More than 15,000 people, including public employees, union activists and community supporters, jammed into the Capitol Square in Madison, Wis., yesterday to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) plan to strip away state workers’ rights and decimate family-supporting middle-class jobs. Some 3,000 massed inside the Capitol building where a hearing on the bill was under way.
Many of those at yesterday’s rally camped overnight and are continuing their vigil today.
Public workers and their allies held other protests around Wisconsin. Some 1,000 people gathered outside Walker’s suburban Milwaukee home carrying signs that read “Stop the Attack on Workers’ Rights.”
AFSCME President Gerald McEntee told the cheering crowd in Madison:
For 75 years, we’ve fought to make our voices heard, and we’re not going to be silenced today. We’re not going to let this happen, We won’t let him break the back of the middle class of Wisconsinites. We are strong. We are united.
Walker vows that he will not negotiate any changes to his plan and if the state legislature doesn’t pass it, he will force massive layoffs, crippling state services and costing thousands of jobs.
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Filed under: Economy, Organizing, Politics, Solidarity | Tagged: American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, Capitol Square, Communications Workers of America, Gerald McEntee, Hosni Mubarak, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Scott Walker, Wisconsin | 6 Comments »
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