Look for the Union Label

I've been trying to decide how to address the shafting that Governor Scott Walker is giving the state employees of Wisconsin right now. Thing is, I can't even talk about if without getting completely worked up.

Anyone who reads this blog or knows me personally knows how I feel about the state of Wisconsin. It's my adopted home state. I have an unnatural attachment to it. I went to library school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I still have lots and lots of friends in Wisconsin and lots and lots of them are state employees. And many of them have been at the Wisconsin Capital at some point over the last few days.

I'm a state employee. I'm union represented. I am proud to be a state employee. I bitch about it. I have issues with some of the decisions my Union has made. I know I could probably go off to the private sector and make more (say, as a corporate librarian or archivist), but I don't want to. I believe in higher education and I believe in state-funded higher ed. State funding of higher ed as been under attack for years and the amounts contributed to education have been going down for years. It isn't new. But what Scott Walker is doing to the state employees of Wisconsin is deplorable. Like most state employees not in Wisconsin, I'm watching what is happening because I know this is just the beginning. This could be a precedent that will change collective bargaining forever--not just for state workers, but all union-represented workers.

The state workers of Wisconsin have said they will take the cuts to their benefits in order to retain their collective bargaining rights. But Walker has declared this a non-negotiable bill. And the Majority Leader Fitzgerald made some asinine comment that Walker didn't have to listen to the 30,000+ people in the Capital building or on Capital Square because he was elected by the people of Wisconsin. Hey, asshat, did you flunk civics class? Democracy doesn't end after an election, that's when it begins. Have you heard what they've been chanting: "What does democracy look like? This is what democracy looks like." Walker, you and your ilk are a disgrace to the state of Wisconsin, to the teachers that teach your kids, to the firefighters and EMTs who rescue you from fire and harm, and to the police who protect you. How dare you ignore the tens of thousands of people peacefully exercising their right to protest one of the stupidest state budget plans I have ever seen. The words I just typed don't even begin to capture how angry these people make me, how insulted I am, how disgusted I am.

Listen, Walker, you can tell me all you want that this isn't political, but I don't believe you. Firefighters, law enforcement, and state troopers are exempt from the budget plan. And, hey, look at that: these three groups supported you in the election. Makes me wonder how stupid you feel when the local firefighters of Madison marched around the Capital Square and through the building in support of the protesters. And don't tell me that the protesters are threatening your or anyone's safety when the people paid to protect you and others are protesting against you. Firefighters are heroes: You know it and I know it. I personally know policemen who have gone to the Capital Square to show their support of the state workers. The tide has turned, jackass. But you are so entrenched in your own bullshit to back down. Disgusting.


I can't see this video enough--it gives me chills to see the firefighters filing through the Capital rotunda.

At the same time, I can't put into words how proud I am of the people of my adopted home state. It would be easy to say that the crowd was just a bunch of Madison liberals with nothing better to do. But people from blue-collar, pro-union cities like Green Bay and Milwaukee traveled to Madison to speak their minds. This is no longer about Democrat versus Republican or Blue versus Red. This is about preserving workers' rights.

And to the fourteen Democratic senators who split to Illinois? On, Wisconsin!