'Wisconsin protests inspire Americans'

Wed Mar 30, 2011 8:18PM

Press TV interviews Host of WRT Radio Norman Stockwell.

Protestors rally outside the State Capitol following the Wisconsin Assembly's vote

Wisconsin protesters have continued to demand their rights while encouraging other unions across the US to put pressure on their politicians.

Press TV interviewed Host of WRT Radio Norman Stockwell regarding the labor unions in Wisconsin. Other states might be reluctant in pushing forward the same type of legislation now thanks to the massive protests in Wisconsin.

Press TV: The governor seems to be moving to implement his controversial labor plans. How are the unions expected to react to this from this time on?

Stockwell: This was announced last Friday when the legislative reference buereau published this law in spite of a judge's order saying it could not be published. Today about one hour ago, that Judge Maryann Sumi in court said in--no uncertain terms that any former implementation of the law limiting public employ unions is barred and anyone violating her order risks sanctions. Therefore, this was just about one hour ago. The actions that the governor has started to take today to implement it are very specifically ruled as illegal by Judge Sumi.

Her court hearing is continuing on Friday as she continues to take testimony. She heard about a dozen people today, and will hear another ten or so Friday giving testimony about the issue whether or not open records and open meetings laws were violated in the implementation of this bill originally. Therefore, I think that we are going to these legal challenges continue. If the governor or the Department of Administration continues to implement the law, according to Jude Sumi they could be sanctions for that. It will be interesting to see how that plays out tomorrow.

Press TV: Indeed, now how has the crisis in Wisconsin affected the situation in other states as far as union rights there?

Stockwell: We are about six weeks into this now because the governor first unveiled the budget bill on February 11th and the protests started on Monday the 14th of February. It has been going on continuously and it has been an inspiration. We have seen it going across the United States with rallies in solidation with Wisconsin. We have also seen that some of the other governors who have been trying to implement similar laws have backed down some.

In Michigan, in particular the governor said they would not do some of the more aggressive attacks on labor law they had been planning. Any Indiana the Senators took the lead from the Wisconsin Senators and left the state to block quorum so they couldn't vote on a similar bill in the state of Indiana. Thus, Wisconsin really is having a large impact on these sorts of things around the country.

Now we saw a large rally in Los Angeles over the weekend and there the workers argued some concessions to the city, and those concessions are being looked at by other cities and states. We may see kind of a backlash now where some other states try to pick up this idea of getting concessions from the unions. Illinois in particular was one mentioned where we may see them try to take some of the workers' rights away now since in Las Angeles they were giving away their pensions and so on.