About 700 people rallied on Sunday in support of the Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s anti-union plan to balance the state budget — a demonstration meant to counter three weeks of larger pro-union protests in and around the state Capitol.
Walker’s backers held their own signs with messages such as “I Stand with Walker.”
Walker, a Republican, defends the anti-union bill as necessary to help Wisconsin plug a US$3.6 billion budget hole, but unions and Democratic opponents say it overreaches and is more about busting the unions than balancing the budget because it aims to strip most public employees of nearly all their collective bargaining rights.
The rally was the culmination of a 10-stop bus tour sponsored by the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity that started on Thursday in Kenosha, Wisconsin. It took place at the Aliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin, which is a couple of kilometers from the state Capitol, where thousands of pro-union demonstrators rallied on Saturday and Sunday.
Hundreds of pro-union protesters lined up outside the arena entrance and parking lot carrying placards and chanting “Shame.”
Matt Seaholm, the Wisconsin director of Americans for Prosperity, said the purpose of the bus tour and rallies was to show that Walker still has support among those who voted him into office in November last year.
“We’ve got to continue the push,” he said at the rally to loud cheers. “It’s not going to end anytime soon.”
The legislation was passed in the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Assembly, but stalled in the state Senate because its 14 Democratic members fled the state to deprive their Republican colleagues of the quorum they’d need to vote on the bill.
Union leaders have agreed to pay more for their benefits, which equates to an 8 percent pay cut, as Walker has proposed as long as they can retain their bargaining rights. Walker has refused to compromise, although he said last week that he was negotiating some changes with Democrats.
Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie said on Sunday there were no new developments with the negotiations.
With the bill stalled, Walker said layoffs may be necessary so the state can start to realize the US$30 million savings he had assumed would come from the concessions. All state workers, except those at prisons, state hospitals and other facilities open around the clock, would be potential layoff targets.
Walker informed state employee unions on Friday that he intends to issue layoff notices to 1,500 workers that would be effective on April 4.
The pro-Walker rally comes after tens of thousands of people protested on Saturday at the Capitol for a third straight weekend, rallied for a while by liberal filmmaker Michael Moore.
The crowd roared in approval on Saturday as Moore implored demonstrators to keep up their struggle against Walker’s legislation, saying they’ve galvanized the country’s workers against the wealthy elite and comparing their fight to Egypt’s revolt.
The two previous rallies drew about 70,000 and more than 80,000. About 5,700 people had been at the Capitol as of early Sunday afternoon, the Wisconsin Department of Administration estimated.
At the Americans for Prosperity rally, former Madison school board member Nancy Mistele accused unions of being concerned only with maintaining their power and not with taking care of their rank-and-file members.
“Democrats and unions stand for bankrupting our state,” she said. “Shame on them.”
The rally’s organizer, Americans for Prosperity, launched a US$320,000 television ad campaign in support of Walker’s proposal last month. The group is heavily financed by billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch, who own Koch Industries Inc and who supported Walker’s election campaign.
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