Pro-labor vigil in Austin supports Wisconsin protesters By Andrew Kaspar <http://www.statesman.com/news/local/pro-labor-vigil-in-austin-supports-wisconsin-protesters-1272338.html?service=popup&authorContact=1272338&authorContactField=0>
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Published: 11:42 p.m. Monday, Feb. 21, 2011 As protests in Madison, Wis., continued Monday, the Texas chapter of the AFL-CIO held a vigil in support of the Wisconsin workers' cause, prompting hundreds of supporters to march two blocks from the union's headquarters to the Capitol. Congregating at the gates of the statehouse grounds, a mix of union members, teachers and Wisconsin transplants waved flashlights and neon glow sticks, their picket signs expressing solidarity with demonstrators nearly 1,000 miles north of Austin. A smaller gathering of a few dozen tea partyers supporting Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker's austerity measures could be seen and occasionally heard from the south steps of the Capitol. Scenes out of Madison have dramatically captured the fiscal plight of states as they grapple with revenue shortfalls and budget deficits. Tens of thousands have turned out to protest Walker's proposals to require state employees to chip in more for health benefits and pension plans and to take away the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions. The protests have received national attention, both for the spectacle daily mass marches, a sizeable contingent of protesters sleeping in the Capitol rotunda and 14 Democratic state senators on the lam and the broader implications for organized labor in America. "The general belief within the labor movement is that whatever happens in Wisconsin could happen anywhere," said Ed Sills , spokesman for the Texas branch of AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor federation. "We see public employees under assault in the budget process here as well." Texas is one of 22 "right to work" states, meaning compulsory union membership is illegal . Bureau of Labor Statistics data show Texas has about 545,000 union workers, nearly 200,000 more than Wisconsin, but union representation here is 5.4 percent of the work force, compared with 14.2 percent in Wisconsin. Wisconsin's public sector union leaders have said they are willing to accept what amounts to about an 8 percent pay cut, but they've balked at Walker's attempt to strip away collective bargaining the right to negotiate salaries and working conditions something most Texas public employee unions lack. The Wisconsin governor says all provisions of the bill are nonnegotiable. Wisconsin faces a $137 million shortfall in the current budget year and a projected $3.6 billion gap over the next two years. Lawmakers there propose a $67.4 billion budget for 2011 through 2013, the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau reports. Texas is projected to be up to $27 billion in the red in the next biennium, with an overall budget that would be $159 billion under a Texas Senate bill and $156 billion under a House bill. Where the Wisconsin governor is effectively asking state employees to take a pay cut, layoffs by the thousands are the fiscal reality in Texas. Austin school district employees are bracing for more than 1,000 layoffs as Texas prepares to cut back public education funding. Wearing a Green Bay Packers jacket and holding an American flag, former Wisconsin resident Del Taebel came out to support relatives still living there. "I don't know what (the Madison protests) mean for Texas," he said, "but it means a lot for America." Texas Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin , offered his support to protesters in Madison and the 14 state senators who left the state to prevent a vote on Walker's proposal, recalling his own 2003 flight from Austin during a redistricting battle with Republicans that he called "patently partisan." "The Democrats didn't have the votes to stop it, but we had the wherewithal to shut down government," Naishtat said. [email protected]; 445-3851 Public workers, students rally against cuts - By MIKE DENNISON IR State Bureau <http://helenair.com/search/?l=50&sd=desc&s=start_time&f=html&byline=By+MIKE+DENNISON+IR+State+Bureau> helenair.com | Posted: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 12:12 am | (0) Comments<http://helenair.com/news/article_8583180c-3e53-11e0-a9ca-001cc4c002e0.html?mode=comments> - - <http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/helenair.com/content/tncms/assets/editorial/1/a9/91e/1a991e96-3e1d-11e0-8d50-001cc4c03286-revisions/4d63074a996ed.image.jpg> [image: buy this photo]<http://pictopia.com/perl/ptp/helenaindy?photo_name=8583180c-3e53-11e0-a9ca-001cc4c002e0&title=Service+and+Education+Rally%26t_url%3Dhttp://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/helenair.com/content/tncms/assets/editorial/1/a9/91e/1a991e96-3e1d-11e0-8d50-001cc4c03286-revisions/4d63074a996ed.image.jpg&fs_url=http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/helenair.com/content/tncms/assets/editorial/1/a9/91e/1a991e96-3e1d-11e0-8d50-001cc4c03286-revisions/4d63074aacf6a.hires.jpg&pps=buynow> Dylan Brown Independent Record - A student shows his support of the Wisconsin strikes, Monday morning, during a rally to save public services and education on the north steps of the Capitol Building. [image: loading] Loading - [image: Service and Education Rally]<http://helenair.com/news/article_8583180c-3e53-11e0-a9ca-001cc4c002e0.html#1> - [image: Service and Education Rally]<http://helenair.com/news/article_8583180c-3e53-11e0-a9ca-001cc4c002e0.html#2> Several hundred public employees and college students rallied on the steps of the state Capitol Monday, decrying proposed budget cuts to education and state services as harmful and unnecessary. The workers, who lined the Capitols snowy front steps in temperatures in the 20s, also called out their support for public workers in Wisconsin, which has gained national attention as Republicans there try to strip public-sector unions of their collective bargaining rights. Its not about the budget, Billings firefighter Joe Sands said of the standoff in Wisconsin. Its about (the Wisconsin governors) power to strip us of our rights. Its about crushing the groups that stand up for the middle class: Unions. To the middle class in Montana and Wisconsin we will not be broken, we will not give up, we will fight back and we will prevail. Sands and other speakers got a raucous reception at the rally, which occurred while legislators met inside the Capitol at floor sessions in the House and Senate. Next week, after the 2011 Legislatures midway break, the House Appropriations Committee will start voting on the proposed state budget for the next two years. So far, the budget subcommittees have recommended millions of dollars in cuts from Gov. Brian Schweitzers proposed budget, in funding for public schools, the state university system and human services. Rep. Walt McNutt, R-Sidney, who chairs the Appropriations Committee, emphasized Monday that the subcommittee actions are only recommendations and that the final budget may look much different. However, McNutt also said Republicans believe theres not enough on-going revenue to fund the governors budget, so some reductions must be made. Were working with recommendations on how we can craft a budget that has less money than the (current) bienniums budget, he said. Theres going to be less money. .. Were trying not to be punitive for any one class or group (of programs and people). Speakers at the rally disputed the GOP view that a shortfall in tax revenue exists, saying the money is there to avoid budget reductions. At the rally, John Fleming, a teacher and former state representative from St. Ignatius, criticized a vote last week to cut funding for and privatize the state veterans nursing home at Columbia Falls. Fleming said his father-in-law, a World War II veteran of the Marines, is a resident of the home and gets excellent care from a dedicated staff. Now the Legislature is considering dismantling a facility that has served our countrys veterans since 1897, he said. I call that plain wrong and I hope you do, too. Eric Feaver, president of MEA-MFT, the states largest public-sector union, said Montana is not Wisconsin, noting that Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, told national news outlets last week that he believes in bargaining with public employee unions and respects their bargaining rights. I dont know if thats what Fox News wanted to hear, but thats what they got, Feaver said. Schweitzer, who wasnt at the rally but spoke later with the Lee Newspapers State Bureau, said he told Fox and CNN last week that a governor is like a CEO of a large company and should treat its employees with respect. We met with our unions (two years ago) and said, Hey, were going to need your help here, the governor said, referring to a two-year pay freeze negotiated in 2008. Imagine if a new CEO just a week before he takes over announces that all of the people who work for him are slow, lazy, overpaid or have too many benefits. What would that do to morale? This year, the Schweitzer administration negotiated a 1 percent pay raise for state workers starting next January and a 3 percent raise the following year. The Legislature has yet to act on the funding for the deal. Senate Republican leadership at the Legislature released a statement in response to the rally, saying that workers took their paid day off to protest fiscally responsible policies at the Montana Legislature. Senate Majority Leader Jeff Essmann, R-Billings, said state workers have pay and benefits higher than the average Montanan. Montana Republicans want to be fair with state employees, but they need to recognize that they need to be fair with state taxpayers, he said. Sands, who was flanked at the rally by a half-dozen uniformed firefighters from Butte, said Republicans are trying to scapegoat public employees, shifting the blame for the countrys economic meltdown and problems from where it belongs, from Wall Street, to us, public employees. ------------------------ Modified Tue, Feb 22, 2011 06:21 AM Protesters call for collective bargaining RALEIGH A coalition of labor, civil rights and religious groups rallied in front of the General Assembly offices Monday to call for an end to North Carolina's ban on public employees' collective bargaining and to resist state budget cuts at the expense of public sector jobs and programs. The rally drew about 100 participants, who cheered several speakers representing labor, churches and the NAACP. About two dozen people staged a counterprotest across the street in Bicentennial Plaza, shouting insults and chanting slogans throughout the rally. Both sides cited the controversy in Wisconsin, where that state's governor has proposed reducing public employees' pay and benefits and limiting their collective-bargaining rights. Wisconsin has become a rallying cry for unions, but it is just one of many states scrutinizing pay, benefits and pension commitments as they face difficult decisions to handle budget deficits. Some of the concessions that governors in those states would like to see are already status quo in North Carolina, which has banned collective bargaining for public employees since 1959. The coalition's campaign is a long shot, but it will add to the debate over state employees' compensation. Gov. Bev Perdue has recommended eliminating 10,000 positions, as many as 3,000 of which are now filled. She would like to see money set aside to coax workers into retirement, while saving additional money by consolidating some state agencies. After the sidewalk rally in Raleigh, coalition members filed quietly into the Legislative Building to present copies of the coalition's statement of principles and a copy of an International Labor Organization 2007 report calling on North Carolina to resume collective bargaining. Copies went to the offices of Sen. Phil Berger, president pro tempore of the Senate, and to Rep. Tom Tillis, speaker of the House. When coalition leaders delivered a copy to a Tillis aide and then began to pray, Tillis appeared and joined them in prayer before briefly greeting them and promising a more substantial meeting later. Perdue's position The issue will be a test of labor union strength in North Carolina. Not only is this the least unionized state in the country, the U.S. Labor Department reports, but North Carolina and Virginia are the only states that completely ban public employee collective bargaining. Earlier this month, Perdue issued an executive order creating a formal procedure for negotiations between the state and its largest employees association, the State Employees Association of North Carolina. But she took pains to assure the business community that she remains opposed to collective bargaining. Organized labor spent $5 million in North Carolina during the 2008 election, including $1.8 million from the Service Employees International Union, of which SEANC is the local organization, mostly on Democrats. An attempt last year to pass a bill to end the bargaining ban did not go far in the state legislature. Now, with Republicans taking over majorities in the House and Senate, unions in this state - as elsewhere in the country - have a tougher battle ahead of them. Angaza Laughinghouse, president of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 150 and one of the rally's organizers, explained the coalition's decision to fight back at a time when so many unions are feeling vulnerable to budget cuts. "This is a major economic crisis," he said in an interview after the rally. "This is also a time when they're chiseling away at our pensions, our health plans, basic health and safety rights, privatizing jobs. We know this is the best time to be raising this question of why North Carolina is denying North Carolina public sector workers the right to collectively bargain." A shouting match Out on the street, the conservative protesters carried signs reading "Unions - Too Big, Too Costly" and "Wisconsin: Pass the Bill." They chanted, "U.S.A." The other side countered with chants such as "People's budget! People's budget!" Both sides tried to outshout each other, with cries of "Freeloader!" a repeated refrain from the counterprotesters. The volume went up several notches when Rev. William Barber, president of the state chapter of the NAACP, took the megaphone. "There are those who are trying to shout us down," Barber said. "But they can't shout down the truth. "In Wisconsin and other states, they are fighting to hold on to their collective bargaining rights," Barber said. "It is shameful that ever since 1959, because [of] racist ideology and Jim Crow mentality, which feared that whites, blacks and brown people would come together in the framework of a strong union movement and work for civil rights and justice, that North Carolina banned collective bargaining in the public sector." In next few weeks, at least 20 meetings will be held in communities across the state to promote a "people's budget," Barber said, which will be delivered to the General Assembly. Randy Dye of Pittsboro, one of the counterprotesters, said the network of tea party and other conservative groups heard about the rally only 24 hours earlier, and didn't have enough time to mount a larger presence. "We wanted to face off with them," he said. [email protected] or 919-829-4576 [image: State Senate member Sheila Leslie speaks to a large crowd during a rally in support of state workers in Wisconsin and against Gov. Brian Sandoval's proposed cuts. |] *- Jim Grant/Nevada Appeal* Unions rally to support Wisconsin state workers, oppose Sandoval's budget cuts February, 21 2011 By Geoff Dornan< / A> [email protected] Joining union workers in numerous other states, about 150 people turned out Monday for a rally in front of the Legislature in support of state workers in Wisconsin facing an attempt to eliminate their collective bargaining rights. AFL-CIO director Danny Thompson said the rally had a second purpose as well to oppose Gov. Brian Sandoval's proposed budget cuts. This is an assault on working people, said Larry Wilson, a United Auto Workers member from Reno. It's time to take a stance. It's an assault on our civil rights, said Dennis Miller, a teamsters member from Reno. Thompson told the crowd they weren't alone, that an estimated 1,200 union members turned out for a similar rally in Las Vegas. He said it's not fair to balance the state budget on the backs of state workers when everybody knows it's a broken tax system. If they do away with collective bargaining, the middle class will cease to exist, he said. Kevin Ranft, a correctional officer and union member, said workers need to call on legislators to stand up and do the right thing. I've been a state employee 11 years and they've balanced the budget on our backs for about 10 of those years, he said. Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, joined the crowd praising state workers as providing the backbone of the services we depend on. There will be some cuts but there's a right way and a wrong way to make those decisions and the proposal we have is the wrong way, he said referring to Sandoval's proposed budget. The solution is a balanced budget that is fair and does not do this on the backs of the middle class. Unlike the Wisconsin governor, Sandoval has not proposed elimination of collective bargaining for local government employees. In fact, he decided not to back a proposal made by Gov. Jim Gibbons to eliminate collective bargaining. While Sandoval has said some changes to the state's collective bargaining law are needed, he has declined to say what he thinks should be changed. Senior policy adviser Dale Erquiaga said Sandoval's intention is to work with lawmakers on those changes, rather than draw a hard line at the start of talks. Earlier in the day about 20 demonstrators gathered in front of the capitol to speak out against unions. Copyright 2011 Nevada Appeal. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<http://apps.nevadaappeal.com/utils/uiincludes/termsofuse.php> Nevada Appeal <http://www.nevadaappeal.com/> February, 21 2011 6:54 pm http://www.nevadaappeal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110222/NEWS/110229966/-1/RSS&template=printart [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
