After protests drew as many as 30,000 people in Madison on Wednesday, hundreds of Wisconsin workers, students and allies camped out overnight in the Capitol Rotunda as a hearing went past midnight on Republican Governor Scott Walker’s budget bill that eliminates collective bargaining rights for nearly all of the state’s public service workers.

The state Senate is set to vote on the bill Thursday after being approved Wednesday night by the Joint Finance Committee on a straight party line vote with all Republicans backing the attack on worker’s rights. Thousands of workers and their supporters from around the state enter the third day of a massive protest against Walker’s plan, according to a press release issued by the AFL-CIO.

Meanwhile in Ohio, where another Republican governor, John Kasich, is mirroring Walker’s assault on workers with similar legislation to strip collective bargaining rights from teachers, EMTs and other public workers, thousands of workers will rally against the bill in Columbus Thursday.

In Madison as the crowds stayed far into the night outside the Capitol, Democratic state Rep. Cory Mason called the governor’s bill “the most anti-worker legislation in Wisconsin history.”

“We are here tonight to tell Governor Walker that this proposal has gone too far,” Mason said. “Brothers and sisters, this is the fight of our generation. This is the moment to transcend party politics and do what is right by the hard working people who voted you in office.”

The Wisconsin battle has drawn national attention and President Obama weighed in yesterday saying Walker’s plan looked less like an attempt to fix the state’s budget deficit, but rather “it seems like more of an assault on unions,” the president said.

“I think it’s very important for us to understand that public employees, they’re our neighbors, they’re our friends. These are folks who are teachers and they’re firefighters and they’re social workers and they’re police officers,” President Obama said. “They make a lot of sacrifices and make a big contribution. And I think it’s important not to vilify them or to suggest that somehow all these budget problems are due to public employees.”

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan urged Walker to work with the unions not “antagonize” them. He said he plans to call Walker today.

Wisconsin workers are also receiving support for religious leaders. Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki on Wednesday said in a letter to lawmakers there is a ”moral obligation each of us has to respect the legitimate rights of workers.”

Walker has longed claimed his attack on workers is strictly a budget matter and has falsely blamed workers and their unions for state’s economic problems. Listecki wrote that it is a “mistake to marginalize or dismiss unions as impediments to economic growth.”

Rabbi Renée Bauer, Director of the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice of South Central Wisconsin, said Walker’s bill “is an affront to the human dignity of public sector workers.”

As a religious leader I recognize this as a moral crisis. Jewish tradition makes protecting the weak from exploitation by the mighty, treating laborers fairly and recognizing their rights to organize a religious obligation,” Bauer said. “My tradition is not alone in this call. All religions believe in justice. Now is the time for all of us to live out our faith by raising our voices to protect the rights of workers in Wisconsin and throughout the country.”

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Tags: Thousands Continue Wisconsin Protests for Worker Rights

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 17th, 2011 at 12:04 pm and is filed under Labor News, Organized Labor, Political News, Politics and Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.