Approximately 2,000 unionists and their allies massed outside the state of Wisconsin’s Washington, D.C., office on Feb. 23 to show solidarity with embattled Wisconsin public workers, whose GOP governor schemes to cut their pay and pensions and strip them of collective bargaining rights.
The protest at the Hall of States, blocks from the U.S. Capitol, drew at least 17 unions in a lightly unionized town. Participant Chris Townsend of the United Electrical Workers spent last weekend in Wisconsin, where he counted 37 unions.
The protesters, in D.C. and elsewhere, backed Wisconsin’s 200,000 workers in their fight with Right Wing Gov. Scott Walker. They plan another protest Feb. 27 when Walker comes to town for a meeting. Walker is using a presumed $3.5 billion hole in Wisconsin’s next 2-year budget to cut worker pay and pensions and – most importantly – kill their right to bargain contracts, except for pay up to the inflation rate.
Unions at the D.C. rally were led by AFSCME and the Teachers, the two main unions whose members would be hurt by Walker’s plan. Walker’s plan is stalled in the GOP-run legislature because the 34-member state senate needs a quorum to pass it – and can’t get the quorum without its 14 Democrats, who have left the state.
Other unionists at the D.C. rally represented The Newspaper Guild, the National Writers Union, the Communications Workers, the Transport Workers, the Laborers, the Steelworkers, NATCA, the United Food and Commercial Workers, AFGE, UNITE HERE, the Service Employees, UAW, the Professional and Technical Engineers, the Machinists, the Teamsters and the Amalgamated Transit Union.
The enthusiastic crowd chanted “2-4-6-8, union rights in every state!” and “Can’t take no more!” and “What’s disgusting? Union busting!” and “Kill the bill!” referring to Walker’s budget bill with the anti-worker provisions. Signs denounced Walker and declared “Democratic rights don’t stop at the workplace.”
Walker has refused to compromise even though Wisconsin unionists offered to accept the financial cuts in return for retaining collective bargaining rights. His refusal inspired a Biblical sign, toted by Jacqueline Simon, an AFGE legislative rep: “Hey, Gov. Walker: Even GOD negotiated – See Genesis, Chapter 18.”
The Wisconsin workers also picked up a resolution of support from the Pittsburgh, Pa., city council. The opposite reaction came from one of Indiana’s 100 deputy attorneys general, Jeff Cox: “Use live ammunition!” on Wisconsin demonstrators, he wrote on a blog. The office probed the blog, found the statement, and fired Cox.