Main Street

Word on the Street: Wisconsin is Ready

Carrie Geenen – Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The last few months in Wisconsin has been a flurry of activity, a massive building of momentum toward taking the first steps in the fight back against Governor Walker’s attack on working families. Wisconsinites have been fighting for their families and their rights for six months now and the recall elections of five state senators are the first step in getting our state back to moving “Forward.”

The “shared sacrifice” motto is not sitting well with many Wisconsinites as there seems to be very little sharing going on. Governor Walker’s budget plan called for the almost complete elimination of collective bargaining rights for roughly 175,000 workers, even after those workers agreed to increased contributions to health care and retirement plans. The budget also called for $800 million in cuts to public education and more than $450 million in cuts to health care in the state. While working families take the brunt of balancing the budget corporations are receiving hundreds of millions in tax breaks, even though two-thirds already pay no taxes in our state.

Working America members from all across the state and from all walks of life have said that eliminating collective bargaining is not just an issue for public workers, it’s an issue for all citizens as unions have made this country what it is. They also know that taking away such basic rights-or as one Milwaukee area member, Frank, called them “part of the antidote, the only thing keeping corporations in check and on their toes”-is an invitation for even less corporate accountability. Bill, a member from Fond du Lac, pointed out the irony in how hard corporations work to keep unions out “they can’t pay much, but they sure will spend exorbitantly on making sure a union doesn’t find its way in”. Workers, both public and private, know that these attacks on working families need to be stopped and that the only way to do that was to stand up and fight back.

Eliminating collective bargaining, a blatant attack on working families, may have begun this fight in Wisconsin but that is no longer what is propelling this movement. Many Wisconsin residents feel like they were ignored and the long term effects were not considered when this budget was pushed through. Working America members around the state are concerned not only for themselves but overwhelmingly for those who rely on state programs and the future of the children in the state. John, a new Working America member from Menomonee Falls, described that sentiment as one of the reasons he lives in Wisconsin “up here we are just people who care about each other and care what happens to our neighbors.” Laura, an Oshkosh area member and mother, commented that “education is one of the most important things we can do for our kids, if we don’t invest in educating all of Wisconsin’s kids, I don’t know how we can expect them or our state to be successful.”

Governor Walker may have wanted to make Wisconsin a model for the country by eliminating workers’ rights, but he failed to realize how important our rights are to us. Now, Wisconsin’s workers are making the state a model for how hard we will fight to keep the rights that we have had for half of a century and have made our state as great as it is.