In The News
Barrett offers unions his reason to Recall Walker
Barrett (right) speaking at the Bay View Tragedy remembrance May 6. Listening from left are Assembly minoirty leader Peter Barca, state Sen. Chis Larson, Mahlon Mithcell, recall candidate for lt. governor and (partly hidden) state Sen. Lena Taylor.
By Tom Barrett
Special to Labor Press
Posted May 29, 2012
We need a new governor to move Wisconsin forward
Wisconsin has been torn apart by Scott Walker’s ideological civil war and his divide-and-conquer assault on our values and our workers. And we cannot fix Wisconsin and move forward as long as Scott Walker remains governor.
It was in reference to pitting one worker against another worker in unions that Walker was caught on video tape discussing his “divide and conquer” strategy with a billionaire donor, long before the rest of the state experienced him “dropping the bomb,” as he later described his assault on workers’ collective bargaining rights.
Walker’s my-way-or-the-highway approach to governing, that undermined 50 years of labor peace, is the wrong way to get things done in Wisconsin. It made Walker a rock-star to the national right-wing billionaires, but it moves us backwards on key issues like jobs, education and women’s health. And it has bitterly divided co-workers, family members and friends.
I understands the needs of working families and will prioritize them. (Barrett was a Teamster during his time at Harley Davidson – and was in a union as an usher for the Milwaukee Brewers.)
Perhaps the biggest difference between your choice of candidate is how we approach tough issues.
Walker staunchly refuses to listen to people who disagree with him. Busy jetting around the country as a rock-star to the far-right billionaires, he would not sit down at a table, look his workers in the eye and negotiate last year. He turned a blind eye to hundreds of thousands of people who showed up on his doorstep at the Capitol offering to sacrifice, but asking to be able to keep their rights. He didn’t even thank them for their willing sacrifice.
These are not our shared Wisconsin values. Wisconsin now leads the nation in job loss. And through it all, questions continue to swirl about the criminal corruption investigation into Scott Walker’s time as Milwaukee County Executive.
I am running for governor because we can’t fix Wisconsin as long as Scott Walker remains in office. The Barrett approach will not only heal Wisconsin, respect workers and bring people together, it will focus on creating jobs, protecting education and restoring trust in government, while being fiscally responsible.
And it will put Wisconsin and our people first – not the candidate's own political career.
We cannot afford to keep a governor who is most interested in his own job and his special-interest allies. We cannot afford to keep a governor who bolsters his reputation with the radical right-wing across the country by dividing Wisconsin.
Let’s go to the polls June 5 and work together to restore Wisconsin values and priorities, and move our great state forward.
Milwaukee Labor Press encouraged Barrett, the mayor of Milwaukee running against Walker June 5, to provide this column of his reasons for running.