NWLP-03-18-11:NWLP
3/15/11
10:16 AM
Page 10
...Recall effort underway in Wisconsin
(From Page 1)
state senators who favor stripping pub-
lic employees of bargaining rights.
Under Wisconsin law, elected repre-
sentatives can face recall after one year
in office. Recall supporters have 60
days to gather signatures from district
residents who are eligible to vote. They
must gather a number equal to 25 per-
cent of votes the district cast for gover-
nor in the most recent election. That
works out to 15,000 to 20,000 valid sig-
natures in each district. The campaign
filed papers March 3 to begin the recall
of all eight Republican senators who
have been in office a year.
Five of the eight are in strongly Re-
publican districts, but the other three
won office by small voter margins. If
just three are recalled, the Republicans
would lose their majority in the Senate.
Within days, MoveOn.org and Pro-
gressive Change Campaign Committee
had collected up to $2 million to fund
the recall. The donations are funding
television ads in Wisconsin and paying
for a door-to-door signature gathering
effort. In every one of the eight districts,
recall campaign offices have opened
and canvasses are under way. A web
site, recalltherepublican8.com, helps
coordinate support.
Once the campaigns meet signature-
gathering targets, it would take elections
officials about a month to check signa-
tures and set an election date. Those
seeking the recall will also have to put
forward their own candidates. The re-
call elections would likely occur mid-
summer.
Taking back the Senate would be
only the first step. It would be enough to
stop Walker from passing more of his
agenda, but not enough to reverse what-
ever Republicans are able to pass before
then, because Republicans would still
control the state assembly.
Walker himself can be recalled in
early 2012, and opponents are already
planning for that. That campaign can’t
start officially until Jan. 26, 2012, but
organizers are signing up people now
who are willing to sign petition then.
On March 9, Wisconsin Republicans
mounted a surprise attack. All along,
Gov. Walker and supporters insisted
that taking away collective bargaining
rights was a measure needed to balance
the state budget, because only then
could unilateral cuts be made to public
employee wages and benefits. Senate
rules require a three-fifths quorum to
vote on bills that have a fiscal impact,
but only a simple majority quorum on
bills that don’t. Republican leaders
stripped the pension and health care
cuts from the original bill, and reintro-
duced just those provisions stripping
bargaining rights, saying it didn’t have a
fiscal impact after all, and therefore did-
n’t require the missing Democratic sen-
ators to be present.
Without hearing or public notice, the
new bill quickly passed. As many as
7,000 protesters charged to the Capitol
by nightfall.
The state assembly would have to
vote to concur, but on March 10, they
had trouble getting into the Capitol, be-
cause it was surrounded by protesters
and locked down by police. Eventually,
assembly Republicans held the vote,
and passed it over howls of protest by
Democratic assembly members.
Democratic senators began returning
from Illinois. And protests roared back,
culminating in the biggest-yet rally in
Madison of over 100,000 March 12.
About 200 farmers joined in, with 50
tractors parading down the streets of
Madison.
Walker signed the legislation. But
for it to take effect, it must be published
by the Wisconsin secretary of state. De-
mocrat Doug LaFollete has up to 10
business days to do that. It’s expected
the law will take effect March 25.
When that happens, unions repre-
senting nurses at the University of Wis-
consin hospital and University of Wis-
consin graduate assistants will no
longer be legally recognized. Union
dues for all public employees will be-
come voluntary. And the state will stop
collecting union dues, whether mem-
bers want to pay them or not. The first
annual elections will then be held in
April in all 30 state employee bargain-
ing units — to see if workers want to go
nonunion. Under the new law, unions
will be able to bargain only over wages,
and can not bargain increases higher
than the increase in the cost-of-living.
Up to now, Walker has not engaged in
any bargaining with unions.
There’s been some talk of general
strike, but thus far, there’s been no sig-
nificant call for one. Dominique Paul
Noth, editor of the Milwaukie Labor
Press, says the concern is that a general
strike might play into Walker’s hands if
it gets too chaotic. The closest thing so
far is a call by the president of Commu-
nications Workers of America, endorsed
by the AFL-CIO Executive Board, for
a “movement-wide dramatic action”
April 4, the anniversary of the death of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Readers wishing to support the Wis-
consin fightback struggle can make do-
nations online at www.wisaflcio.org or
send checks to the Wisconsin State
AFL-CIO Defense Fund, 6333 W. Blue
Mound Rd., Milwaukee, WI 53213. On
the memo line write: STAND WITH
WISCONSIN.
BARGAIN COUNTER
EE
R
F
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MARCH 18, 2011