The fight in Wisconsin over workers' rights is just beginning. The immediate aftermath of Wisconsin State Senate Republicans' abrupt passage of legislation that strips Badger State public employees of collective bargaining rights -- a move the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is calling an "affront to democracy" -- brought more demonstrations. The website theuptake.org is offering a live stream of events from the Capitol Building in Madison here, and reports this morning that protesters are now sitting down in front of the State Assembly's entrance; the assembly is expected to take up the anti-union legislation later this morning.
Legal challenges to the bill, assuming the GOP-controlled assembly passes the legislation, are likely to mount, as there are a host of questions about how the Wisconsin Republican senators procedurally got the anti-union bill to the senate floor as well as possible violations of the state's open meetings rules. The economic writer Mike Konzcal has video here that shows the run-up to yesterday's vote.
On the political front, efforts to recall Republican senators are ramping up. And there's even talk of a massive strike. “This is a sad day for democracy and for Wisconsin. But our state’s
nurses, teachers and EMTs will overcome. We will take back our
government from the big moneyed interests and reverse this attack on
workers’ rights,” Jim Garity, president of AFSCME Council 40 in Wisconsin and a highway equipment operator, said in a statement. For more details about the scene today in Madison, keep an eye on labor journalist Mike Elk's Twitter feed.
In a stunning development, Wisconsin Republicans passed a bill to end collective bargaining for most public workers while the entire Democratic caucus was away from the state.
Yesterday on WTTW's Chicago Tonight, the Illinois Policy Institute's John O'Hara presented what you might call the conservative alternative history of the ongoing battle in Wisconsin. In his version of events, the tens of thousands of protesters who've rallied in and around the capitol building in Madison for weeks now simply haven't gotten the news that Republican Gov. Scott Walker's attempt to drastically reduce public employee collective bargaining rights (except for the unions who backed his campaign) is actually a form of empowerment. And O'Hara rejected any talk that powerful corporate players like the billionaire Koch brothers are seeking to hammer public workers. Take a look:
The Koch interests, of course, are deeply invested in Republican governors, Walker included, who are turning the screws on the rights of teachers, nurses, police officers, and other public employees to negotiate with their employers. "Koch Industries Inc. and its
employees and subsidiaries spent $1.2 million in the last
election helping to elect Republican governors who are now
trying to take away bargaining rights of state workers," according to a report last week in Bloomberg News. "The Koch-backed advocacy group Americans for Prosperity
helped organize a rally on Feb. 19, set up a website and today
announced a $342,200 ad campaign in support of Walker," the article says later. Walker, of course, will take a call from a reporter pretending to be David Koch, but won't negotiate with Wisconsin Senate Democrats.
Note that O'Hara gets into class war arguments in the clip above, claiming the question on the table is whether the country will have "two classes of people: a highly politically powerful, public employee unions [sic] and everyone else who pays for their salaries." It's an over-the-top statement on a number of levels, especially given the dramatic rise in inequality seen across the U.S. over the past 30 years or so (Wisconsin workers have agreed to all of Walker's economic demands, by the way). Milliionaires' tax rates continue to drop. The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans now take in two-thirds of the country's net worth. And the top 1 percent of households controlled 17.1 percent of all after-tax income by 2007, up from 7.5 percent in 1979.
Yesterday on WTTW's Chicago Tonight, the Illinois Policy Institute's John O'Hara presented what you might call the conservative alternative history of the ongoing battle in Wisconsin. In his version of events, the tens of thousands of protesters who've rallied in and around the capitol building in Madison for weeks now simply haven't gotten the news that Republican Gov. Scott Walker's attempt to drastically reduce public employee collective bargaining rights (except for the unions who backed his campaign) is actually a form of empowerment. And O'Hara rejected any talk that powerful corporate players like the billionaire Koch brothers are seeking to hammer public workers. Take a look:
The Koch interests, of course, are deeply invested in Republican governors, Walker included, who are turning the screws on the rights of teachers, nurses, police officers, and other public employees to negotiate with their employers. "Koch Industries Inc. and its
employees and subsidiaries spent $1.2 million in the last
election helping to elect Republican governors who are now
trying to take away bargaining rights of state workers," according to a report last week in Bloomberg News. "The Koch-backed advocacy group Americans for Prosperity
helped organize a rally on Feb. 19, set up a website and today
announced a $342,200 ad campaign in support of Walker," the article says later. Walker, of course, will take a call from a reporter pretending to be David Koch, but won't negotiate with Wisconsin Senate Democrats.
Note that O'Hara gets into class war arguments in the clip above, claiming the question on the table is whether the country will have "two classes of people: a highly politically powerful, public employee unions [sic] and everyone else who pays for their salaries." It's an over-the-top statement on a number of levels, especially given the dramatic rise in inequality seen across the U.S. over the past 30 years or so (Wisconsin workers have agreed to all of Walker's economic demands, by the way). Milliionaires' tax rates continue to drop. The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans now take in two-thirds of the country's net worth. And the top 1 percent of households controlled 17.1 percent of all after-tax income by 2007, up from 7.5 percent in 1979.
State Rep. Michael Tryon (R-Crystal Lake) says that he plans to sponsor legislation that would force Wisconsin Senate Democrats that are hiding out in Illinois to avoid voting on union-busting legislation to pay Illinois' five percent income tax on their Senate salaries.
A high-profile rift has been developing
between Republican Governor-elect Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Gov.
Pat Quinn over jobs and high-speed rail. Democrats in Wisconsin are now
taking advantage of the situation by throwing up
a billboard advertisement with a picture of Walker that reads "Dear
Scott Walker, Thanks for the money & jobs! Love, Illinois."
After hearing word that Governor Pat Quinn wrote a letter to persuade
Milwaukee train-maker Talgo Inc. to leave Wisconsin for greener
pastures in Illinois, Wisconsin's Governor-elect Scott Walker is vowing
to persuade Illinois companies to head for the Badger State in order to avoid the tax increases Quinn has promised to put in place.
Jumping on news that Wisconsin's newly-elected governor is not
interested in federal money to build high-speed rail lines in the state,
Governor Pat Quinn wrote a letter to dissatisfied train-maker Talgo
Inc., which is currently located in Milwaukee.
A new Quinnipiac poll has Barack Obama leading John McCain by 13 points in neighboring Wisconsin:
Wisconsin women likely voters back Obama 53 - 37 percent while men back the Democrat 51 - 40 percent. White voters back Obama 49 - 42 percent. He leads 61 - 35 ...
The fight in Wisconsin over workers' rights is just beginning. The immediate aftermath of Wisconsin State Senate Republicans' abrupt 