AFSCME members rallied in Tucson, Ariz., on Saturday to sound the alarm on Project 2025, Donald Trump’s extremist plan to weaken public services and shred freedoms for Arizona working people and retirees.
In front of a giant shredding truck, hundreds of members of AFSCME, the Arizona AFL-CIO and National Nurses United (NNU) joined Pima County District 5 Supervisor Adelita Grijalva, Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford and others for a rally to defend our freedoms. Speakers at the rally detailed how Trump’s Project 2025 would “shred” Arizonans’ freedoms, crush unions, eliminate overtime protections, repeal the $35 cap on insulin for seniors, end negotiations for lower prescription drug prices, and more.
“You’ve heard what Project 2025 is all about and make no mistake about it, they will do it if they are victorious in November,” said AFSCME President Lee Saunders. “But the labor movement stands in their way. And we’re going to do what we do best ... we communicate, we connect, and we educate and mobilize and organize!”
The event featured a full-size shredding truck to symbolize the threat Trump’s Project 2025 poses to the fundamental freedoms working Arizonans and retirees stand to lose should this extremist agenda become reality – such as the freedom to join a union, access affordable health care and retire with dignity.
AFSCME Local 449 member Maria Velasco, of Tucson, told local media at the event why the threats posed by Project 2025 are personal to her. To her and her co-workers, she said, a Trump win might mean the loss of safe working conditions, living wages and the ability to negotiate contracts.
“To me, I really feel like we’re going to have to stand together and make sure we win,” Velasco said. She also said, of Project 2025, “I’m going to make sure that [Trump] can’t implement it.”