MADISON, Wisconsin — Thousands of pro-labor protesters turned out for more demonstrations at the Wisconsin Capitol on Saturday, vowing to fight back a day after the state’s Republican governor signed into law a controversial bill that eliminates most union rights for public employees.
T
he demonstrators said their focus would now be on recalling from office the Republican lawmakers who had pushed through the bill. Efforts to recall from office eight Republican state senators and some of the 14 Democratic state senators who fled to try to prevent a vote on the bill have already star
ted.
Later Saturday, Democratic senators were expected to make their first appearance in Madison since fleeing the state last month. Their departure had left the Senate one vote short of the quorum needed to pass measures spending money. Republicans got around that by breaking out the collective bargaining provisions of the legislation, which could be passed with fewer members present.
Gov. Scott Walker’s signature on the bill Friday quietly concluded a debate over collective bargaining that provoked three weeks of loud, relentless protests at the Wisconsin state Capitol.
The proposal to eliminate most of public workers’ collective bargaining rights touched off a national debate, and its passage was a key victory for Republicans who have targeted unions in nationwide efforts to slash government spending. But labor leaders have said they plan to use the setback to fire up their members nationwide and mount a major counterattack against Republicans at the ballot box in 2012.
Saturday’s protest got a boost from a parade of more than 30 tractors driven by farmers supporting the union workers. Thousands of people lining the sidewalks cheered as tractors rolled by bearing signs with messages such as “Planting the seeds for a big season of recalls.” The farmers thrust their fists in the air in response.
Tod Pulvermacher, 33, of Bear Valley, drove a tractor towing a manure spreader carrying a sign that read, “Walker’s bill belongs here” — a reference to Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
“Farmers are working-class Americans,” he said as the crowd around him started to cheer. “We work for a living as hard as anybody, and this is about all of us.”
Pulvermacher said the fight against the law was “everybody’s fight” and it was just beginning.
“If we can keep the energy high, we can change a lot of things in Wisconsin in the next year,” he said.
Judy Gump, 45, who teaches English at a Madison high school, also said the fight wasn’t over. She said that if the first person who got arrested during the civil rights movement had given up, the movement would have failed.
“It was illegal,” she said, talking about the vote on the bill. “This is so not the end. This is what makes people more determined and makes them dig in.”
Walker said he was confident the law would withstand legal challenges.
In an interview Friday with The Associated Press, Walker said he had “no doubt” that support for the measure would grow over time once the public sees government becoming more efficient.
“What we’re doing here, I think, is progressive. It’s innovative. It’s reform that leads the country, and we’re showing there’s a better way by sharing in that sacrifice with all of us in government,” he said.
Walker, the 43-year-old son of a preacher who has swiftly become one of the most polarizing politicians in the country, insisted the proposal was necessary to balance the state budget.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller said the Republicans were not listening to the people.
“Republicans may have achieved a short-term policy goal, but their radical agenda, the war on working families, has been exposed, and the people of Wisconsin and across the country are united against it as never before,” Miller said in a statement Friday.
If events in Wisconsin, once a leading state in the U.S. labor movement, do energize activists nationwide, it could be good news for President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election bid in crucial Midwestern swing states. Union backing will be critical to Obama’s winning a second term. Organized labor has traditionally been a bastion of support for Democrats.
Walker belongs to the new, highly conservative wave of Republican governors who have attempted to impose restrictions on public employee unions.
Ohio and several other states are debating measures to curb union rights. In Iowa, the Republican-controlled House approved a bill Friday that overhauls the state’s collective bargaining law and reduces workers’ negotiating rights. However, the bill is not expected to pass the Senate, where Democrats hold the majority
Republicans, newly empowered after seizing control of the U.S. House of Representatives and many state governments in November elections, had promised backers they would institute deep spending cuts, hold the line on or cut taxes and shrink the size of government.
In Wisconsin, parts of the fight were sure to continue in the courts and in the battle over the broader state budget.
On Friday, the Democratic executive of Dane County, which includes the state capital Madison, asked a court to find passage of the law to be unconstitutional, arguing in part that it was adopted illegally without the required quorum. A judge denied an emergency request to block the measure and scheduled a longer hearing for Wednesday.
The law does not take effect until the state issues an official notice that it has been enacted, and the notice is published in the Madison newspaper. Secretary of State Doug La Follette said he typically takes 10 business days to send the notice. Given the court action, he said he was not going to act any sooner than that.
In addition to ending collective bargaining for most public employees, the law forces state workers to pay more for their pensions and health care benefits — changes that will save an estimated $30 million to help pay down a budget shortfall projected to be $137 million by July 1. The higher payments for state workers will take effect over the coming weeks.
But much more turmoil lies ahead.
Lawmakers have not even started to debate Walker’s two-year budget, which calls for cutting schools and local governments by more than $1 billion.
Walker repeatedly argued that ending collective bargaining would give local governments much-needed flexibility to confront the cuts in state aid that will be necessary to fix Wisconsin’s deficit, which is expected to grow to $3.6 billion deficit over two years.
Walker also said his plan would avoid the need for any furloughs or layoffs. He issued a notice last week warning that up to 1,500 workers could be laid off if the bill failed. But just before signing the measure Friday, Walker rescinded the notice.
The changes contained in Walker’s law amount to an average 8 percent pay cut for state workers.
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