Amidst a sea of protesters on Wednesday March 9, a bill was passed that revokes the right for union in Wisconsin to collectively bargain. Collective bargaining is a group or unions right to bargain wages, contracts, and other occupation terms. With the bill passed unions will only be able to bargain up to living wages. The bill was passed despite the fact that the 14 democrat senators were absent. Due to the fact that those senators were not present they could not pass any fiscal bills, causing the 144 page bill to be separated into two, fiscal and non-fiscal, parts. The 14 missing senators returned Saturday, March 12th and the fiscal pieces of the bill are yet to be voted on.
Not only are unions affected but the budget bill would have an impact on taxes, recycling programs, transportation, public education, and more. Katie Cary, daughter of Administrator Vicki Cary, experienced the the protests first hand.
“It hits close to home,” said Cary. “My mom is a teacher, so I realize how much work they do and how much they really
deserve.”
The peaceful protests have been going on since the day after the bill’s proposal on
Februay 28th, 2011.
“I went to the capital to see what its was all about one day,” said Cary. “After seeing how many people were there and how well organized it was really surprised me and got me interested. I went home, did some research, realized that it affected me, and got involved.”
Much of the protest had been managed via twitter and Facebook, whichboth aided the organization of the political change in Egypt.
“I created a Twitter account just so I could stay updated by sources I found to be more trustworthy and less biased,” said Cary. “It’s difficult to find really trustworthy sources.”
