Union protests in Wisconsin showed no sign of easing Friday as banking and financial union members protested in favor of their right to collective bargain, receive bailouts for their mistakes and against higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said he would not back down and repeatedly refused to meet with the bankers, who have filled the state capitol building for days.
Walker is trying to fill a gap in the state budget that was created when he agreed to give working families a tax cut. He wants to pay for it through higher taxes on millionaires and large corporations.
“It only makes sense to take more money from people who can afford it. We have banks and financial firms here in Wisconsin, and some of that federal bailout money lined their pockets after they wrecked the economy, so we’re just asking for them to give some of it back,” Walker said.
Walker said he was also acting out of a sense of fairness, noting that the wealthiest Wisconsinites also consist of CEOs who boosted their stock portfolios from laying off workers.
“If a CEO lays off workers I’m going to take some of his money and use it to help the workers who are just getting by. It would be cruel to cut the programs that help the poor at a time like this and, frankly, those types of cuts wouldn’t impact the budget by very much,” Walker said.
Bankers and CEOS kept up the pressure in and outside the capitol building. Roger Fairchild III, president of the American Federation of Bankers and Congress of Industrial Oligarchies, said forcing the wealthy to pay their fair share was just a small part of the issue. He said a bigger sticking point was the right of the financial unions to own politicians like Walker.
“Look, we’ve agreed to the governor’s financial demands. We agreed to wage cuts and reductions in our stock portfolios and bond holdings,” Fairchild said. “The reason we’re protesting is the governor wants to take away our right to organize. He wants to limit our political influence. This isn’t just about Wisconsin, this is about breaking the backs of the bankers and CEOs who own this country.”
Union members were also outraged when a reporter pretending to be a homeless man managed to trick Walker into accepting his phone call. In the recording, Walker vowed to hold firm on his bid to break the political strength of the wealthy and to use a minor tax increase on them to help out the less fortunate.
“That shows you who our governor really cares about, he won’t talk to any of us,” said Peter McIntyre IV, president of the Major Polluters Association, Local #414. “He only attends to the less fortunate. Does he care that I’ve had to switch from drinking Dom Perignon to Veuve Clicquot as a result of paying more taxes?”
Teachers, firefighters and other civil service unions have joined in the protests to show solidarity with their banking brethren. Milwaukee teacher Jackie Childers said she was there to send a message that education funding should always take a backseat to helping those who are better off.
“I look after our young people. My colleagues and I teach the next generation of doctors and scientists. That’s not nearly as important as the bankers who ruined our economy and my pension fund, or the CEO who laid off my husband and sent his job overseas,” Childers said. “I’d even be willing to take a salary cut if it would mean more tax breaks for my husband’s old company or the banker who is about to foreclose on our house. I’m sure they’d do the same for us if the shoe was on the other foot.”
All of Wisconsin’s Republican lawmakers fled the state to keep Walker’s plan from being implemented. Reached by phone from somewhere in the Chicago suburbs, Wisconsin Senate President Michael Ellis vowed to stay in Illinois and stand up for the rights of the wealthy and corporate America.
He said the Republicans might consider coming back to the state if Walker goes through with his plan to sell off state-owned power plants using no-bid contracts.
“This would allow the governor to really help out his largest donors, such as the Koch brothers, while potentially screwing the rest of the state so that’s something we support.” Ellis said. “His plan to bust the banking unions is a non-starter. First he claims the wealthy should pay their fair share, the next thing you know he’ll claim education is so important that good teachers deserve compensation.”
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Ha, love this!! Only wish it wasn’t satire…