Those public servants assembled in Madison, and everyone gathered at our State House, deserve better than this. We must not allow them to be made scapegoats in an agenda to hobble America’s labor movement. State governments will face difficult challenges, and Massachusetts is no exception. But attacking unions in the name of deficit reduction is nothing more than political theatre.
Here is the reality: Governor Walker’s own expensive tax breaks for business fed the “crisis” that he is now using to justify this assault. But we won’t be fooled. Working families didn’t create these deficits, and moving against their rights won’t fix budget woes. The public employees are willing to talk. They are not willing to be obliterated to serve an extremist agenda that cuts at the heart of American life.
This month we have watched in awe as people around the world have stood up in the name of democratic rights and human dignity. Now let’s support our friends and neighbors here and in other states as they do the same.