A Time to Defend Labor and the Public Sector

Thanks to the leadership that workers in Wisconsin and other states took in the Spring of 2011, Americans seized the opportunity to change the debate about the fiscal crisis in the states, its origins, and the way it was being used to attack the labor movement and to dismantle public services.

Regions: California Iowa Nebraska North Carolina Ohio Wisconsin

In many states LAWCHA members are already playing a role in these discussions. Will Jones and Steve Meyer have been in the news about Wisconsin. In North Carolina, LAWCHA members have pulled together faculty from numerous colleges and universities in a group called North Carolina Protecting the Public Interest to stand with these workers and those who need their services. We urge LAWCHA members to do more to bring our perspectives as labor historians to bear on this crisis.

California

Martin J. Bennet, Labor’s Edge, “Don’t Blame California Public Employees!”, February 14, 2011

Iowa

Iowa unions have been spurred to action this week both in solidarity with neighboring Wisconsin workers and in opposition to attacks from Iowa lawmakers. Despite growing resistance to assaults on public employee rights in other Midwestern states, last Friday Iowa House Republicans introduced HSB 117, their own assault on Iowa’s 37-year-old public bargaining law. Iowa union members, allies, and elected officials have since mounted strong and growing opposition.

Iowa’s Public Employment Relations Act was signed into law by a Republican governor in 1974. Its passage was presaged by the adoption of similar laws in neighboring states as well as growing pressure from strikes waged by Iowa teachers and firefighters. By all accounts, the system has worked well to promote negotiated settlements of public sector contracts; 98% of public sector contracts in Iowa are settled voluntarily. Those that reach impasse are forwarded to a third-party arbitrator, whose decision is final and binding.

Republicans have pitched their “reform” of Iowa’s public bargaining law to the media as a budgetary solution to rising health care costs. The bill would further limit the scope of negotiations, prohibiting bargaining over health insurance, outsourcing, and other items, and would require all public employees to pay at least 30% of the cost of their health insurance.

But as in Wisconsin and other states, the bill’s most significant proposals are aimed at stripping fundamental union rights, weakening worker bargaining power, and undermining the purpose of collective bargaining. The bill would, for example, allow either the governor or legislature to reject an arbitrator’s decision on state contracts, essentially making collective bargaining meaningless for state employees. Indeed, the provision appears to be an attempt to reverse a 1991 Iowa Supreme Court ruling issued against current Governor Terry Branstad when, during his previous tenure as governor, he attempted to veto pay increases awarded to state employees via the legally binding arbitration process.

Another provision of the bill would allow any public employee to declare him or herself a “free agent,” rejecting union representation and coverage under an existing collective bargaining agreement. This proposal strikes at the heart of the principle of “exclusive representation,” the foundational legal obligation of an employer to deal with a single, democratically selected union as the bargaining agent for all employees in a given unit. Such a provision could allow employers to offer special deals to individuals who opt out of bargaining unit coverage as a means of weakening bargaining power encouraging decertification elections (after which, complete control of workplace terms and conditions would return to management’s hands).

In response, over 2,000 Iowa union members and supporters rallied at the state capitol on February 22 in solidarity with public sector workers in Iowa, Wisconsin, and across the globe. Additional rallies have taken place since in multiple locations around the state, and a second statehouse rally is scheduled for Saturday in Des Moines.

Iowa Democrats have also appeared buoyed by worker protests. In their own show of solidarity, last night minority House Democrats kept a Labor Committee discussion of HSB 117 alive for over 15 hours straight, offering 48 amendments and continuous objection to the bill’s attack on bargaining rights. As Rep. Bruce Hunter put it, “You’re attacking the workers of the state of Iowa, and when you attack the workers of Iowa, we are going to fight for them.” Early this morning, the bill passed out of committee on a party-line vote, but Senate leader Mike Gronstal (who rallied with workers earlier in the week) has already pledged to prevent the bill from coming to the floor in the senate, where Democrats hold a slim majority.

Hundreds of Iowans have made trips to Madison during the past two weeks to join protests there, and union-sponsored buses continue to travel back and forth from eastern Iowa daily. Along with raising their voices, Iowa union members have taken shifts sleeping on the capitol floor, helped direct shuttle bus parking, and transported food donations. Many have returned from Madison transformed and ready to take action of their own. As one of them put it, solidarity is “spreading like fire on the prairie.”

Submitted by Jennifer Sherer, Director, University of Iowa Labor Center.

Nebraska

Nebraska is right in the mix of all this anti-union stuff with 8 measures either to restrict public sector bargaining or eliminate it altogether.

Bill Pratt, Omaha World-Herald, “Midlands Voices: Special Master works well in state labor negotiations”, February 25, 2011

North Carolina

A group of LAWCHA members from the Research Triangle Area in November founded North Carolina Protecting the Public Interest, a network of scholars (faculty and graduate students) from colleges and universities throughout the state who have come together to oppose the proposed devastating cuts to public school and service budgets and provide a research center and speakers bureau on these issues for organizations and media. We have almost 100 signatories from over a dozen institutions and, prompted by the struggle in Wisconsin, are now providing news feeds to media and organizations with short lists of our expertise (list in formation attached, as an example for those who would like to start similar efforts elsewhere).

Please visit our website, a template that could easily be copied and modified for other states: /ncprotectingthepublic.

It’s easy to organize a group like this if you have even 2-3 people who can then reach out to contacts elsewhere via email and calls to get it going. Time is of the essence, what with Wisconsin legislators getting ready to vote and the recent Conservative Political Action Conference aggressively promoting similar attacks on public services and workers across the country.

For more information or to send resources or news for our site, please contact ncptpi@gmail.com or Nancy MacLean at nancy.maclean@duke.edu or (919) 937-9409.

NC Justice Center, “TAKE ACTION: Bill to Gut State EITC Goes to Committee This Week,” March 4, 2011

Nancy MacLean, WHYY Radio Interview, “The Future of Public Employee Unions”, February 28, 2011
Jason Brent and Lisa Levenstein, Greensboro News and Record, “Blaming Public Workers a Bad Idea”, February 27, 2011
David Zonderman, “Public Unions Aren’t the Bad Guys”, February 26, 2011

Ohio

Things are also heating in Ohio over collective bargaining for public employees.

Wisconsin

The most dramatic events, of course, have been occurring in Wisconsin. If you would like to add information to this section, please email Ryan Poe (rmp23@duke.edu) to have your alerts, links, and information posted.

The Latest on the Recall of Scott Walker
In the recent months, the campaign to recall Governor Walker has been building, and in the last week has picked up considerable steam. Yesterday, November 28th, 2011, the group United Wisconsin to Recall Walker announced that it obtained an incredible 300,000 signatures in only 12 days! For more information, see the below websites sent to us by LAWCHA members in the Wisconsin area.
- Patrick Marley, “Recall Group Says it has 300,000 Signatures,” The Journal Sentinel November 28, 2011
- Rachel Ida Buff, “Democracy on the Recall Front,” The Journal Sentinel November 28, 2011
- Jason Stein, “Recall Drive is Picking Up Steam: Signatures Collected at Curbside, Midnight Parties,” The Journal Sentinel November 26, 2011
- A United Wisconsin to Recall Walker
Report from Madison, WI, June 6, 2011 from Nikki Mandell

As the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee completed their work on the biennium budget and sent it to the full legislature late last week, public demonstrations against crony capitalism sucking at the public till are gaining a new head of steam. Since the end of the massive demonstrations of February and March there has been a tiny, but continuous protest presence in and around the state capitol in Madison, a massively successful signature-gathering canvass in eight state senate districts that ensures recall elections against six of the eight Republicans eligible for recall under WI law, and behind-the-scenes coalition building across many union, student, religious, community, and social justice groups to sustain a new progressive movement in Wisconsin.

One of the first signs of this renewed focus began Saturday (June 4), with the creation of “Walkerville,” the brainchild of We Are Wisconsin, the largest partnership created in the midst of the winter protests. Walkerville, a pointed word-play on the Hoovervilles of the 1930s, is a small tent city set up on two of the four blocks surrounding the state capitol. As we gathered at the official opening on Saturday evening, organizers made it clear that the permit for Walkerville was the result of negotiation and compromise with the city of Madison – the very kind of public policy-making that is so sorely lacking from our Republican governor and legislators. (State officials were not inclined to grant a permit to use the capitol grounds across the street.) In addition to a cheerful account of the city permit’s various requirements (including spaces designated for 24-7 tents and spaces where tents may be set up 9pm to 7am only), the first night included a musical performance and a group “Solidarity Sing-a-long” (an extension of the daily sings in the capitol rotunda, including new tailor-made lyrics to labor and civil rights standards). Although I didn’t stay over the first night, I was struck by the multi-generational make-up of the first night’s residents. As I had expected, there were many college-age folks amongst the Walkerville residents. However, they were by no means a dominating force. Many families with children inspired a “Family Zone” play area; many retired and grand-parent aged residents were lounging by tents with protest placards. On Sunday I heard estimates that there were 100 tents on Saturday night.

This was too much fun and politicking to miss, so Sunday evening my family and I loaded tents and pads into backpacks, rode our bikes to the capitol square, and joined Walkerville for the night. We enjoyed another evening of live music, Solidarity Sing-a-long (bad voices drowned out, so I may learn those new lyrics yet!), watching a game of capture-the-flag on the capitol lawn across the street, and conversation. And, what a pleasure to sit out in the warmth of the summer evening. Yielding to the dictates of a 5am rainstorm, we struck camp long before the 7am deadline. However, this was not before I gained new insight into the life of the homeless. City streets, even on a Sunday night are very, very noisy, and bright. Even with the comfort of tent shelter and a sleeping pad it was impossible to get a good night’s sleep. I suspect that our night was made noisier by what appeared to be a handful of loud, purposefully harassing drive-bys. I should mention that our tent was around the corner from the men’s homeless shelter in the capitol area. This proximity has made it easier for some of the homeless to join the protests; they have also had a tenuously welcoming reception to shelter in the capitol during the March occupation, and to free food and medical attention provided at many of the demonstrations, including Walkerville.

The Walkerville tent city is a bit of lived street theater, but like all good street theater, it has a serious and practical purpose: to anchor the ongoing opposition to the robber baron policies embedded in the soon-to-be legislated state budget, and to serve as a readily accessible teach-in about the bad policies embedded in that budget. Each day of the first week is themed, with talks and speak-outs on a different aspect of the reactionary Republican assault on public services and public workers. Sunday was public education day, with talks by the head of the Madison teachers union and a teacher involved in one of the recall campaigns. Today (Monday) is public services day, which included a march by thousands of firefighters, cops, and nurses around the state capitol. Marches and teach-ins over the rest of this week will take up public health, higher education, democratic government and corporate power. Teach-in and Walkerville events are scheduled daily at noon and 7pm, so working people can attend.

Public engagement on all these fronts remains crucial. Walkerville, six recall campaigns, and the multi-faceted activism promoted by We Are Wisconsin, public sector unions, and many other groups are the leading edge of what may be a new progressive movement. Time, and massive public engagement will tell.

Nikki Mandell
History Department
UW-Whitewater
How can I help out in Wisconsin?
Thanks to Kathleen McElroy (UAW Local 1981 National Writers Union) for providing LAWCHA with this infomation.

You can provide financial support. People of generally modest means, including many college students, are continuing the occupation of the Capitol and the daily picketing in resistance to the Governor’s plans. Most teachers have had to/have chosen to return to their classrooms, but many other union members remain, people from private sector unions and public unions including police and firefighters. There are many private citizens, often seniors. Those remaining in the capitol and on the picket lines need food, water, transportation, housing. The Wisconsin AFL-CIO is coordinating much of that support. No matter how small, financial support is welcome:
- ONLINE: The AFL-CIO is accepting donations online through PayPal or any major credit card. Please go to http://wisaflcio.org for the link.
- CHECKS can be made payable to the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO Defense Fund, 6333 W. Blue Mound Rd., Milwaukee, WI 53213 (Please indicate the purpose, e.g. “Capitol protests” or “Madison rally”, on your check.)
You can send food and water directly to the protestors. These two close-by shops will supply food and water to those in the Capitol or on the picket line:
- Ian’s Pizza 608-442-3535. NOTE: minimum order $20.00 These folks are now taking orders only for delivery to the resistance, they’ve stopped all delivery to the general public. They tell me they deliver to wherever the people are — if they’re inside the Capitol, they go in. If people are marching and picketing, they take the food to the picket line.
- Subway on the Square 608-255-1636. NOTE: minimum order $100.00 They have set up a fund there for your orders, and they are giving free food from that fund to any union member or pro-union demonstrator who requests food. Thank Pat for arranging that, I’m sure this is the first time they’ve done anything like this.
You can convey your opposition immediately to the legislators and governor. This legislation can be stopped in the Wisconsin Senate. The state has shut down the Legislative Hotline (!) through which you could reach the Wisconsin Senators. So each needs to be contacted directly. We need only 3 Republicans to vote “no” to stop this. Here are the Republicans who may be willing to listen:
- Eau Claire area — Terry Moulton Sen.moulton@legis.wisconsin.gov (608) 266- 7511 District 23
- Green Bay area — Rob Cowles Sen.cowles@legis.wisconsin.gov (608) 266-0484 District 2
- LaCrosse area — Dan Kapanke Sen.kapanke@legis.wisconsin.gov (608) 266-5490 District 32
- Ripon area — Luther Olsen Sen.olsen@legis.wisconsin.gov (608) 266-0751 District 14
- Richland County — Dale Schultz Sen.schultz@legis.wisconsin.gov (608) 266-0703 District 17
- Racine area — Van Wanggaard Sen.Wanggaard@legis.wisconsin.gov (608) 266-1832 District 21
- Sheboygan area — Joe Leibham Sen.liebham@legis.wisconsin.gov (608) 266-2056 District 9
- Menasha/Fox Valley — Michael Ellis Sen.ellis@legis.wisconsin.gov (608) 266-0718 District 19
- Fond du Lac area — Randy Hopper Sen.Hopper@legis.wisconsin.gov (608) 266-5300 District 18
- Dodge County — Scott Fitzgerald Sen.fitzgerald@legis.wisconsin.gov (608) 266-5660 District 13
To contact other Republican Senators, or if a voice mailbox is full, try sending an email. Email addresses are above, or at the senate home pages. Try this link: http://legis.wisconsin.gov/senate.

If you live here or if you vacation here, contact the Senator from your District and urge a “no” vote on this legislation. If you know someone who lives or vacations in Wisconsin, ask them to contact the appropriate Senator. If you don’t live here, contact as many of the Republicans on the list as you can with your opposition to the legislation. (“The Whole World is Watching”)

The Governor. Gov. Walker is not listening to us, and is in fact bragging about having received 19,000 emails in favor of the legislation to get rid of unions. So we need him to hear us. Try his phone 608-266-1212 That mailbox will probably be full. There are several email routes, I’ve used them both. Email him directly at govgeneral@wisconsin.gov Or go to
http://walker.wi.gov and scroll down to the “Citizen Suggestion” box and give him your suggestion.

You can keep the resistance alive, widespread, highly visible, and vibrant.
- Participate in a protest rally Come to Wisconsin or urge those you know who live here to get involved. The Capitol in Madison is occupied 24 hours a day, with pickets outside at all hours. Come on down!
- Daily rallies and protest activities are happening throughout Wisconsin. Join in the activities near you. Two sources for detailed and timely information are http://wisaflcio.org [scroll down to Capitol and to In District Events] and http://www.wiafscme.org/ [scroll down to the Activities List]
- Organize a rally, a protest, an act of solidarity or civil disobedience wherever you are in support of Wisconsin workers and our cause. Alert the local media that you are acting in support of public employees’ right to keep their unions in Wisconsin.
- Spread the word in whatever way you can: postal mail, email, Facebook, twitter.
- Send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper and to the editorial directors of your local TV and radio stations.
You can support the Wisconsin 14. In a remarkable act of civil disobedience and courage, the 14 Democratic Senators have left the state to deny the Senate a quorum. Without at least one of them, the Senate cannot pass this particular legislation. Their leaving had to be done quickly and some left, literally, with just the clothes on their backs. Send them messages of solidarity and support, and urge them on.

Most of these folks are not wealthy. Consider writing a check to their campaign committee to help with these extraordinary expenses. Send it to their home addresses and be sure to write it to “The Campaign Committee of Senator xxxx” — home addresses are on their senate web pages (“voting address”) which you reach via http://legis.wisconsin.gov/senate (The Government Accountability Board here has ruled that campaign contribution funds can be used for these expenses. No personal gifts are allowed, and they will be returned.)
1. Tim Carpenter Dist 3 Sen.carpenter@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-8535
2. Spencer Coggs Dist 6 Sen.coggs@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-2500
3. Tim Cullen Dist 15 Sen.cullen@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-2253
4. Jon Erpenbach Dist 27 Sen.erpenbach@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-6670
5. Dave Hansen Dist 30 Sen.hansen@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-5670
6. Jim Holperin Dist 12 Sen.holperin@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-2509
7. Bob Jauch Dist 25 Sen.jauch@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-3510
8. Chris Larson Dist 7 Sen.larson@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-7505
9. Julie Lassa Dist 24 Sen.lassa@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-3123
10. Mark Miller Dist 16 Sen.miller@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-9170
11. Fred Risser Dist 26 Sen.risser@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-1627
12. Lena Taylor Dist 4 Sen.taylor@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-5810
13. Kathleen Vinehout Dist 31 Sen.vinehout@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-8546
14. Bob Wirch Dist 22 Sen.wirch@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-8979
Wednesday Report from Madison (Wednesday, March 16)
TourDeForce360, Panoramic Photos from Madison (with sound)
Sunday Report from Madison (Sunday, March 13)
Friday Report from Madison (Friday, March 11)
Live Stream of the Madison Legislature (Wednesday, March 10, 2011)
Stand with Wisconsin, Twitter Feed from Wisconsin (Wednesday, March 10, 2011)
Tuesday Report from Madison (Tuesday, March 8)
Sunday Report from Madison (Sunday, March 6)
Wednesday Report from Madison (Wednesday, March 2)
Monday Report from Madison (Monday, February 28)
Weekend Solidarity Report from Wisconsic (Saturday, February 26)
Update from Will Jones (Tuesday, February 22)

The battle lines here have been definitively clarified: Last week, the public employee unions all agreed to the Governor’s economic demands contained in this contested “Budget” Bill. But the Governor continues to insist that the abolition of collective bargaining, as included in the Bill, is non-negotiable. So as we’ve known all along, this Bill is not really about budget issues…

Also, FYI, the Legislature’s reach with this Bill is far beyond collective bargaining. Other major components of the Bill are an assault on any decent notion of the civil society to which we aspire.

For example, access to health care assistance for the poor and elderly will be curtailed. And supervision of the privatized workers who care for the most vulnerable among us would be effectively abandoned. Important civil service positions, now filled by merit selection, are converted to political appointment — including such civil arbiters as agency lawyers.

Legislators are meeting today (remember, the Republicans have majorities in both houses of the legislature) to continue this juggernaut as best they can without a quorum in the Senate. They are limited to non-fiscal actions in the Senate without the quorum denied them by the Democrats.

The situation in the Capitol is tense. Police are now everywhere, and reporters tell me that the call has gone out for more police to be sent to the Capitol. Access to the Capitol is limited, with one door open and slow security searches of all entering.

People are concerned that they are attempting to slowly strangle the occupation — hallways of the Capitol have been emptied and then closed off. Last night, those sleeping on the 3rd floor of the rotunda were told to move “to clean that area”, and they’ve secured that area. Internet access has been cut off. It appears the tactic is to limit access to the building and confine protesters to smaller and smaller spaces. This process, which may elude high-profile and organized resistance from the protesters, can lead to minimum media interest — as we are all slowly just pushed out the door and out of any semblance of a democratic process.
The Latest from Nikki Mandell (Sunday, February 20)
It’s been a spectacularly important week. Along with the mobilization that has exploded in reaction to the Governor’s Orwellian “Budget Repair Bill” are widespread fears and frustrations at Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican majority’s assault on public sector workers, public education, and access to health care. The unexpected consequence of their brilliantly vicious attack on public sector unions has been an amazing politicization and mobilization, captured in protest signs reading: “Screw Us and We Multiply.”

The look and sounds of tens of thousands of us who have been protesting all week best convey the flavor and sentiments of this mobilization (poorly captured by most media):
- For non-Wisconsinites: notice all the red. In Wisconsin red clothing, the UW-Madison team color, is a year-round emblem of community spirit and patriotism.
- Many, many creative plays on the Governor’s name, assertions of civic pride and solidarity, connections to democratization in the Middle East, and reminders to our poorly educated Governor of basic classroom etiquette, as well as heartwarming historical connections: “Walk(er) Forward, Not Backward” [WI state motto is “Forward”]; “Don’t Walker on Me” “We Are Wisconsin” [using the stylized W that represents Wisconsin] “Walker’s Not a Badger, He’s a Weasel” “Walker like an Egyptian” “Walker, the Mubarak of the Midwest”; “Scottie Doesn’t Play Well With Others” “I’m Talking With My Words, You Should Have Your Listening Ears On” “Plays Well With Others – F” “Dread Scott’s Decision” “First They Came for the Trade Unions” “1886” [reference to the National Guard massacre of striking workers in Bay View, Milwaukee] “Memphis 1968, Wisconsin 2011”
- Most frequent protest chants: “Kill the Bill” “What’s Disgusting? Union Busting” “What Does Democracy Look Like? This is What Democracy Looks Like” “Workers’ Rights are Human Rights” “Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Scott Walker Has Got to Go”
Most significantly underreported, I think, is the overwhelming connection being made between union rights and human rights. While all of us are angry that our pay will be cut 8-10% to pay for new business tax cuts, what has really pushed tens of thousands into the streets, onto their phones, e-mails, etc. is the legislative assault on public sector unions. As I listen to the voices and read the placards, it’s clear that people are not protesting simply for the survival of “my union” or “a union.” People are demanding their human right to organize collectively. This is an articulation of the place of unions in a democracy that I think has been largely absent, even amongst union members, since the founding struggles in the many decades before 1935.

It has been exhilarating to be part of this mass mobilization. Last Thursday’s announcement that the Democratic caucus had precluded a vote on the bill by walking out, came at the very hour when we expected news that the Republican-controlled state Senate had passed the bill. Instead of tears or angry shouts, thousands of us crammed in the acoustically-challenged four-story Capitol rotunda erupted into cheers of empowerment. I’m sure that that tens of thousands rallying outside the building did the same. This small victory, along with the Republican leadership’s decision to adjourn on Friday afternoon (received with another roar of citizen-power cheering), is a living reminder that social justice requires a coordinated combination of feet on the ground, organizational mobilization, and active collaboration by key players in positions of power. This week many tens of thousands of Wisconsin public sector workers rallying day after day in and around the capitol building have made it impossible for legislators to ignore the opposition. Public sector unions and university students have effectively coordinated this massive grassroots outpouring (especially AFSCME/WSEU, WEAC, UW-Madison’s TAA, and AFT). This grassroots activism empowered and/or forced lawmakers to resist what had seemed an unstoppable bill. Democratic Senators denied the Republican-controlled Senate a quorum when they walked out. Democratic Senators (Tues. night) and Assembly Representatives (24 hours/day through Wed., Thurs., and until adjournment on Fri.) held public hearings where hundreds of us testified against the bill on the public record, thereby forcing the capitol building to remain open to wonderfully cheerful overnight occupations. And, of course, the new social networking media has been a crucial part of this mobilization.

Over the course of the week protesters enthusiastically welcomed an ever-growing contingent of allies in this common cause: Students, especially high school and college, have been an ever-present part of the movement (one of my favorite signs today, written in pen on a piece of cardboard and carried by a young teen “I may not like my teachers that much, but they don’t deserve THIS.”) Beginning Tuesday rousing cheers every time uniformed fire-fighters led by bagpipers playing “Wearin’ o’ the Green” passed through the crowd, joined as the week progressed by contingents of private sector unions (IBEW, Teamsters, UFCW, ironworkers, painters, plumbers, carpenters, UAW, machinists, plus a multitude of union jackets I couldn’t read) and individually supportive police and then police locals, and by Saturday more support from unorganized workers and small business people.

What’s next? Talk on the street, as thousands of us marched around the capitol building today, was about the need to stay active for the long haul. While hope springs eternal that this bill will be killed, reality tells us that we need to flip the legislature to ensure the passage of public laws in the public interest. Step one? Educate a wider public (a) to understand the role of organized workers in building the middle class society and workplace safeties so many take for granted and (b) to understand the difference between fabricated and real financial crises, and the many policy choices available to solve those crises. Step two? Elect a legislative majority committed to human rights and social justice either sooner (through targeted recalls already being organized) or later (November 2012).

In Solidarity,
Nikki Mandell
History Department
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Links and Op-Eds about Wisconsin

Ezra Klein (Washington Post) discusses the history of labor and the current situation in Wisconsin with LAWCHA member Nelson Lichtenstein, March 10, 2011
Bob Bussel, Eugene Weekly, “What’s at Stake: Wisconsin Showdown is Over Civil Rights”, March 2, 2011
Christopher Phelps, The Chronicle Review, “The Wisconsin Idea”, March 2, 2011
History for the Future, (LAWCHA Member) Joseph McCartin on Public Sector Unions and Worker Rights in Wisconsin, March 1, 2011
David Zirin, The New Yorker, “Wisconsin: Packers Back the Protesters”, February 28, 2011
Leon Fink, News Observer, “A Hard Break with Wisconsin’s Past”, February 27, 2011
Jeff Leys, Truthout, “Wisconsin: Health Care, Democracy and the Middle Class Are At Stake” February 27, 2011
OneWisconsinNow.org, 100,000 Strong: Scenes from the Weekend Rally, February 26, 2011
LAWCHA member and professor of history Ilene Devault discusses the history of public employee unions, collective bargaining, and how the Wisconsin stand-off might play out, February 25, 2011
Jen Sorenson, C-VILLE Weekly, “A Teachable Moment: Lessons for Wisconsin’s Governor”, February 22, 2011
Brigid O’Farrell, Roosevelt Institute, “What do Natalie Portman, Aaron Rodgers, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Wisconsin Workers Have in Common?”
Andrew E. Kirsten, Dissent, “All’s Noisy on the Midwestern Front” February 21, 2011
Peter Rachleff, Monthly Review, “Madison is Our Cairo” February 21, 2011
Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill Protest Video Montage

Ryan Poe