Scott Walker Anti-Union Law Draws Labor Supporters For Anniversary Rally

WASHINGTON -- A year after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed groundbreaking anti-collective bargaining legislation into law, union supporters from across the world are gathering in the state to to share lessons from the fight and rally for the governor's recall. Candelight vigils are planned across the state Friday night, with a "Reclaim Wisconsin" march on the state capitol building in Madison planned Saturday at 10 a.m.

The law, signed by Walker on March 11, 2011, after a weeks-long battle, stripped most public employees of collective bargaining rights. Labor leaders denounced the law as an attack on working families.

Mary Bell, a teacher and president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council teachers' union, said a record number of educators retired last year after the bill was signed into law. The Wisconsin state pension fund received 18,780 retirement applications from state and local governments and schools districts in 2011, a 79 percent increase from the average in each of the previous seven years.

"Membership has been hit, there's no question about that," Bell said. "People were taking anywhere from three to six thousand dollars in pay cuts, and they were looking to be able to support their families."

At the same time, union advocates said the fight has brought renewed energy to the labor movement.

"For individuals, the effect of all this has been absolutely horrendous," said Larry Brown, the secretary-treasurer of the Canadian National Union of Government and General Employees, who has been involved in protesting the Wisconsin law. "For the unions as organizations, it's been difficult, because there's been a loss of dues and so on. But for unions as mobilizing forces, it's had the opposite effect."

A primary focus has been the effort to recall six Wisconsin Republicans: Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and four state senators. Democrats, who picked up two seats in recalls last year, could flip control of the Wisconsin State Senate with one more victory. The recall petition against Walker collected more than 1 million signatures, far exceeding the 540,208 required.

Walker's office did not respond to a request for comment. The governor has said the law was necessary to balance the state budget and make government more efficient.

Beyond triggering the recall efforts, the law also established Wisconsin as the center of a broader power struggle between labor unions and governments.

"Wisconsin has really become symbolic, because Governor Walker tried to have Wisconsin leading the way in the attack on collective bargaining rights," said Mark McCullough, a spokesman for the Service Employees International Union. "Wisconsin was kind of seen as the front lines."

Labor leaders see Walker's law as part of an international trend of curtailing unions' power, often as a response to financial crises.

"It isn't limited to the United States," said Brown, the Canadian union representative. "Throughout Europe, and in far too many countries of the world the exact pattern is happening, with the difference only in the detail. Around the world, you look at Greece, you look at Ireland, you look at Portugal, in all these places the economic tension is being used as an excuse for anti-labor behavior."

Michael Whaites of the New South Wales Nurses' Association, who flew to Wisconsin to participate in the anniversary, said there was an increasing need for unions to band together.

"We know that unless we have a global response to these global attacks we're not going to win, but we do know that because we do have a global response we we will keep fighting, and we will prevail, " he said.

His note of optimism was shared among union organizers in Madison this week.

Teresa Marshall, the communications director for global public trade union Public Services International, said the mood was largely positive.

"People have been telling us over and over again that Walker may have been trying to divide or weaken the labor movement, but instead what I'm witnessing on an hourly basis is that people are pulling together as never before," Marshall said.

Stephanie Bloomingdale of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO agreed.

"I think the real lesson is that Scott Walker thought that he could put a death nail in the labor movement," Bloomingdale said. "And what he saw was a revived labor movement in Wisconsin, and really, we think, nationwide and worldwide."

Comments

[pollclaire]

07:35 PM on 03/10/2012

Great crowd, great speakers, 65,000 turned out today on an awesome 65-degree day in Madison.

Looks like Mahlon Mitchell will be announcing his candidacy for Lt Governor.

[Ginger23]

08:49 PM on 03/10/2012

AWESOME!!!!!

I hope a fine time was had by all. We were planning on going, but my poor spouse came home with a frightful cold yesterday. : -(

[pollclaire]

10:22 PM on 03/10/2012

Followed by dinner at Hawk's n' some beer to go with it. You'll have to come out for the victory celebration, it's mandatory.

[lindsay2727]

07:32 PM on 03/10/2012

Another GOP tactic that backfired. Keep pushing GOP and see how we push back.

[PatrickforO]

06:58 PM on 03/10/2012

It's TIME we all declare an end to systematic union busting! We've got to push back!

Once we're strong again, how about we move to repeal the provisions of the Taft Hartley Act that prohibit strikes for solidarity?

By the way, OWS is calling for a general strike on May 1. Did you know?

[green advisor]

10:50 PM on 03/10/2012

Unions have no place organizing government employee's against the taxpayers.

Unions have their place in the private sector to protect employee's from arbitrary management decisions which may not be fair. The ability for government employee's to collectively bargain subverts the election process because you no longer vote for the good of your country or your state you vote only for what is good for you and that is UN-American

[Ginger23]

10:55 PM on 03/10/2012

Oh stop it.

I'm tired of correcting this misinformation.

Government employees ARE taxpayers. Duh.

[PatrickforO]

11:21 PM on 03/10/2012

In theory that sounds great. However, government employees would then be subject to the vicissitudes of politics. How would you feel if you'd done well in your job for ten years and then the next guy that gets elected just...fires you. Sorry, but your argument doesn't wash, except for critical people like cops, firefighters, nurses and air traffic controllers. The rest should have the same right to collectively bargain as people in the private sector.

[benseccorp]

05:15 PM on 03/10/2012

Collective Bargaining "RIGHTS" Where is this written in the U.S. Constitution and the State of Wisconsin Constitution?

[PatrickforO]

07:05 PM on 03/10/2012

It wasn't ben, because the founders, as good and as smart as they were, were landed aristocracy, and the Constitution was written when indentured servitude and slavery were legal, illiteracy was common, and capitalism was far less restrained by law and regulation. They did not trust the 99%. This is why at first only the Senate would elect a President.

I will leave you with what Martin Luther King Jr said about injustice in his famous 'Letter from Birmingham Jail.'

" We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."

[pollclaire]

11:05 PM on 03/10/2012

Patrick, that's exactly right. I'm tired of the idealistic notions that the right is floating as truth. They don't even know their own history, yet they claim to be qualified to tell us the way forward. If the right-wing base ever gets the republic that the framers of the constitution intended, the one they claim to want so badly, there would be a revolution tomorrow.

[madisonhack]

11:11 AM on 03/11/2012

That letter was the most prolific piece of logical argument I ever read except possibly the Gettysburg Address. Thanks for citing it. Fanned.

[K August]

07:09 PM on 03/10/2012

Here's some history you might not be aware of.

"In 1935, when Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (also known as the NLRA, or the Wagner Act), it recognized the direct relationship between the inequality of bargaining power of workers and corporations and the recurrent business depressions.

That is, by depressing wage rates and the purchasing power of wage earners, the economy fell into depression.
The law therefore recognized as policy of the United States the encouragement of collective bargaining."

[benseccorp]

09:07 PM on 03/10/2012

Thank you and I know all about the NLRA. I worked for the Fed's for 31 years. The fed's actually have kept the public service employee's pretty well in line with the private sector. However, in many of the states are way out of control. My counterparts who worked for the state actually made up to $20-$40K more a year than I did. In reference to collective bargaining on the state level. Those folks need to rationalize that private sector has real gotten hammered the past several years. When there is nothing left in the coffers another tax levy will not work becuase there are so many that have lost jobs or are in between jobs or who have taken employment for a lesser wage. So they are in it with the rest of us, but they have not grasped that yet...

[eLucida]

05:07 PM on 03/10/2012

60,000+ at the Wisconsin Capitol today -- why is this not the lead?

(and NOT just labor !)

[VA Jill]

12:44 PM on 03/10/2012

Yesterday on Ed Schultz's radio show, people were asked to call in with alternate job suggestions for various politicians. Scotty got "the guy at Wal-Mart who comes around to fix the till for the cashiers when it malfunctions." Certainly appropriate, but would Wal-Mart even HAVE him?

[walkerhds]

04:25 PM on 03/10/2012

and moreover, why would they trust him with money?

[Greg Petty]

04:52 PM on 03/10/2012

one and done

[B-Dog]

12:18 PM on 03/10/2012

Walker has announced he is establishing a John Doe Investigation Legal Defense Fund. WI statute allows government officials to seek or obtain contributions to so-called defense funds ONLY if if they are being investigated for or charged with a violation of either campaign finance or other election laws. (this according to a 03/10/12 GB-Press Gazette article). Walker has previously hired and retains to two prominent defense attorneys. Seems like Walker is bracing for more than a recall!

[senatortruth]

12:12 PM on 03/10/2012

Walker is one of the Kohhc-owned

ALEC governors, whose job it is to

bad-mouth public servants,

and then privatize the government functions

and sell them to for-profit companies

with NO ACCOUNTABILITY.

Walker and the Kohhcs are

unamerican cremenals...

[pollclaire]

12:06 PM on 03/10/2012

Ad hominem? Never seen that before.

I own axe handles sharper than you.

[Left to myself]

11:22 AM on 03/10/2012

In his haste to mandate the ALEC agenda, non-native Wisconsinite, scott walker underestimated the people of Wisconsin. Unfortunately, the state endured a 6 month job loss while nationally, things are improving. No matter how much of the corporate welfare he gave away, the business atmoshphere here is unstable; just like scott walkers job. Now he's in a heap of trouble as he's hired 3 defense attorneys. Things will not improve here until he's out of office .

[senatortruth]

12:13 PM on 03/10/2012

And he and his kind

INCARCERATED...

[joecan1]

11:15 AM on 03/10/2012

He will cut your taxes by 2% while cutting your wages by 15%. Doesn't sound like much of a deal to me.

[green advisor]

11:40 AM on 03/10/2012

Years of irreponsible spending by liberals cannot be fixed in a year....be happy you live in Wisconsin where budgets have been stabilized and a foundation for growth established. Compare that with Illinois where taxes have increased 67% in the last year tollway rates have increased 100% in the last year and they still dont have enough money to sustain their spending.

Undertand that

[Oldchef]

12:27 PM on 03/10/2012

I don't "undertand" you. Is "foundation for growth" another astro-turf group of teabaggers?

[getoffmyside]

12:46 PM on 03/10/2012

Why did Scooter need the mortgage settlement money? Why does Administratiion Secretary Mike Huebsch say we have the same deficit that Scooter claims to have taken care of? Why do we have a budget shortfall eerily close to the tax breakse Scooter gave?

[clemmers]

12:38 PM on 03/10/2012

Unless you are an out-of-state billionaire who contributed to his campaign. Then he will sell you state assets for pennies on the dollar. It's quite clear who he's working for, and it's not the citizens of Wisconsin.

[mater]

11:06 AM on 03/10/2012

You Wisconsin workers are strong and brave and fighting a good fight. I can not physically or financially fight on your behalf, but i can tell you I support your united effort and i am proud of you.

[walkerhds]

04:29 PM on 03/10/2012

eloquently put, and resonating here

[mater]

04:37 PM on 03/10/2012

Carry on, brave dude! I lived in WI for years, campaigned for Feingold and Kohl with my kids when they were small. I hate seeing what's happening to Wisconsin. It is a long time til June and I'm sure it hard to stay strong, but this is a battle with only one possible outcome, for union workers, and you cannot be beaten by Big Money. Drag, drive or carry someone else to vote. If everybody brings 3 people, we used to say in the 1990s, we win--worked then, it can work again> So many people want good for you dedicated workers and your families.

[Yikes11]

10:56 AM on 03/10/2012

Scotty, you have a choice, either we can beam you up, or send you to prison; your choice.

[walkerhds]

04:30 PM on 03/10/2012

I'd prefer the prison option for him. Put his Koch... skills to work and good use.

[Atwill]

10:50 AM on 03/10/2012

Let Walker live on a state worker's pay for a year. oh yes, and do the job. then lets see how he likes it. He can do mine as an RN in a state prison. See if he can last a day.

[shwicksdad]

10:55 AM on 03/10/2012

I understand he will paying an extended visit shortly....

[Atwill]

11:03 AM on 03/10/2012

I hope so.

[Wallkil]

10:24 AM on 03/10/2012

WISCONSIN TAXPAYERS LOVE SCOTT WALKER

[shwicksdad]

10:27 AM on 03/10/2012

I would venture to say that several hundred thousand taxpaying public workers would disagree with you.

[OutToLunch]

11:11 AM on 03/10/2012

...also the million people who signed recall petititions.

[Left to myself]

10:46 AM on 03/10/2012

WISCONSIN CORPOATIONS LOVE THE TAX GIVEAWAYS FROM SCOTT WALKER