Wisconsin is coming together around its state workers in the face of Republican Gov. Scott Walker's attempt to drastically curtail their workplace rights and effectively cut their pay.
Current and former members of the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers issued a statement in support of the workers:
We know that it is teamwork on and off the field that makes the Packers and Wisconsin great. As a publicly owned team we wouldn't have been able to win the Super Bowl without the support of our fans.
It is the same dedication of our public workers every day that makes Wisconsin run. They are the teachers, nurses and child care workers who take care of us and our families. But now in an unprecedented political attack Governor Walker is trying to take away their right to have a voice and bargain at work.
The right to negotiate wages and benefits is a fundamental underpinning of our middle class. When workers join together it serves as a check on corporate power and helps ALL workers by raising community standards. Wisconsin's long standing tradition of allowing public sector workers to have a voice on the job has worked for the state since the 1930s. It has created greater consistency in the relationship between labor and management and a shared approach to public work.
These public workers are Wisconsin's champions every single day and we urge the Governor and the State Legislature to not take away their rights.
High school students staged a walkout:
Junior Theron Luhn helped organize the protest. He said, “Let’s show Gov. Walker that we care about learning, and the teachers are worth every cent that we pay to them.”
Teachers would face significant cuts if Walker's budget passes. Take this family:
Brad and Heather Lutes are both teachers, and if the governor’s so-called budget repair bill passes this week, they will take a combined $13,200 paycut. It’s a disheartening and scary proposition for the parents of two young children.
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The Lutes family scrambled this weekend to calculate the impact on their finances. What they don’t know is how, with what amounts to a 13 percent paycut, they will handle their $1,700 mortgage, their car payment, utilities, and a credit card bill started to pay for repairs after the state’s recent flooding damaged their home.
Then there’s the matter of the costs associated with their son and daughter’s extracurriculars. Swimming, baseball, basketball and soccer participation doesn’t come cheap. Their daughter’s desire to take piano lessons is now even more in jeopardy.
Hundreds of college students at two campuses also protested and a large rally was held at the state capitol.