Wisconsin May Destroy State Labor Unions... Today!

Last Friday, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker announced the unthinkable: he will "fix" the budget by slashing pay and benefits for state workers and busting almost every public sector union the state. If workers don't like it, says the Governor, he'll send in the National Guard.

The bill will hit the state’s poorest and most vulnerable workers the hardest, says UW-Madison history professor William P. Jones, while also destroying 50 years of hard-fought pay, healthcare and retirement benefits in a state that was the first to allow public sector workers to collectively bargain.

Almost all state, county and municipal employees would suffer under Walker’s bill, except the law enforcement unions that supported Walker's campaign for governor last year.

Walker claims that if he doesn't slash public workers’ benefits he'll have to kick 200,000 low-income kids off state health insurance, a statement later revealed to be a lie.

But that’s not the only discrepancy in Walker’s plan. Rather than negotiating good-faith budget solutions with state unions, Republicans hope to fast-track the bill in less than a week. Even some of the unions that will be spared have realized the bill is a mistake.

"We really can't sit idly by and watch the collective bargaining rights of our fellow public workers be stripped away," said the director of a state police union which opposes the bill.

Tell Wisconsin: Don’t Sacrifice Employee Rights!

The smashing of public sector unions – some of the country’s strongest advocates for public spending and education – has long been a Republican dream. It would also likely lead to copycat legislation in other Republican-governed states like Ohio, New Jersey and New York.

We have very little time: Wisconsin Republicans hope to bust state unions as soon as today!

The good news is that the idea of busting state unions still makes some Republicans a bit uneasy.

Wisconsin activists and Change.org members have already taken action to stop Walker from dismantling decades of protections for public sector workers. In the last two days, over 1,500 people have signed a petition started by a freshman University of Wisconsin-Madison student.

"This petition was launched in a dorm room on a laptop computer," she said. "It was an act of desperation. I never expected to get 1,000 signatures in a week. That we did so in less than two days speaks to just how outrageous this whole thing is."

Meanwhile, thousands of workers and supporters have flooded the state capital demanding Walker "kill the bill."

Add your voice in support of Wisconsin and the nation’s public workers – click here to sign the petition and Tell Wisconsin: Don’t Sacrifice Employee Rights!

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Photo Credit: Berry Laker