Open Letter to Governor Walker and State Legislature
On February 21 Council President Kerry Kincaid and I extended an invitation to local government officials to join us in signing an open letter to Governor Walker and members of the Wisconsin Legislature regarding the collective bargaining provisions of the Budget Repair Bill proposed by Governor Walker. On February 23 I moderated a press conference in the Capitol building and reported that over 200 local officials had already signed the letter. With me at the press conference were over a dozen local mayors, county board supervisors, and school board members who joined in calling for the Governor to reconsider and rescind his proposal to override the authority of local governments to collective bargain with their employees. Provided below is the open letter to the governor and legislators:
Dear Governor Walker, Senators and Representatives:
We respectfully urge you to reconsider and delete the proposal in the Budget Repair Bill to severely restrict the collective bargaining process between local governmental bodies and their employees. This provision of your recommended bill is inconsistent with the Wisconsin tradition of local control over local community issues. In addition, it does not help achieve the prime goal we all share of providing cost-effective, quality public services for Wisconsin’s people.
Public employees have offered to accept your proposed health care and pension concessions to balance the budget if you will respect and preserve the collective bargaining process so basic to maintaining a strong middle class. We encourage you to accept the compromise offered by labor leaders. By doing so, all of the state and local budget savings in your proposed budget adjustment bill will be realized and Wisconsin’s historic commitment to the right of working people to organize and negotiate for fair wages and decent working conditions will be honored.
Skilled public employees and proactive public sector unions are vital for stable, cost-effective operations in municipalities, counties, school districts and state programs. Effectively doing away with local collective bargaining is not something we have asked for nor support as a “tool” to solve our budget challenges. It is not in the best interests of Wisconsin communities.
We recognize the significant fiscal challenges facing state and local governments in the coming budget biennium. The leadership challenge we share as state and local leaders is how to work together to protect the public structures that are the foundation for strong local communities and fundamental to the continued prosperity, stability, and economic strength of our state. We ask the governor, as the state’s chief executive, to work within the existing collective bargaining framework and to convene a collaborative partnership of state leaders, local officials and public sector workers to move forward and work together in the best interest of our state’s future.
The time for the “so let it be written, so let it be done” style of leadership is past and ill-suited to the global economic and governance challenges we face in the 21st century. At all levels of governance, we need transformational leadership that leads with an energizing vision of change and is an exemplar of of bringing people together and inspiring them to build better organizations and vibrant communities.