Some ten thousand
workers and their supporters demonstrated at the Capitol in Madison, Wis., on Feb. 15 and 16 to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to take away state employees’
collective bargaining rights. Signs held by protesters stated: “From Cairo to
Madison Workers Unite.”
There are about 175,000 public workers
in Wisconsin providing vital services to cities, counties and the state. Of
that number, about 39,000 are state employees and over 106,000 are teachers.
Walker has proposed that this
law will apply to all public employees except police and firefighters, whose
unions supported him in last year’s election. The police and National Guard
obviously hold a useful and favored position for him.
Use of the National Guard in Wisconsin …
Wisconsin has a long history of using the National Guard to break strikes and repress struggles
for justice. For example:
- On May 1, 1866, strikes
occurred across Milwaukee demanding the eight-hour day. Many marched from a
factory calling for others to join them, culminating in a rally of 16,000 at
the Rolling Mills. The governor called out the state militia, which was the
equivalent of the National Guard at that time. The workers camped in a field;
the militia were in an adjacent area. On May 5, as the workers chanted for an
eight-hour day, the militia opened fire and killed eight workers. - In July 1937, the governor
called out the National Guard to help crush a strike at Kohler. During the
strike, “special deputies” broke through the picket line and in the battle two
strikers were killed and 40 wounded. The year 1937 was a year of struggle.
Racine, Wis. was known as Little Moscow because of number of strikes and
struggles there. - In August
1966, African American youth went from Milwaukee to a nearly all-white suburb
to challenge a judge who lived there and belonged to an all-white club. The
National Guard was called out, not to break up the racist rallies but to
crowd-in the anti-racist protesters. For weeks they endured the worst racist
harassment. These demonstrations were reported around the country in newspapers
that also showed concurrent KKK rallies. - In
October 1969, the governor called out the National Guard to try to intimidate
1,000 welfare rights and civil rights demonstrators who had taken over the
State Assembly chamber for 11 hours. Organizer Father Groppi was cited for
contempt and jailed. During the same year the National Guard was called out to
repress the anti-war and student movements on the Madison campuses. They were
demanding not only an end to the war but an investment in education and a Black
Studies department. - In
November 1973, the governor called out the National Guard to break the strike
of Milwaukee firemen. - In
January and February 1975, the Wisconsin National Guard was called out to
repress Menominee Indians as they pressed their demand for land occupied
by the Alexian Brothers Novitiate near Gresham. Pictures of the event
graphically show the role of the Guard as they roughed up the protesters who
had occupied the ground. Even after a written settlement was reached with the
church, the Guard had Menominee activists arrested, five on felony charges and
34 on misdemeanors.
… And against public-sector workers around the country
- Most people are aware of the events in Memphis,
in 1968, when Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated while supporting a city
sanitation strike. On March 28, after police had killed a 16-year-old strike
supporter and arrested 280 people, the governor of Tennessee called out the
National Guard. Images of strikers bravely facing bayonets still inspire people
today—and expose the system that used those bayonets. - April 1962, the National Guard was called out to stop a
two-day wildcat strike by 4,000 Boston transit workers who were protesting
newly posted spring work schedules. - In February 1968, New York City Mayor Lindsey asked the
governor to call out the National Guard to crush a strike by 10,000 sanitation
workers. A militant rally by workers pressed the union leadership to accept a
motion for a strike. In this case, Gov. Rockefeller stopped short of calling
out the Guard, fearing the consequences. - July 1981, Massachusetts called out the National Guard
against state employees working in mental health facilities. The state wanted
them to work for no pay as weeks went by after the July 1 deadline for a new
state budget. The politicians could not agree on a budget to pay the workers
and fund services, but money was found for the National Guard. - April 1991, Montana ‘s governor called out the National
Guard as scabs to take over the jobs of 4,000 state employees striking because
the governor vetoed a pay raise. - January 2000, New York Gov. Pataki declared a state of
emergency on Long Island, and mobilized the National Guard to pressure and
break a wildcat strike by transportation employees. - In October 2001, Minnesota Gov. Ventura called out the
National Guard to scab and strike break, assigning them to work 12-hour shifts, doing the work of state employees. The
strike by 28,000 state employees began Sept. 30. Of that number, 19,000 were
represented by AFSCME. In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks, the big business media attacked the workers as “unpatriotic” for
striking, and Ventura urged them to quit if they would not accept his offer. The strike was settled Oct. 14. Minnesota
governors have used the National Guard to try to break strikes before. In July
1936, they were ordered to enforce martial law against truckers; in 1948 and 1986 they were used
against meat packers.
Walker released his 144-page
bill on Feb. 10 and expects to ram it through the state legislature in less
than a week. To cripple the unions, the bill would stop cities, counties and
the state from deducting union dues from workers’ paychecks, as they have for
decades.
The bill would require annual
votes by union members on whether they want to keep the union. It would not
require a similar vote on whether the people want to keep the governor, or an
annual vote on whether the people want to keep government policies against the poor.
The law would result in huge
cuts in compensation by increasing what employees pay for health and pension
plans that were previously negotiated. It would limit bargaining to wages and
limit even that to the rate of inflation, unless more was approved by voters in
a referendum.
The AFL-CIO has announced a
publicity campaign against the bill. But in case workers and the community
become too resistant to this elimination of basic rights, Walker has said that
he is ready to call out the National Guard.
Wis. Sen. Joe McCarthy, the
anti-labor and anti-communist Senator in the 1950s, would have been proud of
this governor. Walker has engaged in both baiting and divide-and-conquer tactics.
The state faces a $3.6 billion deficit, but instead of focusing on even the
mildest of reforms like raising corporate taxes (which are lower than the
surrounding states of Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana), he has tried
to pit the needs of Medicaid recipients against the needs of public employees
for decent rights and wages.
The
strategy behind targeting public employees
Walker is targeting the largest
employers in the state where workers have fought for and won decent contracts
over the years. The state itself is the largest employer followed by the public
university system. The post office and the Milwaukee Public School System are
in the top 10.
But more powerful than state
and local government and agencies are the financial institutions like banks and
insurance companies. These companies’ profits are increasing, but their
low-paid front line workers have almost no unions. Multinational anti-union
companies like Kraft Foods and Johnson Controls are headquartered in Wisconsin.
These bosses and others like Kohler and Harley Davidson would rather not be
bothered with union demands for better conditions. So this attack on public
employee unions is an attempt to weaken the strongest sector of organized
labor. When public-sector unions are able to bargain for better wages and
rights, they create pressure on private-sector employers to provide the same.
By going after public-sector unions, big business is going after the heart of
what is left of the labor movement.
The engine manufacturer Briggs
& Stratton is based in Wisconsin. In August 1983, 8,200 workers there went
on strike. After three months, following a fierce struggle in very difficult
circumstances, they were forced to take a two-tier wage—where new employees
started at $5 rather than the regular $7.50. Management got the right to make
them work an hour more a day and perform more work on Saturdays for a period.
Today they are still a major player in Wisconsin. The take-backs that Walker is
proposing today are even worse than those forced on the Briggs & Stratton
workers in 1983.
Wisconsin is the birthplace of
the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees. AFSCME began
in 1932 in Madison, Wis. In 1936 it was granted a national charter and within
months it organized 10,000 members. In 1959, Wisconsin became the first state
to give local government workers and teachers collective bargaining rights. All
of these gains are being attacked by Walker today. It is an attack on the
historical heart of the largest public employee union in the country.
The budget crisis being used in
Wisconsin as an excuse to gut the strongest unions is part of a national
crisis. Nearly every state faces staggering deficits as revenue falls. But none
of the Democratic Party or Republican Party leaders are organizing the masses
to fight for a solution that stops service cuts, layoffs or furloughs. Their
strategy is just the opposite: Vital services and the workers who provide them
are on the chopping block.
Hundreds of thousands of
workers around the country are at risk of losing the basic right to sit down
and bargain over wages, hours and working conditions.
In Kansas and Hawaii, the
Republican and Democratic governors have figured out that furloughs of state
employees are not working, because in order for services to be delivered,
workers have to be there to deliver them. So instead, they are pushing to keep
workers on the job and cut their pay by 5 to7 percent.
In Nevada, the governor has
proposed a 5 percent pay cut for education employees and others, as has the
outgoing governor of South Carolina. In Hawaii, the governor proposed cutting
reimbursements for Medicare Part B—affecting 30,000 retirees and their spouses.
In Georgia, the governor has
proposed eliminating 14,000 state jobs. In Texas, budget cuts to education have
been proposed that could result in as
many as 100,000 teachers and staff being laid off. Other cuts in the plan would
eliminate almost 10,000 state jobs.
In Ohio, the governor has said
that he will unilaterally end the right of child care and home care workers to
bargain for a contract. (The Wisconsin bill would end these rights too.)
On Feb. 10, the Ohio governor
outlined even bigger plans and now the Ohio Senate has a bill to eliminate
collective bargaining for state and higher education employees and nearly kill
it for local employees. In Tennessee, there is a similar bill to end bargaining
rights.
In this context, the threat to
use the repressive power of the state, in the form of the National Guard, takes
on added significance. It is the most direct challenge to the broadest set of
rights affecting the greatest number of people in years. More than ever, unions
and community groups need to unite on a political platform of action to force
those in power to do the right thing.
