First hand report from Madison Wisconsin

Below is a report on the protests in Madison Wisconsin from Mark Thomas, a food service worker and activist with AFSCME Local 171 in Madison.  Mark was also a strong support of the AFSCME Activist, an opposition newsletter that was published in AFSCME during the latter half of the 1990's.

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Republican Governor Scott Walker announced a “budget repair bill” on Feb 11 that would result in a significant wage cut for all public employees in Wisconsin and would effectively outlaw public sector unions in the state. Police and firefighters are exempt from the law.

Wisconsin has a budget deficit of over $3 billion, the result of balancing budget for ten years through accounting tricks rather than fair taxes. For example, Wisconsin sold its tobacco settlement money for a one time payment. Walker’s proposal would require public employees to pay 5% of their pensions (up from 0) and 12% of health insurance costs. These benefits were bargained for over the years instead of pay increases, and this concession would result in people losing thousand of dollars a year.

Walker’s bill also aims to effectively outlaw public sector unions. Unions would be required to hold representation elections once a year and would end the 50 year old practice of deducting dues from paychecks. The result is that unpaid volunteers will spend all their time hitting their coworkers up for money in order to fund an endless cycle of elections. This would not happen.

Public employer unions make up about 40% of the AFL-CIO in Wisconsin. Walker’s proposal is an obvious attempt to defund his political opponents as he attempts to impose his reactionary agenda. Republicans now control both houses of the legislature. They have openly been talking about right to work legislation, a racist immigration law along the lines of Arizona, a voter ID law, repeal of domestic partner benefits for public employees, and drastic cuts in aid to schools.

Walker’s plan was announced on a Friday. By the end of the weekend demonstrations of up to 200 people had been organized by a spontaneous response by activists. On Monday, 1500 demonstrated at the capitol. On Tuesday, there were 20,000 people and over 30,000 Wed. Madison closed the schools in response to sick calls by teachers and today, Thursday, over 35 school districts have closed schools as WEAC has urged its members to go to the capitol instead of going to work. Teaching Assistants, students and professors are leading a walk out at UW Madison. City councils around the state have passed resolution against the bill.

I’m a food service worker at UW Madison and have been union activists for 30 years in AFSCME 171, and have never seen anything like the reaction to this attack. I’ve seen coworkers at these demos who have never filed a grievance or been to a union meeting. The energy and enthusiasm are wonderful to see. The challenge now will be to keep this activism going. My statewide union, AFSCME Council 24, has not had a job action since 1977, and has a business union culture that will have to change.

The bill will come before the legislature today. I expect even more people at the demo and there is mass meeting tonight to plan our immediate response. We are under serious attack in Wisconsin, but we are seeing the awakening of a mass movement. We need to keep up the pressure and take the fight to the shop floor.