Randy Bryce Speaks!

By Jeff Simpson

We brought you earlier, the story of how Steve nASS(R- Fraidy-Cat) got scared of people testifying against the bill that his Bosses in ALEC told him he had to pass, so he ran out of the room, cowering in fear.

One of the people they cut off was our friend Randy Bryce. Shame on the people of Senate District 21 for not electing Mr. Bryce!

Here is one reason that the Republicans were so scared - a healthy dose of reality and truth!

My testimony on #WageTheftBill (that was not allowed to be read before the committee due to GOP cowardice)

My name is Randy Bryce. I have been a member of Ironworkers Local 8 since 1997.

I’ve had the privilege in that time to work on many of Wisconsin’s landmarks, private businesses, and, numerous parts of our infrastructure.

Prior to this, after leaving the US Army with an honorable discharge, I had several jobs that had no bright future, but, allowed me to pay my bills. (usually two jobs at a time)
One day, a friend of our family - a physician who had a patient that was the former ironworker apprenticeship coordinator let me know that the ironworkers were taking applications. I hated the job that I was at. It was in a dirty warehouse, and, I dreaded going into work every day.

I applied. I had never done construction work before. After going through the application process, I finally made it onto the apprenticeship list. I’m not going to go into great detail explaining how my apprenticeship went, because I understand that this body has a bill that they’d like to ram through before the rest of the state is aware of how horrible it really is. I’ll be as brief as possible.

Fact is, the ironworker's apprenticeship has the ability to take unskilled people off of the street, and, gives them a career that they are proud of. They taught me everything that I needed to know in order to now have a career that not only takes care of my family, but, has me proudly pointing out every project that I worked on as I drive throughout the state to my son Ben.

That training isn’t cheap. But, WE pay for it through our union dues, and, from contributions from the contractors who hire us. The apprenticeship board consists of 5 union reps, 5 contractor reps, and, a rep from the state who meet monthly. Zero tax dollars are used. After passing the #WageTheftBill (lets not pretend that this bill involves rights or the ability to work) Michigan has found out that it is now lacking with skilled trades workers. They will soon be using tax money to train workers.

This horrible attack on the Building Trades is not good for anyone in the state. It is a blatant attack due to political ideologies. Sen. Fitzgerald admitted such when this idea was first mentioned when he sought to exempt certain unions who supported Republican candidates. (Unconstitutional) Proponents have admitted that it will not raise wages.

I am sure that you are all aware of the Wisconsin Contractor coalition - a group of around 400 private businesses - many of who donated heavily to Republican candidates - who are opposed to this bill. They see it for what it is - the government getting in the middle of how they hire their help.

We make those contractors a LOT of money. They CHOOSE to use us.

If we are not allowed to collect money from members who freely choose to join our organization, who will pay to train us? Why stop at collecting union dues. A college tuition freeze is nice, but, why not let the student get a degree, then pay what they feel it is worth? Why do groups who want to see this passed charge a membership fee? Wisconsin Manufactorers and Commerce charge fees. The Associated Builders and Contractors charge membership fees. Even ALEC charges membership fees - and I recall that taxpayers foot the bill for a few members of Wisconsin’s legislature to belong to that group. Think of all of the extra jobs that they could create if this bill only went a little bit further and actually addressed freeloading for all. Why not let people pay taxes based on how well they feel that they are being represented? (I think we know how that would turn out)
Another aspect of what is trying to be sold is that this bill gives workers a choice. There already is a choice. If somebody wants to do what I do for a living, there are plenty of open shops that already exist. People are free to go work there. They won’t get the same training that our union dues pay for, and, they probably won’t make the same amount of money as a result, but, they exist. Their lessor wages are what I refer to as their “nonunion dues”. It’s the cost that they choose to be paid for not joining a highly skilled workforce.

The ironworkers created the first union in order to pool money together in order to give someone killed on the job a decent burial. Because of what we saw that could be done by looking out for each other, we were able to demand safer working conditions. Our trade is annually listed among the top 5 with regard to having a high mortality rate, but, it is a lot better than it used to be.

The union that I belong to is self insured. We get no sick days or holiday pay. As stated before, we pay to self train. Our instructors are experienced journey men ironworkers.There is ZERO burden on the taxpayer. The 4 year apprenticeship has members graduate with no student loan debt. Once graduating to Journeyman status, one can work anywhere in North America with a network that has been set up to attract skilled labor when an area faces a shortage. We have no seniority. If you don’t work, you don’t get paid. Our vacations are taken understanding that we will not get paid for the days that we are on vacation. All of our representatives are elected. All of the decisions that we make are voted on. The general membership is given monthly reports on how every dime is spent. Every dime spent is voted on. Unlike what is taking place this week, Ironworkers local 8 is PURE. DEMOCRACY.

Every single member of the legislature is cordially invited to come view our training facility. When running for state senate, I made it a point to invite members of the opposition party to see what we do.
I am disappointed beyond words at not just what this bill contains, but, how it is being passed. I am proud to be among those who build Wisconsin. My job is construction. This bill is demolition.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak my mind. Because I belong to a union, I was able to take off of work today and not fear that I would lose my job.

Fascism Comes To Wisconsin In A Clown Car

Unless the gentle reader has been living under a rock for the past few days, you are aware that on Friday, State Senator Scott Fitzgerald announced the full scale assault on Wisconsin workers by stating they are going to try to ramrod through a wage theft bill.

Despite all of his transparent lies that he did not want the bill and that it would never happen, Scott Walker gleefully announced that he would sign it after all.  This should come as no surprise to anyone.  Walker made it painfully clear four years ago that this was one of his main objectives:



But taking away workers rights isn't enough for Walker and his cadre of corporate cretins. They want to criminalize our rights:

Requiring anyone to join a union or pay dues to one as a condition of employment would be guilty of a class A misdemeanor under the right-to-work bill draft released this afternoon by Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald's office.

Here is the Legislative Reference Bureau's summary of the bill:

"This bill creates a state right to work law. This bill generally prohibits a person from requiring, as a condition of obtaining or continuing employment, an individual to refrain or resign from membership in a labor organization, to become or remain a member of a labor organization, to pay dues or other charges to a labor organization, or to pay any other person an amount that is in place of dues or charges required of members of a labor organization. Any person who violates this prohibition is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor."

And even this is not enough for them. Fitzgerald, who is as much a corporate servant as any of these damn fools, wants to insult our intelligence. On Friday, Fitzgerald announced that they are fast tracking this piece of offal, having a hearing on Tuesday and a vote on Wednesday. Then he pulls this stunt (emphasis mine):

"My experience, as leader, is when you have the votes, you go to the floor," Fitzgerald continued. "You don't wait around."

Asked whether he was worried senators might change their minds given more time to consider a vote, Fitzgerald said he worries about that "all the time." He mentioned rumors that some Republican senators would have been targeted with ads in an effort to pressure them not to support right-to-work.

Fitzgerald said he called Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, Friday morning to go over plans for the extraordinary session with her and to ensure there is no perception that the GOP majority is "rushing this bill through."

Who the hell does he think he is kidding?

The reason for them rushing this through now is because there was about to be a ad run educating people about the damage that this wage theft bill will cause. Even without the ads, the unions' efforts to educate the people were having was already quickly cutting through the fascists' propaganda and eroding the bills popularity every day.

karoli was also partially correct in that Walker's desire for this bill was to elevate him in the standings among the fringe extremists on the right. In other words, he wants to sell our rights to his corporate and big money overlords.

There is, however, a second motivation for Walker to do this. When they attacked the public sector workers four years ago, Fitzgerald admitted that it had nothing to do with repairing the budget or saving money (especially since it did neither!):



The only reason Walker tried to kill the public sector unions was a futile effort to keep Obama from winning in Wisconsin. The only reason that they are attacking the private sector unions now is another futile effort in helping Walker try to win his own state.

It won't help though. Polling shows that Hillary Clinton has a commanding lead over Walker in Wisconsin.

Hell, Walker can't even win with his own party. The same polling shows that Paul "Lyin'" Ryan fared better than Walker even after Ryan said he wasn't going to run.

If you are a fellow Wisconsinite, please call your state senator at 1-844-334-3438 or email them or sign the petition. Better yet, do all three!