By Carrie Geenen – Milwaukee, Wisconsin
As the first snow of the season finally hits the Badger State, we find ourselves ready to face another legislative session in Scott Walker’s Wisconsin. It’s a good time to take a moment and reflect on all the damage he has done to the state of Wisconsin over the past year – and to gear up for more fights as he seeks to take our state even further backwards.
While Walker sits in the Governor’s Mansion and talks about making Wisconsin “open for business,” the rest of us are faced with five straight months of job loss. The people of Wisconsin are concerned about putting food on the table and what type of future their children will have.
“One of the top concerns in communities across Wisconsin is education,” said Working America field manager Kristin Gutkowski. “Day after day we hear stories about huge class sizes and teachers afraid of losing their jobs. How are kids supposed to learn in an environment like that?”
With Walker’s priorities it’s easy to see how we got into this situation. While he talks about doling out hundreds of millions of dollars to big business he is cutting $793 million dollars from the education budget.
Speaking of big business, Walker and his pal State Senator Glenn Grothman are busy yet again trying to give corporations the edge over Wisconsin workers.
Right now Grothman is pushing a bill that would remove the requirement that political campaign donors report where they work. The reason for this bill, according to him, is to protect businesses from the public – but not allowing us to know who those businesses support politically.
“This bill makes no sense to me,” said Milwaukee Working America member Scott Lyman. “People have less and less money these days, don’t we have the right to know who these businesses support before we hand over our hard-earned dollars?”
Grothman’s bill also comes at an ideal time for his buddy Scott Walker.
Not only was it recently discovered that Walker has 1,115 instances of improperly disclosed donations for his political campaign – totaling over half a million dollars – but one of Walker’s big donors just got nailed for funneling money through his employees to his 2010 gubernatorial campaign.
William Gardner, president and CEO of Wisconsin & Southern Railroad Co., plead guilty to two felony counts in connect to donations given to Walker in his run for governor. One of these counts was for giving company and personal funds to his employees and associates so they could make contributions on his behalf.
Guess what helped them pick up Gardner’s trail of dirty money? You guessed it: the employer information that campaigns are currently required to give for political donors – the very same information that Glenn Grothman is seeking to hide for the public with his pro-corporate bill.
Beyond the legislature, we can even see examples of Walker’s anti-worker policy bleeding into the private sector. The machinists at Manitowoc Crane were negotiating a fair union contract with their company when management decided to add in union-busting language at the last minute. Lifting the language straight from Walker’s anti-worker budget repair bill, the company was seeking to take away their workers voice even as they posted a 20.7 percent sales increase in the 3rd quarter of 2011.
By a vote of 180 to 2, the union rejected this contract and went on strike to ensure that their voices could be heard on the job. Working America members in Manitowoc have come out along with the rest of the community to support these courageous workers who are standing up for good, family supporting jobs.
In early December we saw nearly 3000 people gather in support of the workers, rallying in sub-freezing temperatures to bring them donations of food and gifts for their children before the Christmas holiday. After nearly two months on the picket line the workers were finally able to come back to the bargaining table with management this week and our thoughts are with them.
A community rallying in support is not something new to Wisconsin; we are a strong state with a rich history of supporting workers’ rights. Recently, I saw a commercial Scott Walker put together over the holidays. In it, he said that “we can all work together to move forward,” and we are. We are working together to make sure that he cannot do any more damage to our state. We are working together to stop the attacks on the working class, and create a future where the ultra-wealthy “share the sacrifice” with Wisconsin working families.
And most importantly, we are working together to get Governor Walker out of office.
Tags: Health Care, Jobs, Scott Walker, unemployment, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Recall
By Carrie Geenen – Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Gov. Scott Walker’s attack on working families may have divided Wisconsin and polarized the two sides, but it also motivated us to not only speak out, but to take action. Working America members feel pretty strongly about what Walker is doing to our state, and most of our members agree that the Governor is hurting working families.
Our members from all stages of life, have been putting in the effort to recall Governor Walker. Lois from Oshkosh is a retiree whose family members are now struggling to make ends meet because of his cuts. Lois is not only collecting signatures in her free time, but also regularly calls the local recall office to asking what food and supplies are needed.
Scott from Bay View is a contractor who has been out of work for about a year. He is using his free time to collect signatures and has personally collected more than four hundred. Julia from Milwaukee owns a local daycare center; she has noticed a drop in attendance since Walker took office as parents lose their jobs or state assistance for child care. Julia has been circulating petitions amongst the parents at her daycare to help with the recall effort.
Ron from Milwaukee, also retired has also been collecting signatures in his spare time. He told us that despite living on a limited income, “I’m down to eating peanut butter sandwiches right now, but I want to get this guy out and that’s more important than me going out to some restaurant for a fancy dinner.” Ron understands that the recall is about more than just collective bargaining rights; he thinks that access to education and health care are top issues, and Walker’s treatment of teachers, cuts to education, and restrictions on BadgerCare don’t sit well with him.
Mary from Racine displays the kind of selflessness and generosity Wisconsin is known for; she is living on disability payments to make ends meet, but does what she can to give back to the community. Mary regularly donates clothing and food to those in need, she had this question for politicians like Scott Walker, “if I can give back while my Medicare gets cut then why can’t the wealthiest 1 percent share in the sacrifice as well?” She has been helping in whatever way she can with the recall to show Scott Walker that all people, regardless of wealth, matter to Wisconsin communities.
Political hands on both sides concede that removing Governor Walker is a tall order. Even before an election is scheduled, organizers must gather over 540,000 signatures before January 17, and the Wisconsin winter doesn’t make the collection process any easier. Walker and his wealthy allies are already bombarding the airwaves with pro-Walker TV ads. But this recall effort has been held together by the optimism of those who are out there pounding the pavement for signatures, donating to their local recall offices, and the thousands of citizens who are signing the petition. The tenacious recall volunteers have already proved their dedication and effectiveness, collecting 300,000 signatures in just 12 days.
Clearly, the people of this state believe that by working together we can help move Wisconsin Forward again.
Image by DailyKos user noise of rain.
Tags: Corporate Accountability, Education, Health Care, Jobs, Scott Walker, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Recall
Carrie Geenen – Milwaukee, Wisconsin
It’s been nine months since Scott Walker’s attack on working families began in Wisconsin. In that time, Wisconsinites have said again and again they will not sit back and let Governor Walker get away with moving our state in the wrong direction and hurting working families. We said it in August, when two anti-worker Republican State Senators lost their seats, and we are saying it again now that Governor Walker himself is eligible to be removed from office.
It may have taken us a little bit to get here, but from what I hear talking to working men and women in Milwaukee every day, excitement and determination has not once waned. Because of the victories in the August recall, two major Walker initiatives were not able to pass due to one swing vote; that has only increased our determination to keep fighting. But with each action by the Governor and his enablers in the legislature that ignores increasing unemployment in Wisconsin, cuts funding for our schools, or kicks children off of their health care, more and more Wisconsinites are realizing that Walker is not up to the job of leading this state.
As the recall kicked off Tuesday, those Wisconsinites were ready to send that message. The first day of the recall showed just how many folks were still upset with Walker’s refusal to compromise on his budget and the legislation he pushed through that is hurting every working family in the state. Those folks showed up in droves to be among the first to sign the petitions to recall the Governor and his right-hand woman, Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch.
About 2,000 people attended the kickoff rally in Milwaukee, gathering at a local park and then marching to Walker’s street where his neighbors had set up tables to collect signatures for the recall in their yards and driveways. Working America members showed up to not only show their support of the recall but also to help in whatever way they could, with one member even manning a table outside his house to collect signatures. Folks were holding homemade signs and talking excitedly about the idea of electing a Governor who not only cares about Wisconsin, but cares about the people of the state and what they need.
The people of Wisconsin will continue to fight for not only their rights, but the rights of their families, friends and neighbors. We will continue to show our elected representatives that we will not stand idly by while they ignore our voices, but will do what it takes to get our state back on track and moving “Forward” again.
Tags: Scott Walker, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Recall
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.
