Hundreds of Madison residents, including UW students and faculty, rallied at the state capitol to protest Gov. Scott Walker?s budget repair bill Monday, kicking off what promises to be a turbulent week for the new governor.
Tentatively scheduled to be passed by the Legislature at the end of the week, the governor?s controversial budget repair bill is the focus of a finance committee public hearing today where turnout is expected to be large and vocal.
The voices of University of Wisconsin staff members, students and community members shouting ?Kill this bill? reverberated through the Capitol rotunda Monday as nearly 1,100 protesters marched down State Street to the governor?s office door.
Noted: Don Nichols, UW-Madison professor emeritus of economics and public affairs.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political science professor at UW-Madison.
As a Wisconsin native and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin who studied public-sector employment relations for many years, I am concerned about the rhetoric over how to address your public service pension, health care and other challenges. Wisconsin is not alone: Most states, those with and without public sector unions and collective bargaining, are experiencing a similar and in many cases worse fiscal crisis. So it is critical to take an evidence-based approach to these problems and not look for easy scapegoats.
(Thomas A. Kochan is the George M. Bunker professor of management at MIT?s Sloan School of Management, co-director of the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research, and a co-founder of the Employment Policy Research Network.)
When Gov. Walker announced his plan to strip public employees of their collective bargaining rights — as well as, in effect, to cut their pay — he let slip that he had alerted the National Guard to help him implement the scheme.
….The absurdity of alerting the National Guard before a proposal — even an unpopular and potentially illegal one — has even been debated highlights the extent to which Walker has gone off the deep end.
After Gov. Scott Walker released the outline of his proposed budget repair bill on Friday, many working across UW-Madison were surprisingly quiet when contacted by a reporter seeking comment.
“I think I better let this sink in over the weekend before saying anything,” one campus leader confided. After sleeping on it for a night or two, some now are willing to share their thoughts.
Hundreds of University of Wisconsin-Madison students and their teachers are telling Gov. Scott Walker to drop a bill that would strip most public workers of almost all their collective bargaining rights.
Gov. Scott Walker refused to back down Monday from his proposal to remove collective bargaining rights for most Wisconsin public employees, saying he needed all the concessions he was seeking. Protests popped up around the state over the weekend and into Monday at the homes of state lawmakers, the Capitol, University of Wisconsin campuses and elsewhere. Hundreds of University of Wisconsin-Madison students and their instructors surged into the Capitol over the noon hour Monday, chanting “kill this bill” and “stop the law, stop the hate, don’t Walker legislate.” Peter Rickman, a 28-year-old UW-Madison law student who led the march, poured out hundreds of homemade Valentine cards outside the governor’s office asking Walker not to break their hearts.
Gov. Scott Walker refused to back down Monday from his proposal to remove collective bargaining rights for most Wisconsin public employees, saying he needed all the concessions he was seeking.
Union workers organized protests throughout the state yesterday against Governor Scott Walker?s plan to end most collective bargaining rights for public employees.
What could happen under Governor Scott Walker?s budget proposal has many local families thinking about their options. As primary bread winners this proposal is so scary for an office full of women at UW-Whitewater, they don?t know how they?ll make ends meet.
More than five hundred chanting demonstrators marched into the state capitol Monday, vowing to advocate to kill Governor Walker?s proposal to strip public employee unions of most of their ability to collectively bargain.
After three days of marches and protests around the state, union groups are preparing for the biggest counter-attack yet against Governor Walker?s budget repair bill: a massive rally outside the capitol.
In response to his budget repair bill, about 1,000 University of Wisconsin students, faculty and staff fill the state capitol building shouting, ?Spread the love, stop the hate; don?t let Walker legislate.? The crowd delivers thousands of valentines to Governor Scott Walker asking him ?not to break their hearts? with budget cuts.
Governor Scott Walker is indicating there?s no room for compromise on his budget repair bill, especially on provisions that remove the collective bargaining rights of most state workers.
Hundreds of University of Wisconsin-Madison students and their teachers turned out Monday to tell Gov. Scott Walker to drop a bill that would strip most public workers of almost all their collective bargaining rights.
The Legislature?s Joint Finance Committee plans to hold a public hearing and then vote on Gov. Scott Walker?s proposed changes to public workers? benefits and union rights on Tuesday.
Public and private sector union leaders in Wisconsin are coming together to oppose Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to take away collective bargaining rights for nearly all public employees in the state and force them to pay more for their pensions and health insurance.
Madison – State workers signaled Monday they could accept benefit cuts proposed by Gov. Scott Walker even as they prepared to battle with Walker over his plan to cut most of their union bargaining rights.
A rally of more than 300 people at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee called for an end to a plan to cut wages and benefits for state employees.
It?s Sunday morning. I?ve just finished breakfast and called my parents to tell them I am not coming to brunch. The rest of my family, all private-industry employees, are there, enjoying Dad?s specialty: menudo.
The state Legislature should take a thoughtful look at Gov. Scott Walker?s attempt to neuter state public employee unions. Walker?s proposals, part of a budget repair bill, shouldn?t come to the floor until opponents have had a chance to be heard and until legislators fully understand what they are being asked to do.
Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to sell heating and cooling plants could generate hundreds of millions of dollars, but stronger pollution rules that govern the aging facilities could make them less attractive to potential buyers.
Labor leaders said Monday that Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to end collective bargaining rights for the vast majority of public employees amounted to a declaration of war on unions. Public and private union leaders came together to denounce Walker?s plan, announced just four days earlier, that the Legislature could vote to pass as soon as Thursday.
Gov. Scott Walker announced his controversial “budget repair” bill Friday, which has prompted criticism and anxiety from lawmakers and state workers, including University of Wisconsin employees.
The next several days will determine whether Wisconsin Republicans are fit to govern. Gov. Scott Walker has created a make-or-break moment for members of his party who serve in the Legislature.
Walker seeks to return Wisconsin to the days of patronage politics — where party bosses filled state positions with their flunkies and services were delivered not on the basis of need but on the basis of who had the right political connections.
The warning shots came late last November.Weeks after being elected governor, Scott Walker sent a letter to the as yet Democrat-controlled Legislature urging them to halt work on public employee union contracts so that he may ?fully evaluate their effect on our next state budget.?
The responses to Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to undermine the ability of working Wisconsinites to bargain for fair wages and benefits have been appropriately passionate. Wisconsinites are angry with their governor, who promised to work across lines of partisanship and ideology to create jobs, but has instead chosen to play political games.
The governor?s budget repair bill, which includes a plan to gut collective bargaining protections for state employees, does not seek to get the state?s fiscal house in order.
Gov. Scott Walker?s announcement last Friday was perhaps the greatest push yet toward the feudalistic dystopia the new administration envisions for Wisconsin. In the midst of a paranoid mobilization of the National Guard and a dramatically vamped up security detail, Walker fired his latest salvo in a full-frontal assault on public workers that, if successful, will debilitate a sector of the economy significantly represented by people of color and women.
In response to questions about possible state employee reactions to his new budget repair bill Friday, Gov. Scott Walker said he has contingency plans and is prepared to call up the state?s National Guard if necessary.
In the wake of Gov. Scott Walker?s announcement of a budget repair bill, some University of Wisconsin students and faculty are preparing to mobilize in opposition an act that would eliminate many collective bargaining rights of unionized employees.
UW-Madison students and staff plan to deliver Valentine?s Day cards to Gov. Scott Walker today that read, “We (heart) UW: Don?t Break My (heart),” as a protest to his budget repair bill that eliminates collective bargaining rights for public workers. The delivery is set to take place at 12:15 p.m. today at Walker?s office in the Capitol.
Gov. Scott Walker is pushing for sweeping changes to collective bargaining that would ensure most people who works for the government in Wisconsin can?t negotiate their benefits, pensions and working conditions – except for local police, firefighters and Wisconsin State Patrol troopers. But not all law enforcement would be exempt.
Cullen Werwie, a Walker spokesman, said Capitol Police and UW-Madison police would be subject to changes proposed in the bill, which was introduced Friday.
STEVENS POINT ? A recently completed gig called Voices of Rural Wisconsin sent me to all corners of the state and points between for conversations with rural folks. The project, sponsored by the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, was simple in scope: We asked participants to talk about their life experiences and to envision what is needed to ensure a healthy future for rural Wisconsin.
….As state and local elected officials deal with tough budget challenges in the coming days, one can only hope they?ll recognize the value of this outreach arm of the UW System.
Citing Wisconsin?s gaping budget shortfall for this year and even larger ones expected in the years ahead, Gov. Scott Walker proposed a sweeping plan on Friday to cut benefits for public employees in the state and to take away most of their unions? ability to bargain.
Governor Scott Walker has sent out a letter via e-mail to state workers explaining to them what his new budget proposal would do and why the actions are necessary.
Wisconsin public employee unions and their supporters are currently engaged in planning their response to Governor Scott Walker?s program to curtail negotiating and organizing rights via a budget bill announced Friday. Three public protests and lobbying efforts at the state Capitol in Madison are planned for next week, and at least one longer-term plan for a sustained campaign against the governor and his Republican and associated allies are in the works.
Hundreds of Wisconsin?s public sector workers crammed into the cafeteria at Middleton High School Sunday afternoon to vehemently speak out against Gov. Walker?s latest proposals.
The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO has launched an advertising campaign against Republican Gov. Scott Walker?s proposed bill that will take away almost all collective bargaining rights for most public workers.
Public employees, students, and teachers rallied Sunday against Governor Walker?s plan to fix the state?s budget shortfall.
Gov. Scott Walker is putting his controversial budget repair bill on the fast track, urging lawmakers to pass it this coming week.
Everyone who works for the state or local governments would lose their right to negotiate everything from vacations to sick leave under Gov. Scott Walker?s budget repair bill — except for local police, firefighters and state troopers.
As union leaders prepare to fight a budget repair bill that will strip away much of their bargaining power, Governor Scott Walker says he?s prepared for unrest.
The head of a union representing local government workers decries a ?radical plan? from the governor. Rick Badger is executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 40, which represents about 33,000 local workers.
Governor Scott Walker unveils a budget repair bill that would strip most state workers of their collective bargaining rights. The measure is designed to close a $137 million gap in the current state budget. (Video.)
Gov. Scott Walker?s plan to erase almost all collective bargaining rights for most public workers is now squarely in the domain of the Legislature, which could act on it within days.
In a move that could be a preview of what?s to come in cash-strapped states, Wisconsin?s newly elected Republican governor announced a sweeping plan on Friday that would cut benefits for state employees, including those in the University of Wisconsin system, and eradicate the collective-bargaining rights that academic employees won just two years ago.
UW system leaders hope that the deep cuts to state employee benefits Gov. Walker proposed today will create more support for a plan to give the university more autonomy from the state, including allowing UW to set higher tuition rates and pay professors more. In a letter to UW employees, UW System President Kevin Reilly made clear that pursuing a new course for the university is a higher priority than fighting Walker over state aid.
In the wake of Gov. Scott Walker?s announcement of a budget repair bill, some University of Wisconsin students and faculty are preparing to mobilize in opposition an act that would eliminate many collective bargaining rights of unionized employees.
Governor Scott Walker on Friday proposed a “budget repair” bill that may fix the state budget but could do some real damage to the personal budgets of faculty members and others who work at the University of Wisconsin System.
Will the Capitol Square be Madison?s Tahrir Square in reverse?It certainly sent “Mubarek quitting Egypt” to the second rank in Saturday morning?s Wisconsin State Journal.
Gov. Scott Walker told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Thursday that he will propose removing nearly all public employee collective bargaining rights to help plug a $3.6 billion budget hole.
Gov. Scott Walker says the Wisconsin National Guard is prepared to respond if there is any unrest among state employees in the wake of his announcement that he wants to take away nearly all collective bargaining rights.
One day after Gov. Scott Walker proposed stripping public employees of most of their bargaining rights, he is reaching out to state employees in a letter. In an e-mail to be sent out to state workers later Friday morning, Walker thanked public workers for their service and sought their understanding for broad and controversial changes he is seeking to the state?s collective bargaining law.
The Republican governor says those changes are necessary to balance a $137 million budget shortfall in the fiscal year ending June 30 and a $3.6 billion shortfall for the 2011-?13 budget. But Walker said he would not seek additional furloughs for state workers, who are already taking eight of the unpaid days off this fiscal year because of the budget problems.
MADISON, Wis. — Gov. Scott Walker said he won?t negotiate with unionized state workers because Wisconsin is broke and he has nothing to offer them.
Public employees are reeling trying to figure out what to do after Gov. Scott Walker asked the Legislature to remove nearly all collective bargaining rights for teachers, prison guards and other government workers across Wisconsin. They don?t have much time to mobilize.
Gov. Scott Walker told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Thursday that he will propose removing nearly all public employee collective bargaining rights to help plug a $3.6 billion budget hole.
Gov. Scott Walker will seek to eliminate almost all collective bargaining rights of state and local public workers as part of his plan for fixing Wisconsin’s budget deficit, a move one Democratic leader called an “assault on workers in the state.” The bill also would remove the right, granted under former Gov. Jim Doyle, for University of Wisconsin faculty and staff to form unions.
