Union supporters rallied Monday against legislation they claim would result in union busting.

“We cannot sit on the couch and watch our state and our jobs and our rights be stolen from us any longer,” Oklahoma City emergency dispatcher Shannon Nealy told about 400 people gathered outside the state Capitol. “We must take action.”

Nealy is chairman of the Oklahoma City chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which was joined at the rally by dozens of other public and private sector unions.

The gathering showed organized labor in Oklahoma is united in opposition to Republican-backed measures that would affect public employee unions, said Jimmy Curry, president of the Oklahoma chapter of the AFL-CIO.

Among the proposals the unions oppose are bills to repeal collective bargaining rights for nonuniformed city employees and change how cities handle disputes with public safety unions.

Financial woes

Several Republican legislators say public employee unions have made government personnel costs too expensive in Oklahoma. The legislation they have proposed mostly targets city employee unions because most state workers are not unionized.

Raanon Adams, president of the Lawton firefighter union, said Republicans are mischaracterizing the role of unions.

“We did not start or cause the financial problems that are going on in this state, but we are the ones paying for it,” Adams said.

Adams said if unions see their collective bargaining rights repealed, other unions will be “next on the chopping block.”

At the rally, union members sang “Solidarity Forever,” waved union flags in gusting winds and carried signs with phrases like, “Union Power,” “We Are One” and “Fighting for The Middle Class.”

A few legislators, mostly Democrats, came outside to join them.

After the rally, the workers went inside the Capitol to meet with legislators.

Labor and civil rights activists staged similar rallies Monday in all 50 states as a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., who was slain 43 years ago Monday while in Memphis, Tenn., to support unionized city sanitation workers.