About 500 people rallied Tuesday at the Rhode Island State House in a labor union-led show of support for Wisconsin' embattled public employees.
Leaders from a variety of unions, including the Rhode Island chapter of the AFL-CIO, spoke during the Tuesday rally.
The message was one of solidarity with workers in Wisconsin. Union leaders emphasized that the rally was not a protest against Rhode Island politicians, who are largely friendly toward organized labor.
Wisconsin's new Republican governor is trying to strip public employees in that state of their bargaining rights.
The rally featured loud speeches, chanting and few hecklers too. One of the speakers addressed the heckling in his speech.
"We say unions make America. Why are we here today? We'll be here today, we'll be here tomorrow and you can heckle me all you want," said J. Michael Downey, president of Rhode Island Council 94, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. "We're here in solidarity."
"We're the people that brought you the weekend. The unions brought you the middle class and if you take away our right to collectively bargain, we have no voice in our future," said Mike Connolly, a retired city worker.
Union workers told NBC 10 that they didn't have any concerns that the situation in Wisconsin would happen in Rhode Island. They did fear that if the anti-union is successful in Wisconsin, that it would carry to the Northeast.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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