The men of Dane Country Dairy, and Teamsters Local 695, in happier times.
I am a union member, my father was a union member, my brother and sister were union members. My dad's union job put food on the table and ensured that our family had a stable and growing income. Until his union busting bastard of a boss tried to break the union, that is.
Teamsters local 695 went to the NLRB, and eventually the NLRB went to court and the union won and my dad received a settlement.
During that time my family's income decreased, and my father was relegated to taking a job as a security guard at the zoo and one of the malls in town. It would take almost ten years before all the legalities were cared for and he received his settlement and he could retire. I am not sure what the recourse my dad and his union brothers would have had if Wisconsin had been a right-to-work state then.
Within the next week, Walker and the Koch brother-owned cabal in the state legislature will force a right-to-work bill through the Assembly and Senate. Governor Walker will sign it into law. And Wisconsin, once the laboratory of Democracy, will become another state where the voice of the worker has been diminished.
I fear for the future of my state and the nation as a whole, where the worker is nothing more than a commodity to be bought and sold in the marketplace to the lowest bidder. Our rights are being taken away, one piece at a time. Corporate profits are more important than the people who do the work to make corporations profitable.
As hard as I try, I cannot put a positive spin on this. I cannot see any hope for the future. The Wisconsin I grew up in is no more.