AFTNJ Wisconsin Report Back

AFTNJ Research Analyst Tom Peretti recently returned from the community and labor campaign to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. The recall was prompted by Gov. Walker’s decision to effectively repeal collective bargaining rights for public employees, only allowing their unions to negotiate for base wages. This sparked a massive response from the citizens of Wisconsin, the birthplace of public sector collective bargaining, who showed up by the tens of thousands at the state capitol in Madison to protest the new law. Organizers collected nearly one million signatures from Wisconsin voters to trigger a recall election in June.

I arrived in Milwaukee three weeks before the election. As soon as I landed I was sent to knock on the doors of union members and urge them to support the Democratic ticket of gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett (the current Mayor of Milwaukee) and his running mate, the president of the statewide firefighters’ union, Mahlon Mitchell. Though many local unions endorsed Mayor Barrett’s opponent in the Democratic primary, staff and members from across the country came out to work on the election. I spent two weeks knocking on doors across all parts of Milwaukee, from urban working-class neighborhoods to the suburbs. I had many great conversations with union members and family members who viewed the threat of the Governor’s agenda as an attack on all working families. I was pleased to see that many private sector union members were standing in solidarity with their public sector brothers and sisters to support the recall.

During the final week before the election, I helped to set up a new office in the city of Waukesha, about twenty minutes outside of Milwaukee.  Waukesha is a more rural, conservative area than Milwaukee, so reliably Republican that Governor Walker had his election night party there. I canvassed some of the towns in Waukesha County for the final week and helped run the office, usually distributing walk packs to union volunteers and tallying up the day’s responses. I was pleased to see that several student volunteers from Rutgers and staff from Rutgers AAUP-AFT came to Wisconsin to help the recall effort in the last few days. We returned to Milwaukee for Election Day on June 5 to knock on as many doors as possible and remind members to get out to vote. Unfortunately, Governor Walker had a major financial advantage throughout the election and despite our efforts on the ground, was able to retain his office.

It was a privilege to do this important solidarity work on behalf of AFTNJ leaders and members to strengthen the national labor movement. Though the campaign to recall Governor Walker was unsuccessful, I will use the lessons learned to help advance the AFTNJ political agenda under the leadership of our political director Seth Anderson-Oberman in 2012 and 2013. Many of Governor Walker’s priorities seem to be shared by our Governor Chris Christie and Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, both supporters of Governor Walker’s campaigns. The battles we have seen in Wisconsin may soon come to New Jersey and I was glad to see the labor movement really engage with community allies to form alliances.