Protests continue in Madison, put focus on corporate agenda

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4796

By Barb Kucera, Workday editor
6 March 2011

MADISON, Wis. - Thousands of people turned out Saturday at the state Capitol to protest Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s anti-worker proposals – and put a focus on the corporate agenda behind the politics.

A crowd estimated at 20,000 rallied in the Capitol square and heard from filmmaker Michael Moore, singer Michelle Shocked and others. While they demonstrated, organizers also collected signatures to recall several Republican senators who back Walker’s plan to strip many public workers of their workplace rights.

Unions with large contingents included the Amalgamated Transit Union, whose members converged on Madison from several Midwest states, including Minnesota; Teamsters, Laborers and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

ATU Local 1005 members in Madison, Wisconsin


Members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 participated in Saturday's demonstrations in Madison, Wis.

Workday Minnesota photos

“We’re here because, if we don’t support our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin, we’re going to be next,” said Marlin Jensen, a member of ATU Local 1005 in Minneapolis. “The power’s in numbers right now. The sleeping giant, I believe, is slowing being awakened and everyone is going to start to take notice.”

Transit Union members who operate the bus systems in several Wisconsin communities are among those who would lose their collective bargaining rights under Walkers’ “budget reform” bill, which also contains huge cuts to education and health care.

FULL story and more photos at link.