To the editor:
With (Gov. Scott) Walker launching his bid for president, we can expect to hear speeches about what he has done in Wisconsin. He will brag about how he fought the public unions with the abolition of collective bargaining rights and pay cuts in Act 10 and how he demolished private unions in his Right to Work legislation.
He will tout how he eliminated Wisconsin’s prevailing wage law, which will take money directly from construction workers whether they are union or not. He will also talk about how he repealed our 100-year-old law to pay workers a “living wage” and how workers can now be scheduled to work seven days a week with no day off.
What Walker won’t talk about is his job’s record — how he only created half of the jobs that were a part of his 2010 campaign promise and how Wisconsin is only 35th in job creation and dead last for new business start-ups.
When you analyze his agenda, you see that workers are stuck with low wages that won’t allow them to live without worrying about how to provide housing, food and health care for their families.
The middle class in this state will continue to shrink faster than in any other state.
Is Walker’s assault on workers really something he should be proud of? People who work deserve to have a fair share of the wealth they have created.
Unions are about freedom from corporate wage slavery. Walker’s appeal should only be to corporate executives who are elated that he is keeping wages down so they can have more and more profits. It’s time for fairness with workers receiving a sizable portion of the profits. That can only happen if we champion progressive views when we go to the ballot box.
No Walker talks, touts, brags and slogans have anything to do with helping Wisconsin’s middle class. They have to do with corporations using Walker as a talking puppet.
Richard J. Hansen,
Wittenberg
