AFSCME Members Lobby Lawmakers to Preserve Rights
February 18, 2011
THE FIGHT OF OUR LIFETIME – AFSCME and other union members packed the State Capitol in Madison, Wisc. for the fourth consecutive day in order to stop Gov. Scott Walker’s attempts to strip state workers of collective bargaining rights.
Photo Credit: Amber Arnold
Madison, Wisc. — Facing the loss of collective bargaining rights, Wisconsin AFSCME members are fighting back. Currently in their fourth day of massive protests outside the Capitol building in Madison, AFSCME activists are working hard to get the state Assembly to reject Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to strip collective bargaining rights from most state employees.
Earlier this week, Diane Christenson and Cheryl Burmeister were hunting down Wisconsin state Rep. Garey Bies (R). But when the two AFSCME members got there, Bies was not in his office. “This is the third time I’ve been here, and he’s never been here,” complains Christenson, an administrative assistant for the Door County health department and a member of Local 1658 (Council 40).
Undaunted, she wrote the representative a message. “I asked him if he’s turned his back on his former co-workers and union,” she says (Bies had been a former chief deputy sheriff in Door County). If collective bargaining is restricted, as proposed in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget bill, she says, “we’re going to be back to square one, and it’s going to be a mess – just a mess.”
Burmeister, secretary-treasurer of Local 1658, also wrote down her views for the absent Bies. “I just urged him to vote against the bill. Not only will it destroy the collective bargaining rights we’ve fought for over the last 50 years, but it’s also going to cut programs and services for the most vulnerable people. I work for the social services department (in Door County). The Medicaid and BadgerCare programs (which cover more than 1 million state residents) are on the chopping block.”
Scott Doro, a certified nursing assistant for Sheboygan County (cq) and president of Local 2427 (Council 40), spent more than a half hour making the case to Rep. Mike Endsley (R), who refuses to change his support for the governor’s proposal.
“I’m concerned about the moral hazard of taking away workers’ rights,” Doro says after the meeting.
But Doro, and the other AFSCME members on the front lines of the fight in Wisconsin aren’t giving up. Even if it takes multiple visits to change a single mind, these members will continue to fight.
Click here for a photo gallery of the ongoing, 25,000-strong rally against Gov. Walker’s anti-union bill to strip away collective bargaining rights.
