restore collective bargaining rights, which include negotiating contracts and the terms of layoffs, for federal employees. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March that would exempt agencies with national security missions from federal collective bargaining requirements.
Both punk bands offer music with a message. For example, Dropkick Murphys “Who’ll Stand With Us?” from their album “For The People” deals with the wealth gap and the economic mistreatment of workers. The band performs 9:30 p.m. Sunday at Jacobs Pavilion.
“We’ll always show up to have the backs of the working class,” Dropkick Murphys’ Ken Casey said in an email to Signal Cleveland about why the band is participating in the Cleveland stop of the bus tour. “Dropkick Murphys is for the people.”
In addition to being a musician, Hector “Sonny” Alvarado II of Brute Squad is Cleveland district chair for the Utility Workers Union of America. His band is performing because of the bus tour’s message.
“I wholeheartedly agree that ‘It’s Better in a Union,’” he said. “We have our own voice as workers. Everything is not dictated to us. We have a seat at the table.”