Pocan & Risser Lead Effort to Restore Collective Bargaining

March 8, 2012 by WCMC

On Thursday, State Representative Mark Pocan and Senator Fred Risser held a joint news conference to announce the Collective Bargaining Restoration Act, which would repeal the anti-union provisions of Wisconsin Act 10.

March 11 will mark the one-year anniversary of Governor Walker’s signing of Act 10, which stripped Wisconsin’s public employees of collective bargaining rights. Pocan and Risser were joined today by representatives from AFSCME, Madison Teachers Inc, American Federation of Teachers, IBEW, Painters and Glaziers local union, WEAC, firefighters, bricklayers, ironworkers, and United Food and Commercial Workers.

In his opening remarks, Rep. Pocan stated, “For half a century, we have had good working conditions with our employees because of the collective bargaining law.”

Sen. Risser noted, “I was around in 1959 when Wisconsin became the first state in the United States, the first state in the Union, to adopt a law to permit public employees to collectively bargain. Back then, Wisconsin was known as a progressive, innovative state.”