Disappointed and Disgusted!

Over the weekend, I told the reader about Cedric Cornwall's failing and flailing campaign that tried to resurrect the ghost of McCarty by smearing his opponent for exercising her constitutional right.  He first tried to pander to the left and to the unions and had actually gotten the endorsement from the Milwaukee Area Labor Council (MALC), of which I am an executive board member.

But even as he was pandering to the left, he was also pandering to the extremist right, as evidenced by his use of McCarthyism.  When the right wingers learned of the MALC endorsement, he started to lose their support.  When the left learned of his pandering to the right and his use of McCarthyism and his betrayal, they started to pull support.

That includes the support of MALC.  The following is a letter issued on Monday by MALC Secretary/Treasurer Sheila Cochran:

Click to embiggen

The MALC Executive Board did meet on Monday and passed a motion to rescind the endorsement of Cornwall and give it to Laura Gramling Perez.  The delegates will vote on it after the election is over, but a message had to be sent and Sheila did it ever so eloquently.

Milwaukee Area Labor Council's Endorsements

For the purpose of full disclosure, let me start of by saying that I am a duly elected delegate representing my Local at the Milwaukee Area Labor Council.

Last night, we voted on the list of candidates that are being endorsed. The list is as follows:

Marina Dimitrijevic, County Board #4
Theo Lipscomb, County Board #1
Peggy Romo West, County Board #12
John Weishan, County Board #16
David Bowen, County Board #10
Tracey Corder, County Board #18
Nikiya Harris, County Board #2
Jason Haas, County Board #14
Scott Manske, County Comptroller
Mark Sanders, Circuit Court Branch 28
Hannah Dugan, Circuit Court Branch 23
Ray Harmon, Common Council #9
Eyon Biddle, Common Council #15
Tony Zielinski, Common Council #14
Jennifer Morales, Common Council #8
Jose Perez, Common Council #12
Michael Murphy, Common Council #10
Milele Coggs, Common Council #6

People that know Milwaukee politics might be rather shocked by the list, not so much by who's on it, but by who's not.  Some people might also be surprised at some of the picks, such as Eyon Biddle over the incumbent, City Council President Willie Hines, Jr.

These endorsements are reflective of a new approach that the unions are taking.  They will no longer tolerate the status quo and will not endorse politicians and candidates that do not support the people that live in their districts or work for their communities.

Take the Biddle - Hines race for example.  As MALC Secretary and Treasurer Sheila Cochran stated, if you want to know why we didn't endorse Hines, all you have to do is walk through his district.  It has some of the highest crime and highest unemployment rates in the city and Hines has been absent to his constituents.  In comparison, in his short stint as County Supervisor, Biddle has been very active in his community, decrying the violence and helping to create programs to help the people in the community be able to gain the training they need and help them find the jobs they want.

Also discussed last night was that how it is an embarrassment for every person in Milwaukee County that we allowed Scott Walker to get as far as he has done and that we would not send another person like him to Madison.

In my opinion, this new attitude is long overdue.  In fact, I think they have a ways to go yet, as there are some names on their list that I personally don't think make the grade, but it's at least a start.

The unions may be smaller than they have been, but they are in no way weak or out of the fight, no matter how much Walker or his supporters might wish it to be so.  And like the rest of the good people in this great state, we are willing and ready to dig in our heels, roll up our sleeves, and help fix the wrongs we allowed to happen.

And that moment starts now.

Quotable

The quote of the day is from Sheila Cochran, secretary-treasurer of the Milwaukee Labor Council, on the problems Milwaukee County seems to have even sitting down to the negotiating table, much less reaching an agreement with the unions:

Calling Abele’s letter a “clarion call to act for the taxpayers,” Sheila Cochran, secretary-treasurer of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, led other community leaders in asking a simple question. “If the county exec is in favor of negotiations, where is the County Board?”

Given that a clear majority on the board actually agrees with Abele, that question crystallizes a mystery to be answered at the next full board meeting – and the Milwaukee community intends to bring a throng of witnesses at 1 p.m. Friday, June 10, at the Courthouse.

“I’m truly disappointed in the board leadership,” said Cochran, pulling no punches in her conversations with constituents and public officials. “Now that Scott Walker is gone, and is demonstrating his lack of leadership on the entire state of Wisconsin and now that the eyes of the world are upon us, can’t we in Milwaukee County go forward?”

From Dominique Paul Noth's article on the Labor Council's webpage. The whole thing should be mandatory reading for everyone.

Not A Budget - A Massacre

This past Wednesday night, I had the opportunity to join about a thousand of my union brothers and sisters at Serb Hall for a town hall meeting.  There were many speakers, including various labor leaders and Representative Fred Kessler.  Senators Chris Larson and Spencer Coggs also spoke to us, albeit telephonically.  The repeated standing ovations when those two gentlemen spoke was simply deafening!

The meeting ended with a very motivational speech by Sheila Cochran, Secretary/Treasurer of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council.  Here is her speech, which can also be found on Facebook:

Everyday this fight goes on; more people begin to understand what is at stake. Please let your voices be heard in any way you can. The Budget Repair Bill was an outright declaration of war on Organized Labor. This governor did not campaign on stripping the Collective Bargaining rights from workers, had he done so he wouldn’t have been elected. No matter how the media spins its, the polls are showing the public is with us. 

The longer the 14 brave Senators stay away the more the public gets exposed to the lies and lack of compromise the better educated we will all become in what is exactly in this budget.  It strips so many needed programs and a right from Wisconsinites it is sick. I don't know how the Governor can sleep at night, or the business community who support him can remain silent. Labor willingly entered this fight, and will remain on the front lines and we are not alone, and the longer we stand and fight the more people will see how bad this bill really is!! 

These aren't cuts this is a MASSACRE; just slashing through Medicaid, Badgercare, Senior Prescription programs, Education at every level, Family Planning, FoodShare, and WIC programs.  It will drastically cut everything at  county and city  Health Departments, including AIDS/HIV testing, breast-feeding education, care passenger safety education, family planning, postnatal home visits, immunizations and influenza clinics, nutrition education, parenting education, prenatal education, smoking cessation, WIC, Women's Health Screening Program which includes free Pap's and mammography.  Eliminating funding for recycling programs, bus services, childcare, and force W2 recipients to pay for the tax cut he gave all the corporations. How sick is it to take back $20.00 a month from a W2 mother?? How sick is this man. 

There is nothing about shared sacrifice in the over 1300 pages of this document. 

The more you read it the worse it gets, I wonder if every lobbyist has been paid off yet? Is there anything else we have to give? We as a people are awake; I just hope we stay awake. 

There were thousands marching in Madison yesterday and will again today and now we are adding cities and counties all over the state. Please do your part, out collective future is in our hands, now is the time and we are the people.