Wisconsin governor threatens public workers with National Guard Conflict over basic rights lays bare the role of the state

February 16, 2011
Workers demonstrate inside the State Capitol, Madison, Wis., Feb. 15, 2011.

Some ten thousand workers and their supporters demonstrated at the Capitol in Madison, Wis., on Feb. 15 and 16 to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to take away state employees’ collective bargaining rights. Signs held by protesters stated: “From Cairo to Madison Workers Unite.”

There are about 175,000 public workers in Wisconsin providing vital services to cities, counties and the state. Of that number, about 39,000 are state employees and over 106,000 are teachers.

Walker has proposed that this law will apply to all public employees except police and firefighters, whose unions supported him in last year’s election. The police and National Guard obviously hold a useful and favored position for him.
Use of the National Guard in Wisconsin ...

Wisconsin has a long history of using the National Guard to break strikes and repress struggles for justice. For example:

* On May 1, 1866, strikes occurred across Milwaukee demanding the eight-hour day. Many marched from a factory calling for others to join them, culminating in a rally of 16,000 at the Rolling Mills. The governor called out the state militia, which was the equivalent of the National Guard at that time. The workers camped in a field; the militia were in an adjacent area. On May 5, as the workers chanted for an eight-hour day, the militia opened fire and killed eight workers.
* In July 1937, the governor called out the National Guard to help crush a strike at Kohler. During the strike, “special deputies” broke through the picket line and in the battle two strikers were killed and 40 wounded. The year 1937 was a year of struggle. Racine, Wis. was known as Little Moscow because of number of strikes and struggles there.
* In August 1966, African American youth went from Milwaukee to a nearly all-white suburb to challenge a judge who lived there and belonged to an all-white club. The National Guard was called out, not to break up the racist rallies but to crowd-in the anti-racist protesters. For weeks they endured the worst racist harassment. These demonstrations were reported around the country in newspapers that also showed concurrent KKK rallies.
* In October 1969, the governor called out the National Guard to try to intimidate 1,000 welfare rights and civil rights demonstrators who had taken over the State Assembly chamber for 11 hours. Organizer Father Groppi was cited for contempt and jailed. During the same year the National Guard was called out to repress the anti-war and student movements on the Madison campuses. They were demanding not only an end to the war but an investment in education and a Black Studies department.
* In November 1973, the governor called out the National Guard to break the strike of Milwaukee firemen.
* In January and February 1975, the Wisconsin National Guard was called out to repress Menominee Indians as they pressed their demand for land occupied by the Alexian Brothers Novitiate near Gresham. Pictures of the event graphically show the role of the Guard as they roughed up the protesters who had occupied the ground. Even after a written settlement was reached with the church, the Guard had Menominee activists arrested, five on felony charges and 34 on misdemeanors.

... And against public-sector workers around the country

* Most people are aware of the events in Memphis, in 1968, when Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated while supporting a city sanitation strike. On March 28, after police had killed a 16-year-old strike supporter and arrested 280 people, the governor of Tennessee called out the National Guard. Images of strikers bravely facing bayonets still inspire people today—and expose the system that used those bayonets.
* April 1962, the National Guard was called out to stop a two-day wildcat strike by 4,000 Boston transit workers who were protesting newly posted spring work schedules.
* In February 1968, New York City Mayor Lindsey asked the governor to call out the National Guard to crush a strike by 10,000 sanitation workers. A militant rally by workers pressed the union leadership to accept a motion for a strike. In this case, Gov. Rockefeller stopped short of calling out the Guard, fearing the consequences.
* July 1981, Massachusetts called out the National Guard against state employees working in mental health facilities. The state wanted them to work for no pay as weeks went by after the July 1 deadline for a new state budget. The politicians could not agree on a budget to pay the workers and fund services, but money was found for the National Guard.
* April 1991, Montana ‘s governor called out the National Guard as scabs to take over the jobs of 4,000 state employees striking because the governor vetoed a pay raise.
* January 2000, New York Gov. Pataki declared a state of emergency on Long Island, and mobilized the National Guard to pressure and break a wildcat strike by transportation employees.
* In October 2001, Minnesota Gov. Ventura called out the National Guard to scab and strike break, assigning them to work 12-hour shifts, doing the work of state employees. The strike by 28,000 state employees began Sept. 30. Of that number, 19,000 were represented by AFSCME. In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the big business media attacked the workers as “unpatriotic” for striking, and Ventura urged them to quit if they would not accept his offer. The strike was settled Oct. 14. Minnesota governors have used the National Guard to try to break strikes before. In July 1936, they were ordered to enforce martial law against truckers; in 1948 and 1986 they were used against meat packers.

Walker released his 144-page bill on Feb. 10 and expects to ram it through the state legislature in less than a week. To cripple the unions, the bill would stop cities, counties and the state from deducting union dues from workers’ paychecks, as they have for decades.

The bill would require annual votes by union members on whether they want to keep the union. It would not require a similar vote on whether the people want to keep the governor, or an annual vote on whether the people want to keep government policies against the poor.

The law would result in huge cuts in compensation by increasing what employees pay for health and pension plans that were previously negotiated. It would limit bargaining to wages and limit even that to the rate of inflation, unless more was approved by voters in a referendum.

The AFL-CIO has announced a publicity campaign against the bill. But in case workers and the community become too resistant to this elimination of basic rights, Walker has said that he is ready to call out the National Guard.

Wis. Sen. Joe McCarthy, the anti-labor and anti-communist Senator in the 1950s, would have been proud of this governor. Walker has engaged in both baiting and divide-and-conquer tactics. The state faces a $3.6 billion deficit, but instead of focusing on even the mildest of reforms like raising corporate taxes (which are lower than the surrounding states of Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana), he has tried to pit the needs of Medicaid recipients against the needs of public employees for decent rights and wages.

The strategy behind targeting public employees

Walker is targeting the largest employers in the state where workers have fought for and won decent contracts over the years. The state itself is the largest employer followed by the public university system. The post office and the Milwaukee Public School System are in the top 10.

But more powerful than state and local government and agencies are the financial institutions like banks and insurance companies. These companies’ profits are increasing, but their low-paid front line workers have almost no unions. Multinational anti-union companies like Kraft Foods and Johnson Controls are headquartered in Wisconsin. These bosses and others like Kohler and Harley Davidson would rather not be bothered with union demands for better conditions. So this attack on public employee unions is an attempt to weaken the strongest sector of organized labor. When public-sector unions are able to bargain for better wages and rights, they create pressure on private-sector employers to provide the same. By going after public-sector unions, big business is going after the heart of what is left of the labor movement.

The engine manufacturer Briggs & Stratton is based in Wisconsin. In August 1983, 8,200 workers there went on strike. After three months, following a fierce struggle in very difficult circumstances, they were forced to take a two-tier wage—where new employees started at $5 rather than the regular $7.50. Management got the right to make them work an hour more a day and perform more work on Saturdays for a period. Today they are still a major player in Wisconsin. The take-backs that Walker is proposing today are even worse than those forced on the Briggs & Stratton workers in 1983.

Wisconsin is the birthplace of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees. AFSCME began in 1932 in Madison, Wis. In 1936 it was granted a national charter and within months it organized 10,000 members. In 1959, Wisconsin became the first state to give local government workers and teachers collective bargaining rights. All of these gains are being attacked by Walker today. It is an attack on the historical heart of the largest public employee union in the country.

The budget crisis being used in Wisconsin as an excuse to gut the strongest unions is part of a national crisis. Nearly every state faces staggering deficits as revenue falls. But none of the Democratic Party or Republican Party leaders are organizing the masses to fight for a solution that stops service cuts, layoffs or furloughs. Their strategy is just the opposite: Vital services and the workers who provide them are on the chopping block.

Hundreds of thousands of workers around the country are at risk of losing the basic right to sit down and bargain over wages, hours and working conditions.

In Kansas and Hawaii, the Republican and Democratic governors have figured out that furloughs of state employees are not working, because in order for services to be delivered, workers have to be there to deliver them. So instead, they are pushing to keep workers on the job and cut their pay by 5 to7 percent.

In Nevada, the governor has proposed a 5 percent pay cut for education employees and others, as has the outgoing governor of South Carolina. In Hawaii, the governor proposed cutting reimbursements for Medicare Part B—affecting 30,000 retirees and their spouses.

In Georgia, the governor has proposed eliminating 14,000 state jobs. In Texas, budget cuts to education have been proposed that could result in as many as 100,000 teachers and staff being laid off. Other cuts in the plan would eliminate almost 10,000 state jobs.

In Ohio, the governor has said that he will unilaterally end the right of child care and home care workers to bargain for a contract. (The Wisconsin bill would end these rights too.)

On Feb. 10, the Ohio governor outlined even bigger plans and now the Ohio Senate has a bill to eliminate collective bargaining for state and higher education employees and nearly kill it for local employees. In Tennessee, there is a similar bill to end bargaining rights.

In this context, the threat to use the repressive power of the state, in the form of the National Guard, takes on added significance. It is the most direct challenge to the broadest set of rights affecting the greatest number of people in years. More than ever, unions and community groups need to unite on a political platform of action to force those in power to do the right thing.
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