Labor & Employment Law

Wis. Voters File Recall Petitions Against Anti-Worker Senators

By James Parks

This morning, voters from around Wisconsin took the first steps toward taking their state back by filing recall papers against eight Republican senators who have backed Gov. Scott Walker and pushed his partisan attempt to take away collective bargaining rights for thousands of  teachers, nurses, librarians and other workers.

In a statement, Wisconsin workers said Walker and the Senate Republicans are not reflecting Wisconsin values.  Instead, they are doing away with decades of bipartisan cooperation in government. Walker claims he wants to give our children the ?tools they need,? but in reality, he has taken a baseball bat to their future. His budget is wrong for Wisconsin, the workers said.

“He is attacking education, seniors and working families by putting the budget burden on their backs. Meanwhile, he is asking for no shared sacrifice from the extremely wealthy and corporations who funded his campaign.”

Roy Vandenberg, a member of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 2-144, said:

Gov. Walker and Senate Republicans are refusing to listen to the hundreds of thousands of working families who traveled to Madison to make their voices heard. He has refused to listen to the majority of the people of this state who disagree with them. So now it is time for us to make our voices heard in their districts. If they will not listen to “we the people” then the ?we the people? are going to take our government back.  

Ann Louise Petreault, a nurse at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and member of SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin, adds:

Gov. Walker continues to turn a blind eye to the majority of Wisconsinites who believe his plan to end collective bargaining is wrong. He won?t take yes for an answer. He just continues his political attack to strip us of our collective bargaining rights.

Here?s Bryan Kennedy, president of AFT Wisconsin:

We have learned that today people have begun filing recall petitions in an effort to take Wisconsin back. We are now going to focus our organizing attention on these efforts, and all across the state we will immediately join these efforts and begin collecting signatures, knocking on doors, making phone calls and talking to our friends and family. Starting today, day by day, one by one, we will begin taking our state back before Gov. Walker is able to take it backward.

Gov. Walker and the Senate Republicans have failed to show leadership and work across party lines to compromise and get Wisconsin moving forward again by creating jobs, the statement said.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on March 02, 2011 (boomark / email).