WISCONSIN VOTE OUTRAGES UNION LEADERS
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (PAI)—The GOP Wisconsin senate’s middle-of-the-night vote on
March 9 to approve legislation stripping 200,000 state and local workers of their
collective bargaining rights outraged union leaders. Several called it a direct assault on
democracy, at least one said their union would support recalling state senators and AFL-
CIO President Richard Trumka said the fed was investigating suing.
The uproar came after Right Wing GOP Gov. Scott Walker removed the “budget”
elements from his legislation, eliminating the need for a quorum of 20 state senators to
approve it. That left the 19 Republicans – the 14 Democrats had decamped to Illinois to
stop the bill – and they voted for Walker’s scheme, 18-1. The GOP-run state assembly
approved it 53-42.
The vote occurred as hundreds of protesters, representing the tens of thousands
of foes of Walker’s scheme who had camped out in the state capitol building in Madison
for weeks, jeered and booed. The protests will continue, with farmers on tractors joining
the workers at the capitol later in the week of March 11.
"Senate Republicans have exercised the nuclear option to ram through their bill
attacking Wisconsin’s working families in the dark of night,” declared state AFL-CIO
President Phil Neuenfeldt. “Tonight’s events have demonstrated they will do or say
anything to pass their extreme agenda that attacks Wisconsin’s working families.
“Trampling of the democratic process in Wisconsin shows Scott Walker and the
Republicans have been lying throughout this entire process and we have been telling
the truth –- that NONE of the provisions that attacked workers’ rights had anything to do
with the budget.”
Walker and the GOP “used the process to ram through their payback to their
deep-pocketed friends. In the most deplorable manner possible, Republicans rigged a
vote that stripped hundreds of thousands of hardworking teachers, nurses, EMTs and
others of their rights.”
Like other union leaders, including Trumka, Neuenfeldt said the Wisconsin
legislation represents “the Republicans’ ideological war on the middle class and working
families.” He called their action “possibly criminal.”
The first immediate aftershock occurred in Indianapolis, Ind., where the AFL-CIO
estimated 25,000 people would show up for a “We are the people” rally against anti-
worker schemes by the GOP-run state legislature, notably a right-to-work bill.
(continued)
Press Associates, Inc. (PAI) – 3/11/2011
(Wisconsin reaction, cont. –2)
GOP Gov. Mitch Daniels has already told Right Wing firebrands in his own party
to deep-six the right-to-work measure, as it endangers other parts of the conservative
agenda – such as banning project labor agreements.
Other GOP governors and legislatures nationwide have watched the Wisconsin
struggle or initiated anti-worker agendas of their own. Besides Wisconsin, Ohio and
Indiana, the hottest action has been in Michigan, Tennessee and Alabama. In that last
state, the target is the politically powerful state education association. The GOP-run
legislature wants to cripple it by banning any campaign contributions.
Trumka, speaking to a progressive conference in D.C., ad-libbed that the fed was
looking into a lawsuit declaring the Wisconsin statute unconstitutional. The U.S. Labor
Department has already warned Wisconsin it may lose $46 million in federal transit
money when it denies local transit workers’ collective bargaining rights.
Trumka also sarcastically thanked Walker for being “mobilizer of the year,”
saying his scheme has energized the labor movement to a height not seen in decades.
He called the late night vote an “absolute corruption of democracy” which “showed just
how far they're (the GOP) willing to go to pay back their corporate donors.
“Destroy the rights of nurses, teachers, snow plow drivers and EMTs? Done.
Blow up the constitution and state law to take away those rights? Absolutely. This is
the second time in a week that Republicans have changed the rules of the game when
they couldn't get their way,” he added. The other: Ohio GOP leaders threw a state
senator who opposed their rights-stripping bill off the state senate labor committee.
“Walker's over-reaching has brought us to this moment to talk about jobs. This is
the debate we've wanted to have. Well, guess what? Suddenly the debate came to us,
and we're winning,” Trumka said.
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Other union leaders had similar reactions:
Steelworkers President Leo Gerard called the Wisconsin vote “an attack on all
working people. These conservatives exploited a loophole to vote without a quorum on
legislation to steal workers’ rights. This is not democracy.
“As illustrated by the surging crowd of protesters who filled the capitol building
after the undemocratic sneak-vote Wednesday, workers everywhere, whether public
sector or private sector, union or un-represented, will unite to win back their rights with
their feet at protests and their votes at ballot boxes,” Gerard predicted.
Press Associates, Inc. (PAI) – 3/11/2011
(Wisconsin reaction, cont. –3)
SEIU Political Director Brandon Davis said the Republicans “used the nuclear
option to ram through a controversial bill attacking working families. They gamed the
rules and did this under the cover of night.” SEIU is seeking donations to join and step
up the recall effort against the GOP Wisconsin state senators, and Walker.
Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts compared Walker and his corporate
backers to politicians controlled by the 19th century “Robber Barons.”
"Like the robber barons and their political minions, the radical-right Koch brothers
and their lap-dogs like Walker and the GOP members of the Wisconsin legislature have
taken the position the only way to keep working families in 'our place' is to strip us of our
freedoms and silence our voices. I've got news for them: Your actions have only served
to strengthen our resolve to fight back. And that fight has only just begun,” Roberts said.
Teamsters President James Hoffa declared “the fight has just begun”: and
predicted it would throw Walker and his allies out of office. He called the late-night
vote “a tragic day for democracy and for the American Worker.
“Walker couldn’t win an honest debate through the legislative process or in the
court of public opinion. He lied to carry out the extremist agenda of the CEO billionaires
he carries water for and the leadership used illegal and undemocratic methods to do it.
From now on, ‘Wisconsin Republican’ will be a term synonymous with ‘political criminal.’
“They may have won this battle using unethical means, but we will win the war.
There are far more teachers, nurses, firefighters, police officers and truck drivers in
Wisconsin than there are CEOs and billionaires. When recall day comes, Scott Walker
and the rest of these traitors to the middle class will be thrown out of office. Walker lit a
fire that has spread across the country, not just with union members but with everyone
who depends on someone else to sign their paycheck. Our fight has just begun.”
AFT President Randi Weingarten said Walker and the Republicans “will say or
do anything, and use any tactic necessary, to pass their extreme agenda that attacks
working families who are already struggling. Their actions are both reprehensible and
cowardly.” She pledged to look into the lawsuit and support the recall effort.
CWA President Larry Cohen said Walker and the GOP senators “chose to
trample democracy to follow an extremist agenda that deliberately harms middle class
and working families. By splitting off the measure to deny public workers their legal
bargaining rights, Walker and his supporters made clear what citizens have known all
along: These attacks on workers never were about the budget. It’s always been about
denying working people their legal rights. The governor and lawmakers threw out the
rights of the citizens of Wisconsin to pay back big bucks corporate and right-wing
supporters. In doing so, they may have broken the law.” ###
