Wisconsin governor to end ALL collective bargaining rights for state workers.

[treelover]

'One night last week, Ian's Pizza in Madison, Wisconsin, received an order from some hungry protesters at the state capitol – where the Republican government is attempting to pass a bill that, among a range of harsh budget cuts, proposes to remove the collective bargaining rights of about 300,000 workers – asking if they had any leftovers. They did, and, even though it was 3.30am, obliged.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/21/pizza-latest-weapon-of-protest?INTCMP=SRCH


this is a new one, ordering the protesters Pizza from around the world!

 

[butchersapron]

I think you can order for the protesters through the facebook link here - all cards accepted!

 

[butchersapron]

.

Call us at 608-257-9248, then press 1. As we have just three phone lines it may take a while to get through, and we apologize in advance for that.

For online ordering we have partnered with both badgerbites.com and campusfood.com to process our online orders. If you would like to order online, please put 115 State Street as the delivery address, and add in the notes that you would like to help feed the protesters.

 

[butchersapron]

Here's a list of other places you can do same from.

 

[teqniq]

More international support:

Someone in Egypt Ordered a Pizza for the Protesters in Wisconsin

 

[weepiper]

More international support:

Someone in Egypt Ordered a Pizza for the Protesters in Wisconsin

 

[treelover]

big item on 10 o' clock news now...

 

[Brubricker]

It's becoming a coordinated multi-state attack. Democratic legislators in Indiana fled their state Tuesday for exactly the same reason. More than a dozen other state legislatures are kicking into high gear for their own game of brinksmanship. This is the effect of the Tea Party election landslide in November.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Earlier today every Democratic representative in that state walked out in protest. The governor sent out the State Patrol about an hour ago to bring them in and force them to vote. Pretty heavy handed.




http://budget.wispolitics.com/2011/02/senate-session-begins-amid-dem-walk-out.html

You have to look at the bright side of this: in reaction to Obama's tepid government style, people got a little reactionary, and voted in a bunch of Republicans and Tea Party types.

Now, those voters and others can sit back and view the results of their handiwork: allegedly made-up fiscal crises, and jackbooted thugs trying to round up legislators. Hopefully the voters will now do a little extra thinking before doing anything equally rash during the general elections in two years' time.

 

[dennisr]

This is the effect of the Tea Party election landslide in November.

Indeed, it will also be the complete destruction of the Tea Party as a force.

 

[greenman]

Indeed, it will also be the complete destruction of the Tea Party as a force.

Or its' mutation into a more openly fascist/paramilitary organisation, as tends to happen in crises.

 

[phildwyer]

Or its' mutation into a more openly fascist/paramilitary organisation

Have you seen the tea party?

 

[teqniq]

Indiana Official: "Use Live Ammunition" Against Wisconsin Protesters

Nice man.

 

[greenman]

Have you seen the tea party?

By mutation, I meant that it would be possible to foresee (in the long term, if the crisis developed across the States) the more extreme elements merging with militia types (and obviously losing some of the confused Republican hangers on.) It is quite possible that they could be organised into a strikebreaking and disruptive force given the numbers they have.

I think the mobilising of Tea Party activists on the streets to confront/harrass the Wisconsin union/community demonstrators is an interesting develpment that shows that they are increasingly not averse to going head to head with those they see as "socialist/communist/globalist/anti-christian" rather than just organising their own hate fests. They already have the victim mentality and irrational conspiracist worldview historically characteristic of far right movements of vulnerable feeling lower middle class - spun in their case by the likes of Beck.

It is in such circumstances in crises, that media/corporate creations spin out of control of their creators as did certain movements in the 1920s and 30s. I am not saying this IS going to happen, just that it is as likely as (dennisr suggests) them just fading away as they "realise" how awful Tea Party Republicans are in power - far right conspiracists are not known for logical thought like that, any failures will be blamed on the usual scapegoats and targets and weaved into the victim mentality.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

This is pretty funny ...

“He’s just hard-lined—will not talk, will not communicate, will not return phone calls.”
-Wisconsin state Sen. Tim Carpenter (D) on Gov. Walker (source)

Carpenter’s quote made me wonder: who could get through to Gov. Walker? Well, what do we know about Walker and his proposed union-busting, no-bid budget? The obvious candidate was David Koch.

I first called at 11:30 am CST, and eventually got through to a young, male receptionist who, upon hearing the magic name Koch, immediately transferred me to Executive Assistant Governor Dorothy Moore.

<snip>

“David Koch”: We’ll back you any way we can. What we were thinking about the crowd was, uh, was planting some troublemakers.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker: You know, well, the only problem with that—because we thought about that…

http://blog.windycitywatch.com/2011/02/mirror-of-koch-whore-from-beast.html

 

[rekil]

Gallup poll.

(Reuters) - Most Americans oppose laws that would take away the collective bargaining power of public employee unions, as has been proposed in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states, according to a USA Today/Gallup Poll released on Wednesday.

The poll found that 61 percent would oppose a law in their state similar to the proposal currently sparking mass protests in Wisconsin, compared with 33 percent who would favor such a law.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

It sounds like that phone conversation is going to spawn an ethics investigation. Some of what the Governor suggests are violations of election rules, ethics, and labor law.

 

[Divisive Cotton]

so what's the latest on this?

 

[butchersapron]

so what's the latest on this?

Hundreds still sleeping in, thousands turning up outside - 12th day i think.

Apparently loads of players from the Green bay Packers (current superbowl holders) have issued statements of support. That's really important in mainstreaming this kind of stuff. One example:

We know that it is teamwork on and off the field that makes the Packers and Wisconsin great. As a publicly owned team, we wouldn't have been able to win the Super Bowl without the support of our fans. It is the same dedication of our public workers every day that makes Wisconsin run. They are the teachers, nurses and child-care workers who take care of us and our families.

But now in an unprecedented political attack, Governor Walker is trying to take away their right to have a voice and bargain at work. The right to negotiate wages and benefits is a fundamental underpinning of our middle class. When workers join together, it serves as a check on corporate power and helps ALL workers by raising community standards.

Wisconsin's longstanding tradition of allowing public sector-workers to have a voice on the job has worked for the state since the 1930s. It has created greater consistency in the relationship between labor and management and a shared approach to public work. These public workers are Wisconsin's champions every single day, and we urge the governor and the state legislature to not take away their rights.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Michale Moore (like him or loathe him) is Twittering a lot on this at the moment if you liek that kind of thing.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Hundreds still sleeping in, thousands turning up outside - 12th day i think.

Apparently loads of players from the Green bay Packers (current superbowl holders) have issued statements of support. That's really important in mainstreaming this kind of stuff. One example:

I always knew those Packers were Commie scum!!!

 

[rekil]

Indiana Official: "Use Live Ammunition" Against Wisconsin Protesters

Nice man.

..he evinces contempt for political opponents—from labeling President Obama an "incompetent and treasonous" enemy of the nation to comparing "enviro-Nazis" to Osama bin Laden, likening ex-Labor Secretary Robert Reich and Service Employees International Union members to Nazi "brownshirts" on multiple occasions, and referring to an Indianapolis teen as "a black teenage thug who was (deservedly) beaten up" by local police.

Screencap.

Anyone want to inform him who the brownshirts fought in the streets? His twitter account is JCCentCom. He's been sacked apparently. Haha. Odds on going postal?


Walker trying to divide workers with threats of sackings.

MADISON — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker warned Tuesday that state employees could start receiving layoff notices as early as next week if a bill eliminating most collective bargaining rights isn’t passed soon.

Walker said in a statement to The Associated Press that the layoffs wouldn’t take effect immediately. He didn’t say which workers would be targeted but he has repeatedly warned that up to 1,500 workers could lose their jobs by July if his proposal isn’t passed.

 

[tarannau]

They're a non profit team, owned by the community. Pretty darn pinko. Good to see them becoming involved

 

[Barking_Mad]

 

[laptop]

Police to sleep in Wisconsin Capitol this weekend as showdown looms

Police officers have been called up from around the state in the past two weeks to help provide security during the on-going protests. But this weekend, many are expected to join the protesters by camping out inside overnight.

Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, is calling on officers to spend the night Friday and Saturday.

"We may not have a big group but we're going to try to have a presence just the same," Palmer says. "Who knows, maybe I'll be there by myself."

http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=32498

He wasn't by himself:

“Hundreds of cops have just marched into the Wisconsin state capitol building to protest the anti-Union bill, to massive applause. They now join up to 600 people who are inside.”

http://understory.ran.org/2011/02/2...ice-have-joined-protest-inside-state-capitol/

E2A:

 

[rekil]

It's a trap!!

 

[newbie]

JCCentCom.[/URL] He's been sacked apparently. Haha. Odds on going postal?

It's better before translation from American

"Update: The Indiana attorney general's office has confirmed to Mother Jones that Jeff Cox was terminated Wednesday. "

 

[rekil]

It's better before translation from American

"Update: The Indiana attorney general's office has confirmed to Mother Jones that Jeff Cox was terminated Wednesday. "

This time it's personnel.

 

[rekil]

Apparently loads of players from the Green bay Packers (current superbowl holders) have issued statements of support. That's really important in mainstreaming this kind of stuff. One example:

Statement by NFL Players Association.

The NFL Players Association will always support efforts protecting a worker’s right to join a union and collectively bargain. Today, the NFLPA stands in solidarity with its organized labor brothers and sisters in Wisconsin.

NFL lockout looming too.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Thousands of people rallied in cities across the United States on Saturday against a Wisconsin plan to curb the power of public sector unions that has sparked similar government efforts in other states.

Protesters see the proposals as an effort to weaken the labor movement. Other states considering similar proposals include Ohio, Tennessee, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa and Kansas.

"We all support the people in Wisconsin and all over the country where labor is being threatened, and we know that the real agenda of the (Wisconsin) governor and many others is just to destroy unions," said New Yorker Judith Barbanel.

Barbanel, an English language teacher at the City University of New York, joined several thousand people at a "Save the American Dream" rally at City Hall to show solidarity with protesters in Wisconsin.

People waved signs reading "Cut bonuses, not teachers," "Unions make us strong," and "Wall St is destroying America," and wore stickers that read "We are all Wisconsin."

Anne O'Byrne, 44, a philosophy professor at Stony Brook University who brought her daughter Sophia, 2, to the New York rally, said she was disturbed by events in Wisconsin.

"If we don't have collective bargaining rights I don't know what's left for workers in America," she said. "It seems important to me to resist any attempt to take away those union rights that have in fact brought us so much over the years."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/26/usa-wisconsin-protests-idUSN2616899420110226