The recall was immediately supported by major progressive organizations, including the state AFL-CIO and the Steelworkers, the Communications Workers, the Machinists and other unions. To succeed, it needs 540,208 verified signatures.
The object: To retire the governor who jammed through legislation stripping more than 200,000 state and local workers of collective bargaining rights -- and whose anti-worker agenda, which also cuts local schools and other services, is the leading edge of the national Right Wing war on workers and the middle class.
Recall sponsors, including United Wisconsin, the state AFL-CIO and the state Democratic Party, say their decision reflects several realities. In their thinking:
There is no other name to worry about than Walker, whose own party knows he over-reached. His law to deny public workers meaningful bargaining rights can’t even be justified on the money side as a budget-cutting measure. It went from a temporary money-saver to lingering disaster when even conservatives scrutinized education, safety and community survival in the second fiscal year of Walker’s reign.
Walker’s law was a decision many Republicans are now ashamed to have embraced, since it basically decided private sector workers shouldn’t aspire to good health care and retirement benefits, either. Why else take those away from government employees? More than 55% of state adults in respected polls now disagree with Walker, and many once voted only GOP.
“How many Republicans thought they knew Walker and discovered they didn’t?” noted one recall insider. “They can’t be fooled again and that’s our edge.”
The governor is still a crippler and must be stopped. Some people argue Walker can do little more damage if left in office, now that recall elections this past summer, with strong labor support and participation, reduced his GOP majority in the state senate from 19-14 to 17-16, and now that several senators clearly won’t vote for further extreme excesses. Recall planners strongly disagree with that assumption.
They note Walker still does a lot of damage, attacking prevailing wages, local control and minority hiring. Even as the recall began, Walker backed bills to limit big pharma’s legal immunity for damages from defective drugs, to restrict civil suit awards for consumers – but not corporations -- and to make it more difficult to bring discrimination suits. He rewards rich backers while limiting health care access for the working poor. If ever there was evidence to move fast, Walker provides it, say recall folks.
Walker’s policies are shredding the state economy. It’s not just the thousands of jobs lost in early decisions, not the continued emptiness of the pledge to bring in 250,000 jobs even as the state loses thousands.
It’s the viewpoint that protecting the richest will eventually create jobs, when it clearly hasn’t. It’s refusing to raise revenue except by excluding low-income families from care. It’s a flood of policies that are or will cost Wisconsin jobs and reputation, recall advocates say.
Dominique Paul Noth edits The Milwaukee Labor Press. This article was distributed by Press Associates, Inc., news service.
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The recall was immediately supported by major progressive organizations, including the state AFL-CIO and the Steelworkers, the Communications Workers, the Machinists and other unions. To succeed, it needs 540,208 verified signatures.
The object: To retire the governor who jammed through legislation stripping more than 200,000 state and local workers of collective bargaining rights — and whose anti-worker agenda, which also cuts local schools and other services, is the leading edge of the national Right Wing war on workers and the middle class.
Recall sponsors, including United Wisconsin, the state AFL-CIO and the state Democratic Party, say their decision reflects several realities. In their thinking:
There is no other name to worry about than Walker, whose own party knows he over-reached. His law to deny public workers meaningful bargaining rights can’t even be justified on the money side as a budget-cutting measure. It went from a temporary money-saver to lingering disaster when even conservatives scrutinized education, safety and community survival in the second fiscal year of Walker’s reign.
Walker’s law was a decision many Republicans are now ashamed to have embraced, since it basically decided private sector workers shouldn’t aspire to good health care and retirement benefits, either. Why else take those away from government employees? More than 55% of state adults in respected polls now disagree with Walker, and many once voted only GOP.
“How many Republicans thought they knew Walker and discovered they didn’t?” noted one recall insider. “They can’t be fooled again and that’s our edge.”
The governor is still a crippler and must be stopped. Some people argue Walker can do little more damage if left in office, now that recall elections this past summer, with strong labor support and participation, reduced his GOP majority in the state senate from 19-14 to 17-16, and now that several senators clearly won’t vote for further extreme excesses. Recall planners strongly disagree with that assumption.
They note Walker still does a lot of damage, attacking prevailing wages, local control and minority hiring. Even as the recall began, Walker backed bills to limit big pharma’s legal immunity for damages from defective drugs, to restrict civil suit awards for consumers – but not corporations — and to make it more difficult to bring discrimination suits. He rewards rich backers while limiting health care access for the working poor. If ever there was evidence to move fast, Walker provides it, say recall folks.
Walker’s policies are shredding the state economy. It’s not just the thousands of jobs lost in early decisions, not the continued emptiness of the pledge to bring in 250,000 jobs even as the state loses thousands.
It’s the viewpoint that protecting the richest will eventually create jobs, when it clearly hasn’t. It’s refusing to raise revenue except by excluding low-income families from care. It’s a flood of policies that are or will cost Wisconsin jobs and reputation, recall advocates say.
Dominique Paul Noth edits The Milwaukee Labor Press. This article was distributed by Press Associates, Inc., news service.