NEW YORK (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of people protested in Wisconsin yesterday against a state government push to curb the power of public sector unions, sparking solidarity rallies for labour rights around the United States.
Protesters see the proposals as an effort to weaken the labour movement. Other states considering similar proposals include Ohio, Tennessee, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa and Kansas.
Several thousand protesters gathered in New York City and Los Angeles, about 1,000 people turned out in Chicago, Denver and Columbus, Ohio, several hundred rallied in Austin, Texas, and about 100 people joined a protest in Miami.
At the Wisconsin state Capitol in Madison, thousands of protesters chanted underneath Republican Governor Scott Walker’s office window: “Hey hey, ho ho, Scott Walker has got to go.”
“Union busting is wrong,” said Joe Soto, a 56-year-old steamfitter from Reedsburg, northwest of Madison.
Wisconsin’s state Assembly on Friday approved Walker’s proposal to strip public sector unions of most collective bargaining rights. The plan now needs state Senate approval, but Senate Democrats have fled Wisconsin to prevent a vote.
The bid by Wisconsin Republicans to try and balance the state budget by rewriting labour laws has turned into a national standoff with Republicans and business interests on one side, and Democrats and union groups on the other.
