Thousands came out in Wisconsin to protest the governor’s proposal to terminate their right to collective bargaining, causing some to compare the protest to the uprising in Egypt.
More than 15,000 people, including public employees, union activists and community supporters, jammed into the Capitol Square in Madison, Wis., on Feb. 15 to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to strip away state workers’ rights and decimate family-supporting middle-class jobs. Some 3,000 massed inside the Capitol building where a hearing on the bill was under way.
Many of those at the rally camped overnight and continued their vigil on Feb. 16.
Walker has called for taking away the right of public employees to engage in collective bargaining.
The crowd not only filled the capitol grounds, but also the streets surrounding the capital and the “stay off the grass” capital lawn, according to one eye-witness..
Union firefighters, even though they are exempt from the union-busting proposal, came in force to show their solidarity with fellow public employees. One firefighter explained that when there is an emergency, they are there; and when a building is burning, they go in.
Accordingly, the firefighters led the demonstration into the capitol building itself.
Public workers and their allies held other protests around Wisconsin. Some 1,000 people gathered outside Walker’s suburban Milwaukee home carrying signs that read, “Stop the Attack on Workers’ Rights.”
AFSCME President Gerald McEntee told the cheering crowd in Madison:
“For 75 years, we’ve fought to make our voices heard, and we’re not going to be silenced today. We’re not going to let this happen, We won’t let him break the back of the middle class of Wisconsinites. We are strong. We are united.”
Walker vows he will not negotiate any changes to his plan and if the state legislature doesn’t pass it, he will force massive layoffs, crippling state services and costing thousands of jobs.
Many of the signs compared Walker’s actions to ousted Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak’s iron rule of Egypt, including “Hosni Walker,” “Don’t Dictate, Negotiate,” and “Dictators Will Fall.” (Check out Washington Post columnist Harold Myerson’s “Wisconsin Pharaoh Tries to Silence Unions” here.)
Mike Oliver, a retired member of the Communications Workers of America (CWA [3]), told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
“I am here to support my fellow union members. I am all for the governor balancing the budget, but not on the backs of state workers.”
Wisconsin was the first state in the nation to grant public employees collective bargaining rights. Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt says Walker is “using the Trojan horse of a budget bill” to change the long-standing state workers’ rights policy. He also says the Walker’s plan will hit at the private sector as well:
“This is an attack not just on unions, but the entire middle class. Because as we fare around wages and benefits, so do those workers who are not represented.”
Along with eliminating collective bargaining rights, Walker’s budget plan also calls for big pay and benefit cuts for state workers. A report by the Institute for Wisconsin’s Future released Feb. 14 estimates the cuts in take-home pay will cost the state $1.1 billion in reduced economic activity annually and cost some 9.000 private sector jobs.