Wisconsin CWAer Featured in Ad for Recall of Union-Busting Lawmakers

CWA Local 4621 VP Betsy LaFontaine is featured in a new TV ad urging recall of state senators who voted to strip public workers' collective bargaining rights.

A CWA member is featured in a new TV ad with other Wisconsin workers who are gathering signatures to recall their state's union-busting senators.

"Republicans declared war on the middle class and with this recall campaign we are fighting back and we are going to win," CWA Local 4621 Vice President Betsy LaFontaine, an AT&T customer service representative, says as the ad ends. Retirees, a student, a teacher and a corrections officer who is a lifelong Republican also speak out against the GOP's anti-worker agenda.

Click here or go to www.cwa-union.org to watch the ad, which is funded by donations.

As part of the nationwide April 4 events on Monday, Wisconsin CWAers will continue to focus on the recall effort and on elections next Tuesday for local offices and the state Supreme Court, where the new law stripping public employees of their bargaining rights may land.

"We're hoping to send a real message," CWA Representative Frank Matthews said, describing phone banks, mobilization tables at every worksite, red CWA bandanas for every member and a wide range of workplace and evening activities on Monday. "We're going to have vigils and rallies and Get-Out-The-Vote door-to-door."

Meanwhile, a judge is continuing to review whether Republicans acted illegally four weeks ago when they rushed to pass the union-busting bill. Blatantly violating the judge's order to stay the law pending her ruling, Gov. Scott Walker's administration took steps to make it effective immediately.

At a hearing Tuesday, Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi restated her order and warned state leaders. "Now that I've made my earlier order as clear as it possibly can be, I must state that those who act in open and willful defiance of the court order place not only themselves at peril of sanctions, they also jeopardize the financial and the governmental stability of the state of Wisconsin," she said.