ALEC Sparks Uprisings in Wisconsin and Ohio
Submitted by Mary Bottari
PRWatch
Dec. 5, 2011
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/12/11167/alec-sparks-uprisings-wisconsin-and-ohio

On the one-year anniversary of an important American
Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) meeting in
Washington D.C., Wisconsin's public safety officers
gathered to prepare for the next stage in the fight
for labor rights.

Some 250 police and firefighters signed recall
petitions, loaded up on maps and assignments and to
listened to guest speakers at a "Recall Walker"
gathering at Madison's South Central Federation of
Labor. Mark Sanders, President of the Ohio Association
of Professional Firefighters, was there to pass the
torch and Harold Schaitberger, National President of
the International Association of Professional
Firefighters (IAFF), was there to reminded the crowd
about the critical role ALEC played in the Wisconsin
and Ohio uprisings.

Wisconsin Recall

To be successful in recalling Governor Scott Walker,
Wisconsin's 20,000 trained volunteers have set a goal
of gathering 750,000 signatures in a state of 6
million. The police and firefighters in the room seemed
ready for the challenge.

Brian Austin, representing the Madison Professional
Police Officers Association, kicked off the event by
explaining how the images of teachers, nurses and
social workers, cheering and weeping when police and
firefighters first marched into the capitol in early
days of the uprising, "will be forever burned in my
memory."

"It's not because our numbers were so impressive, it
was because of the unique position we occupy in
society," said Austin. "We came out early and loud and
hard, despite being exempt from this horrible bill... but
it was because of our position as both part of the
'establishment' and protectors of the citizenry that
our presence helped energize and comfort people."

Now Austin is personally ready for the recall because
he views the Walker administration much like a
"marauding, conquering army that is pillaging and
dividing up the spoils our state."

Ohio Passes the Torch Back to Wisconsin

As president of the state's firefighters union, Mark
Sanders was a leader in the fight against Ohio Governor
John Kasich's collective bargaining bill, Senate Bill
5. Sanders explained that Ohio was a lot "redder" than
Wisconsin and that most fire halls tune into Fox News.
But when the Wisconsin collective bargaining fight
broke out in February 2011 -- "everyone was glued to
MSNBC." "You lit a fuse in our state," he told the
Wisconsin workers.

The Ohio legislature passed its own collective
bargaining bill in August of 2011. Ohio does not have a
recall statute, but it does have a rare "veto
referendum" which allows it to place new laws on hold
and gather sufficient signatures to place the issue on
the ballot for a statewide referendum. Ohio only needed
231,000 signatures in a state of 12 million. They
submited 1.3 million. On November 8, Ohio residents
voted to repeal the collective bargaining bill by an
overwhelming margin of 61-38, in a referendum that
marks the first time that the issue of collective
bargaining has ever been put to a popular vote.

"You lit a torch in Ohio and now we are here to pass it
back to you," said Saunders.

Anniversary of Important ALEC Meeting

The final speaker was IAFF President Schaitberger, who
was the first national union president to withdraw
campaign funds from federal Congressional races in
order to make a difference in defending worker's rights
at the state level.

Shaitberger underscored the role of the ALEC in the
Wisconsin and Ohio fights. "Here are the real facts
about what happened here in Wisconsin, in Ohio, in
Florida in New Hampshire and more. It was an
orchestrated, cynical effort that began one year ago,
after a wave of right wing ideologues were elected to
office who wanted to destroy the American workforce. It
began in December 2010 when ALEC brought together 2,000
members who developed 856 anti-worker, anti-union
pieces of legislation and introduced them in 26
states," Schaitberger told the crowd.

ALEC did meet in Washington December 1-3, 2010, shortly
after Republicans won trifecta control over 26
statehouses. The Center for Media and Democracy
unveiled a trove of over 800 ALEC bills on its website
ALECexposed.org in July of 2011. ALEC state chairman
and head of the Wisconsin Senate, Scott Fitzgerald, led
a delegation of 30 Wisconsin legislators to the
December meeting. Shortly after his return, Fitzgerald
was asked by Jeff Mayer of WisPolitics.com if a Right
to Work bill (which makes it makes it virtually
impossible to organize or maintain a union in most work
places) might be coming to Wisconsin. "Should Wisconsin
become a Right to Work state?" asked Mayer. "That is
definitely something that is receiving a lot of
attention among legislators," Fitzgerald responded. "I
just attended an American Legislative Exchange Council
meeting and I was surprised about how much momentum
there was in and around that discussion, like nothing I
have ever seen before ... Whether it is decertifying or
right to work or other changes to labor law ... Listen,
we have new majorities, if you talk to the members of
the House of the Representatives and the way they view
the world right now, the more feathers you ruffle right
now the stronger you are going to be politically."

A New Public Enemy

For Schaitberger, right-wing politicians worked hard to
turn anger over the 2008 Wall Street meltdown to their
advantage.

"When this country found its self in such an economic
mess, these folks were able to turn it around and
create a new public enemy. It wasn't the hedge fund
managers. It wasn't Lehman Brothers. The new public
enemy was us. The person teaching kindergarden, the cop
on the beat, the firefighter on the rig. We somehow got
turned into the 'haves' against the 'have nots,' a
public in real pain. All of this gave them the perfect
time and platform to send their minions into states to
strip us of collective bargaining rights ... We are the
only thing standing in their way then, and we are the
only thing that continues to stand in their way now,"
said Schaitberger.

"Governor Walker, we didn't pick this fight, but we are
damned sure going to finish it," Schaitberger told the
crowd.

For reporting on ALEC's most recent meeting in Phoenix,
please see visit ALECexposed.org. The Center for Media
and Democracy does not endorse or oppose any candidate
for office. Since 1993, CMD has been reporting on
corporate spin and government propaganda, exposing
public relations tactics, and debunking PR campaigns.
CMD's Brendan Fischer contributed to this report.

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