(UPDATE: WEAC, the Wisconsin Education Association Council has called for teachers STATE-WIDE to call in sick tomorrow and Friday.)
I don’t really know much about Wisconsin, other that Madison has always seemed to be a rather liberal oasis. Recently, their new Republican governor has almost literally gone to war with the state unions.
State budgets all over the country are hurting…we see that right here in Vermont just about every day. Governor Scott Walker, since taking office has not only not negotiated with the state unions, he’s supporting a “budget repair bill” that will sharply curtail their collective bargaining rights, make them increase their contributions to their pensions, and double their contribution to healthcare. This is par for the course with Republicans, as they’re doing everything they can to make public employees the new punching bags in the public eye.
It gets worse. He’s actually threatened to deploy the National Guard in the event of a walk-off as his own personal intimidation force, and even after a flood of criticism, reiterated his intentions last night.
Thankfully, there’s been a backlash. Today, an estimated 13 to 30,000 protesters came to the statehouse, 1,000 of which spent the night sleeping in the building’s rotunda. Walker dismissed the impressive numbers, pointing out how there are “about 5.5 million people in the state.”
There have been signs that the public outcry is having an effect, as the Republicans in the statehouse have hinted they are open to changing some of the issues about collective bargaining, undoubtedly to as little as they think they can get away with. The protests are expected to continue tomorrow.
There are far-reaching ramifications for this, as if Walker is successful, other union-busting governors will undoubtedly be emboldened by this. Ohio, for example is getting ready to push a bill that would fire strikers and eliminate collective bargaining. Gov. Christie of NJ plans on “punching” the public unions. Ed Schultz has a good rundown, as well as as talk with John Nichols, about why this is so damn important. Must watch, it’s not bad for MSM:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
I’m so cynical at this point, but this potentially has the chance to explode across the nation. Let’s hope so.
The numbers that have shown up are about what you’d see in the largest DC marches in US history, percentage-wise. Damned impressive. But the “focus group” mentality lives on post-Bush.
I am hopeful we can learn from Egypt, and maybe this is the small stone that starts the avalanche…
notice 30,000 people in the street.Good.
Vermont is more discrete (yet no less harmful). Draconian doesn’t go over very well here, usually speaking, thus it’s more of a slow bleeding process.
You can see that the street and walkways, and a big chunk of the plaza are stuffed with people.
Here’s hoping tomorrow’s is bigger and that more unions around the country will start joining in.
Enough is enough.
In all fairness, if I understand correctly, the National Guard statement was in relation to the prison workers. I.e. if they decide to strike, the Guard is ready to assume their duties there to ensure no riots or escapes.
The rest of it, I agree with you completely on. At some point in the last 30 years union became a bad word. We need a new populism in this country centered around a livable wage. Something that respects the rights of all humans to a roof and a meal and something to do with their time.
Quick call out the troops!
This Republican Wisconsin Gov. was pretty freaking fast with the call out the troops bit.
Digby wonders, wither the Tea Party?
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com…
Russ Feingold has set up an organization — Progressives United (a play on Citizens United)– to work on this and other issues. More at http://www.progressivesunited.org. You can like it on facebook and see Huffington Post article. Feingold was on Rachel Maddow last night.
It was inevitable that Republican would turn their attention to public sector unions. In the 1980s Reagan successfully diminished the influence of private sector unions with PATCO and the precedent that action set for striking workers to be replaced legally replaced. Now less than 7% of private sector workers are represented by a union according to BLS. However, 36% of public sector employees are unionized – an almost irresistible target. Now, rather than taking unions on nationally it is more efficient to do it on a state-by-state basis where conditions are supportive.
The Wisconsin legislature currently has 19 Republicans and 14 Democrats in the Senate, and 57 Republicans, 38 Democrats and 1 Independent in the Assembly (Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau website). The protests in Madison may succeed in scaling back the Governor’s initial bargaining position, but I’m guessing that public sector unions will come out of it badly weakened; perhaps even with the right to bargain on hours and terms and conditions of employment taken away, or the State’s obligation to deduct union dues eliminated. Then next comes Ohio, and so forth and so on.
Unfortunately, the populist uprising in this country turned out to be the Tea Party. Union members in Massachusetts supported the election of Scott Brown to the Senate seat held so long by Ted Kennedy – a real champion of labor. It’s hard to lead a revolution when you’re down to 11.9% of the population (including public and private sector employees), but I would love to see unions join with other organizations promoting social and economic justice and give it a go.
The events in Wisconsin are quite interesting- whole school’s saw their entire faculty call in ‘sick’ and head to the protests; high school and middles school students, finding school cancelled because there were no teachers, marched in the streets in solidarity with their teachers by the thousands.
Even firefighters took to the streets- an extremely important development, since the 3 unions that backed the Republican gov in the last election (firefighters, police, and state troopers) were the only 3 unions exempted from the gov’s proposed legislation.
The Wisconsin State Senate Democrats have walked out in order to deny an opportunity for the legislature to consider Gov. Walker’s anti-union bill.
TPM has some other details regarding Gov.Walker’s budget crisis
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo…
I spent four years there, and worked four more for the now-sadly-former Sen. Russ Feingold. Madison and parts of Milwaukee are indeed progressive oases; most of the state is pretty blue-collar gun-totin’ conservative, which is why they sent a dingbat climate-change-denier to the Senate in Russ’ place.
But the labor movement still matters there, and the fact they could churn out 30,000 does, as my friend John Nichols points out, mean something. What’s important is that this ain’t-gonna-take-this-crap-anymore attitude spreads and takes hold, in the labor movement and more broadly. If we had the same kind of moxie as people in Tunisia and Egypt, things might be going a little differently.
Click this to see the opening for Laverne and Shirley. Wisconsin’s most famous working stiffs?