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Life for working people is being severely disrupted this month in Pittsburgh – home city of UE’s national office – by the intrusion of the G-20 summit into the city’s downtown. The heads of government, finance ministers and central bankers from the 19 largest national economies, plus the European Union, will meet here on September 24 and 25 to coordinate global economic policies. Big protests are being organized against the G-20 and the policies of globalization that place corporate profits above the needs of workers – UE and other unions will be part of those protests.
But thanks to the efforts of UE’s cartoonist Gary Huck, working people’s concerns will be on display – visually and through humor – just blocks from the site of the summit. Surprisingly, the cartoon exhibit received a very favorable review in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the more conservative of the city’s two daily newspapers.
Along with fellow cartoonists Mike Konopacki and Bill Yund, Huck organized the exhibit "Workplace Funnies: A G-20 Reality Check!" It features cartoons from some of the country’s best-known political cartoonists, such as Clay Bennett, Joel Pett, Signe Wilkinson, and Matt Wuerker. The exhibit opened September 10, in time to be viewed by many delegates to the AFL-CIO’s national convention, which was held in Pittsburgh the same week that the UE Convention was meeting in New Haven.