Sign found on State Street just off the Capitol Square in Madison, Wisconsin on February 16th, 2011.
A couple years ago something happened in Wisconsin. You might have heard of it, people marching in the streets, sleeping in the state capitol, and a Republican governor and legislature that stripped union rights away from thousands of public sector workers, from teachers to custodians and everything in between.
Something else happens in Wisconsin. It snows in the winter time. Sometimes we get a little snow; however, more often than not we get what, around here, we like to call a shit ton of snow. When we get hit with a major winter storm you see them in their county and city trucks—plowing snow in weather that most of us won't even go outside in.
County and municipal plow drivers are full-time union employees. During the summer you see these same crews fixing pot holes and mowing median strips among a hundred other maintenance jobs that keep our communities functioning. Most of us pay them no mind most of the year, but late November through early April they keep the roads open for police, fire, and ambulance crews. They keep the roads open so that we can go to work and visit friends and family.
On February 14th, 2011, Scott Walker and his Republican Cabal in the Wisconsin State Legislature stripped union rights away from these men and women that drive the plows that keep our roads clear during the harsh Wisconsin winters. He made them and other public servants into villains who were living the high-life on the government dole. Which is why it is so hypocritical that Scott Walker has named today, November 20th, 2013 as Snowplow Driver Appreciation Day. Personally, I hope the plow drivers that plow in front of the governor's mansion in Madison (Technically Maple Bluff) and the Walker residence in Wauwatosa push so much snow in his driveway that he cannot leave until sometime in June.
If Gov. Walker wants to show appreciation for hard-working union members like plow drivers, then he should give them their goddamn rights back. They would rather have that than his false praise of them.