P.O. Box 1222, Madison, WI 53701 | www.prodane.org | office@prodane.org | (608) 257-4985
Progressive Dane stands in solidarity with Dane County’s union employees
For more information, contact:
Jacque Pokorney, Co-chair of Progressive Dane
(608)843-9616, juju_jacque@yahoo.com
Progressive Dane stands in solidarity with workers of all municipalities in Dane County and abhors the actions announced by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Friday, February 11, 2011.
Gov. Walker's announced “Budget Repair Bill” will severely cut benefits, wages, workplace regulations, and the right to bargain collectively for public employees. These workers are dedicated to providing quality public services to Wisconsin's families and deserve to be treated and compensated fairly for their hard work.
Public employees including nurses, administrators, teachers, and construction workers are already suffering from pay cuts, mandatory over time, lost benefits, and hiring freezes. These workers need to retain their right to bargain collectively to ensure that they can provide for their families. Gov. Walker's attack on their livelihood will not be tolerated.
At the same time he has announced that he will impose those same concessions on university, city, village, town, county, technical school, and local school district employees. Additionally, he has proposed repealing collective bargaining rights entirely for child care workers and home health care workers. These proposed changes will adversely affect some of our most vulnerable workers across the county and those same workers who care for our other vulnerable populations—our children, our disabled, and our elderly.
The Economic Policy Institute just released a new study that concludes that public employees in Wisconsin are under-compensated by 8.2% compared to private-sector employees doing similar work. View the report: http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/6759/.
Walker also stated he is prepared to call out the National Guard if state workers engage in job actions to protest his proposals. Progressive Dane is appalled at this attempt of bullying local workers who may be compelled to direct action because of the proposed cuts.
Progressive Dane strongly supports and encourages your direct action over the next few days to fight back against this draconian proposal that will hurt working families in Dane County and across the state. The “trickle down” effect to local businesses will also be devastating to our local and state economies.
We encourage not only your participation but also that of your friends, neighbors, and family. Additional information regarding local actions including emails, phone calls, and rallies can be found at the website for the South Central Federation of Labor http://www.scfl.org/.
Posted by prodane at 12:31 PM ">
We, the members of Progressive Dane, join together to form an independent political party in Dane County with a major focus on local issues. We pledge to work to improve the quality of life in Dane County for all people, particularly those marginalized by economic and social discrimination. We will work to improve our local government by making it open, easier to understand, and accessible for all citizens of Dane County. We are working to achieve positive policy change by electing accountable progressive officials and mobilizing citizen action.
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Progressive Dane's "In The News" blog keeps you up to date on the latest news from (and about) PD. Check here for information on PD's policy initiatives and to read about what our endorsed elected officials are up to.
Primary Elections, Tuesday, February 15th!
Housing Task Force now meeting with Affordable Housing Action Alliance! This group meets the 1st Monday of every month at noon in the main conference room of the Social Justice Center. The next meeting is be Monday, March 7th.
The Progressive Dane General Membership meeting will be held Wednesday, February 23rd at 6:30 p.m. at Madison's Downtown Public Library. Beer Caucus afterwards at Nick's on State St.
We need to stand up for all the people in Dane County, not just some! Become a member of Progressive Dane on-line today and become involved in making this a better place to live for everyone.
