U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) told a crowd of union members and organizers in Baltimore that the right-wing lawmakers that he serves with in Congress want to destroy organized labor. He told the crowd that Republicans in Congress “don't want you to exist.” Cummings made the comments during a rousing speech at a March 8 rally sponsored by SEIU Local 32BJ.“As long as workers are not organized, they cannot negotiate for better wages, negotiate for better benefits, negotiate so that they have a decent pension,” he said. “In other words, [opponents of labor] are saying if we have control of everything, unions will not exist. They know and they understand that unions have power.”The Maryland-DC region of 32BJ is campaigning to organize private security officers in Baltimore who work for low pay and no benefits. A large contingent of 1199SEIU members was also on hand at the headquarters of the Baltimore Urban League in a show of solidarity for the organizing effort. Cummings told the story of his own father who, as a young man, went from earning 15 cents a day, working from sun-up to sun-down, six days a week in South Carolina, to earning a dollar per hour, for an eight-hour day, at a union job in Baltimore.Rep. Cummings is the ranking member of the Republican-controlled House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), a vociferous opponent of organized labor and a champion for corporate interests.- See more at: http://www.1199seiu.org/rep_elijah_cummings_tells_baltimore_union_members_congressional_rightwingers_don_t_want_you_to_exist#sthash.dfrKvXEP.dpuf