The last time the National Guard was used against public workers was 1968. Sign Petition to stop

[midnight]

attacks on public workers....

First Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) announced a state budget plan that strips state workers of nearly all their collective bargaining rights, cuts pay and benefits and says there will be no negotiations.

Today he took it even further: He announced he has alerted the National Guard to be ready in case state workers strike or rise in protest. He told the Associated Press he’s been working on contingency plans for months.

The last time the National Guard was used against public workers was the Memphis sanitation strike in 1968, just before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. The last time the Guard was called out in Wisconsin to quell a labor dispute was the 1934 Kohler strike by the UAW.

Walker may be suffering from a bit of right wing paranoia about unions. Today when he dropped the National Guard bombshell, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported:

The Capitol news conference where Walker announced his plan had unusually high security, with four Capitol police offers stationed outside of it and checking on who was attending the event.

What a way to conduct the state’s business!

Click here to sign our Twitter petition to Governor Walker or to sign via Twitter, just tweet: petition @GovWalker to stop outrageous attacks against #WI workers. http://act.ly/32z #Wisconsin #WIgov #p2 (Please Re-Tweet)http://blog.aflcio.org/

[elleng]

1. Likeliehood Wisconsonites arise like Egyptians?

Any LaFollettes around?

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAlafollette.htm

[midnight]

4. We shall see..... There is a rally in Madison on the 15th and 16th...

[elleng]

5. WTH's going on in Wisconsin???

VERY troubling (to this New Yawka in MD/DC suburb.)

[OneAngryDemocrat]

2. Deploying the National Guard is Wrong

There is a reason why Gov. Walker wants to deploy the National Guard in Wisconsin, rather than pay unionized, professional, prison guards, in Wisconsin's state prisons.

Professional correctional officers receive more pay and benefits than Wisconsin's National Guard troops.

Deploying Guard units would enable the Walker administration to place America's Citizen Soldiers into harm's way, for two week tours, without having to honor these dedicated warriors with all of those benefits that the Wisconsin state legislation has seen fit to bestow upon those who serve their state, full time.

But there is more.

You see, the Governor's planned deployment would not even give these Guardsmen the 90+ days they would need to qualify for Active Duty benefits. The Federal government would have to approve the deployment for Wisconsin's citizen soldiers to be able to receive those benefits.

Wisconsin's heroes, therefore, would not even be eligible for the active army's G.I. Bill!

In other words, Governor Walker plans to endanger the lives of those men and women who have volunteered for the Guard, by placing them into the line, without actually owning up to the dangerous service that they would be asked to perform.

The Governor's plan is, therefore, shameful, and a complete disgrace.

[midnight]

6. Someone has already said the President would have to approve the

use of the Guard for this emergency service, and if I understand what your saying, you believe that the federal govt... ie. the president would have to approve this deployment? I hope I understand this, because, I'm hoping the president will side with the workers.

[OneAngryDemocrat]

11. No.

Walker can call up the guard. But he can not call them up for anything longer than two weeks. The President would have to authorize a longer deployment, because, if they are on active duty for 90+ days they would rate federal benefits that they do not rate simply because the governor called them up, and a shorter deployment.

[midnight]

3. 1968 Labor and Civil Rights join together.....

In February 1968, 1,300 African-American sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee went on strike carrying signs that read, “I AM A MAN.” The plea of the strikiing members of the American Federation
of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union resonated with workers and African Americans throughout the country seeking equality. The strike caught the attention of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who went to Memphis in support of the workers. King delivered his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” address to the striking workers the day before he was shot.http://www.fpaa.org/documents/TheLaborMonument-IllustratedGuide.pdf



Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is to protest far right..... We are not going to let dogs or fire hoses turn us around... We have difficult days ahead-MLK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1L8y-MX3pg&feature=player_embedded#at=59

[Historic NY]

7. Wait until he finds out a lot of them are public service workers..........he'll shit.

[midnight]

8. The world of state employees and their rights as workers comes to an end under Scott Walker’s budget

His proposal, for the most part, creates no savings, but is full of political paybacks, anti-worker provisions, and a general disdain for public workers’ rights. If this bill passed as proposed, it will turn all of our worlds upside down. Something as simple as the grievance procedure will be replaced with the civil service procedure, which establishes the agency head as the final decision maker on your grievances. Everything will be in the hands of and controlled by the employer, without employee recourse.
There are other rights and protections aside from the grievance procedure that are nullified in Walker’s proposal.
To make things even worse we were officially notified that effective 3/13/2011 the contract extension will be cancelled. This means that all of us will have no contract protections. All local agreements and memoranda of understanding are unilaterally cancelled. Everything affecting your daily work life is in jeopardy.
We, along with WEAC, AFT, AFL-CIO and other unions are doing everything possible to avert this disaster. We are meeting with legislators and we would strongly encourage all of you and your members to reach out to their State Senators. The message is clear: “Why are you taking away my rights?”
We will be up on T.V., both commercial and cable, starting Monday, as well as radio.
On Tuesday, 2/15 and Wednesday, 2/16 we will be having lobby days at the Capitol. Watch this website for specific pick up locations. Buses will run from every corner of the state on both days, arriving in Madison for a briefing at approximately 10:00 a.m., followed by a rally at the Capitol at noon. The afternoon will be spent visiting legislators. This rally should be the biggest we have ever held. We have multiple unions, community groups and citizens joining us. We would encourage you and your members to extend invitations to our allies and ride the busses with us. There is no charge.
We know that Walker is trying to bait us by mobilizing the National Guard, hiring an Ohio security firm to staff any facility and instructing the capitol police to meet with legislators and “advise” them not to meet with constituents in their districts.
This budget repair bill is an all out assault on you, your families, your careers, your rights and your union. Walker keeps talking about the “good and decent people who work for the State of Wisconsin”, but his actions speak a different message of divisiveness, cronyism and servitude.http://uppitywis.org/event/walker-budget-repair-bill-rally-and-lobbying

[midnight]

9. Is that normal for a Gov. to hire a private security firm from another state?

Especially when so many in his own state are unemployed?

[dotymed]

10. This is Tyranny not Democracy.

Indiana, Ohio and now Wisconsin state employees have been forced to resign from their Unions. The employees are not given a choice.
I wonder what these Governors salaries are( besides their "acquired wealth")and how many state employees salaries could be paid by those salaries.
Of course each of these Governors are wealthy and obviously believe that workers should not have rights.
If America would tax the wealthy (even at pre-Reagan levels) there would be no need to cut the living wages or the right to collectively bargain, by these state employees. This is just another attempt (successful) by the wealthy, to divide and conquer the working class. Now that they have unemployment rates so high, they tell us "hey look at how well paid those workers are."
Every American should earn a living wage, benefits and job security. The wealthy see this as a threat to their untaxed wealth.

What will it take for Americans, like so many other citizens of the world, to stand up to the ruling class and demand their fair share?

They'll not stop until we make them.

[plumbob]

12. Good lord! The stupid! It burns! (Hey, I'm from Texas - that MEANS something!)

Is it possible that the guard members, if called, will simply refuse to act in large numbers? I know that I would never draw down on a fellow citizen whose crime was being a public worker.

Hope for great results from the 15th-16th rallies!

[midnight]

13. Risser, the dean of state WI.legislators says gov. more like dictator than leader....

The governor wants to ram a change that Democrats and Republicans agree is radical through the Legislature as part of a budget repair bill -- with no serious hearings and little in the way of honest debate. If he gets his way, the great mass of Wisconsinites will have no real say regarding the change.

That’s absurd, as Walker’s plan assaults the best traditions and values of the state of Wisconsin.

Of all the criticism of the bill so far, we were most struck by the statement from state Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison.

Risser, the dean of state legislators, does not go in for fiery rhetoric or rash statements. He usually plays the role of conciliator in the Capitol, where he has served for more than five decades.

But Risser did not mince words with regard to Walker’s assault on state employees.

“State employees have the right to negotiate in good faith with the state. Without a willingness to even discuss what concessions need to be made with state employees, the governor comes across more like a dictator and less like a leader,” Risser said. “The governor’s budget adjustment bill attempts to wipe away over 50 years of collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin. This decree will affect every hardworking public employee in the state -- every librarian, teacher, street department worker and public safety worker. These are our friends and neighbors; they are the people who make our communities function.”http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/editorial/article_c8dc2189-1d6c-510b-9244-76d79987a088.html

So it's gaining traction.... Egypt moving towards freedom..... And Wisconsin moving towards dictatorship.....