2379
(7 votes, average 4.43 out of 5)
Written by Lisa Neff and Scott Foval
Feb 24, 2011
Protesters gather outside the state Capitol in Madison Feb. 19. Republican Gov. Scott Walker set off the protests earlier in the week by pushing ahead with a measure that would require government workers to contribute more to their healthcare and pension costs and largely eliminate their collective bargaining rights. – Photo: AP/Andy Manis
The chant went up from the thousands gathered at the Capitol in Madison: “We are one. We are one.”
The same chant went up from those standing in solidarity with the Wisconsin workers at rallies around the United States this week.
And the message – “We are one. We are one” – was repeated in dispatches from an array of organizations, including a number of LGBT civil rights groups challenging Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s push to terminate collective bargaining rights for public employees in the state.
“Our call to support the public employees who teach our children, care for our sick and plow our streets has received an overwhelming response,” said Katie Belanger, executive director of Fair Wisconsin, a statewide LGBT advocacy group.
Fair Wisconsin and Equality Wisconsin, along with the national Pride at Work and GetEqual LGBT groups, encouraged LGBT Wisconsinites to join the ongoing demonstrations in Madison and their hometowns to protest the governor’s “Budget Repair Bill.”
The organizations also urged LGBT people to protest the legislation, which could be voted upon at anytime, at solidarity demonstrations held this week from Alaska to West Virginia.
“Around the country, LGBT workers and our allies are standing in solidarity with the workers in Wisconsin,” said Peggy Shorey, executive director of Pride at Work. “The right to collective bargaining is vital for all workers, and particularly so for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers and our families.”
The bill
The protests began after the Feb. 11 introduction of Walker’s Budget Repair Bill. The governor, a Republican elected last November in a conservative sweep of the state, proposed the legislation to “meet the immediate needs of our state and give government the tools to deal with this and future budget crises, according to a news release.
Walker’s office maintains the state faces an immediate deficit of $137 million and that action is needed to “lay the foundation for a long-term sustainable budget without raising taxes, raising segregated funds or using accounting gimmicks.”
The bill contains multiple steps for saving money, including repealing the authority of public employees to collectively bargain with the state, setting a series of caps and other restrictions on wage increases and increasing worker contributions to pensions and health insurance.
Walker’s overview of the bill states that Wisconsin public employees enjoy benefits in excess of employee benefits in neighboring states and that he is seeking to strike “a fair balance.”
Protesters and state Democrats said the proposal is about union busting, not fairness.
“If passed, the balance in our society will again tilt to the powerful over the powerless,” said state Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee. “The ability to organize and get fair treatment are qualities that built our country. This is what the last generation fought for in the Sixties and the Seventies, to make sure we all had a better life.”
Larson, one of 14 Democratic senators who last week left the state to prevent a vote on the budget bill, said Walker is “seeking to scapegoat unions as the cause of the fiscal crisis in an effort to divide the middle class against itself. This, while he is opening tax loopholes for the richest in the country.”
As he and other Democrats vowed to stand firm, and Walker vowed not to compromise, protest organizers vowed to escalate their opposition to the proposal.
At the Capitol
Drummers have served as the rhythm section for the Capitol protesters, whose numbers have varied – 30,000, 40,000, 70,000 and more – as momentum has built and news has spread.
Laurie Marks and her partner, who both work for the state university system, and their two children joined the protests.
“We are so nervous about what this governor’s intention is in terms of healthcare for our kids, because this state doesn’t have second-parent adoption,” said Marks, of Waukesha.
She also expressed concern that Walker might move to repeal the state’s domestic partnership act.
Lisa Hager, a member of the University of Wisconsin faculty and advisor to a gay-straight alliance, trekked from Waukesha to Madison to demonstrate.
“We have record enrollments, but we haven’t had raises since 2005,” she said.
Hager added, “People are scared of what this governor and Republican legislature are capable of doing.”
“Wisconsin has played such an important role in the labor movement,” said protester Billy Eames of Racine. “To assault worker rights here? This is like a Valley Forge of labor.”
Wisconsin, in 1959, was the first state to enact a comprehensive collective bargaining law and is the birthplace of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees national (AFSCME) union.
Eames and partner Jeff Reigel attended two days of protests.
“Our activism goes way back to the early 1970s,” Reigel said. “I think the gay community is exceptionally good at getting people out to these events because we’ve had such a long history of demonstrating for our rights.”
Reigel and Eames are not government employees. They and other LGBT Wisconsinites said they were motivated to go to Madison for two reasons – labor has long been an ally in the push for LGBT equality and shutting down collective bargaining can turn off negotiations on partnership benefits.
Equality Wisconsin, encouraging LGBT residents to petition Walker, summarized: “The right to organize and collectively bargain for better wages and benefits helped to make this country great by securing a strong middle class.
“There’s an LGBT equality issue at stake as well: public sector unions were how domestic partner benefits were won at the city of Milwaukee, Milwaukee Area Technical College and Milwaukee Public Schools, in some cases taking the lead for their gay and lesbian members when elected officials were too timid to act.”
For the past two weeks, Equality Wisconsin and Fair Wisconsin have posted regular updates from the Capitol protests, as have LGBT activists associated with national groups, including Pride at Work and GetEqual.
“GetEqual has reached out to Fair Wisconsin to offer our help in organizing LGBT folks on the ground in whatever way they see as helpful,” Managing Director Heather Cronk said. “We have organizers in Wisconsin who have been attending the protests for the past few days in solidarity with union folks there, and we’re ready and willing to help in any additional ways that could lend a hand to working people in Wisconsin.”
Some media outlets – Fox News specifically – characterized the demonstrations as verging on violence. But those on the scene stressed the peaceful nature of the events.
“Right-wing media and the Tea Party have been trying all week to incite violence at the Capitol,” said openly gay Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison. He added, “I’m proud of everyone involved in this rally for their level of decorum, and I’m grateful to law enforcement for ensuring the citizens access to their own government.”
Protesters received encouragement from other political leaders, as well as long-distance backers who ordered them pizzas, cyber-supporters who posted pledges on social networking sites and worshippers who joined in community prayers.
Reigel cheered a communiqué from former and current Green Bay Packers, who called the budget bill “an unprecedented political attack.”
In solidarity
Facebook, which has driven demonstrators to Madison, also is driving a national solidarity campaign, helping activists around the country coordinate “We Are One” rallies in dozens of locations.
“At the end of the day, the fight in Wisconsin is not about money or budgets but about fairness and the basic right to a voice at work – and that is something that matters for all of us,” said Shorey, of Pride at Work.
“Through joining unions, LGBT workers can negotiate for and win legally binding contracts for benefits not addressed by state or federal laws,” she said. “Further, LGBT people have higher rates of poverty and homelessness, and unions play a vital role in lifting up wages and benefits for all people, allowing working people to support their families.”
In addition to mobilizing for Madison, Pride at Work encouraged members to attend solidarity rallies from San Diego to Lansing, Mich., from Lincoln, Neb., to Hartford, Conn.
Another rally took place Feb. 22 at the statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, where lawmakers are considering legislation similar to the Wisconsin measure.
“Ohio’s Senate Bill 5 contains language that could impact current and future domestic partner benefits for LGBT employees,” Equality Ohio, a state gay rights group, stated in an alert. “Join us and thousands of other opponents … to stand up for equal access to healthcare and other benefits for all Ohio families.”
Larson warned of a domino effect if the pending legislation passes. “If this bill moves forward … rights in all America we have grown to take for granted will no longer be so reliable,” the Wisconsin senator said. “If this passes here, it will pass in other states.”
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