Washington, February 23: Public workers union protests in Wisconsin, which are spreading to the other US states, have been inspired by the pro-democracy revolutions in the Arab World, a political expert says.
“I think the protests in the Middle East have inspired people here enormously more than that people can realize,” Jennifer Loewenstein from University of Wisconsin, Madison, told Media US Desk on Tuesday.
Loewenstein said lots of what’s happening in the United States is “on a state level” but the continuation of the protests could force Obama to “intervene,” otherwise she added the protesters could get “angry.”
In recent weeks, pro-democracy protests inspired by popular revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, have swept the Arab world.
Meanwhile in the United States, union and labor protesters have taken to the streets in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana to protest a bill which seeks to end collective bargaining for public employees.
For over a week now, tens of thousands of state workers in Wisconsin have been protesting the Republican Governor Scott Walker’s decision to make widespread cuts in pay and benefits and lay off thousands of public servants.
Walker, however, has rejected any negotiable solution to the crisis.
“For us to be involved in a good faith negotiation, we have to offer something. We do not have anything to offer, because we do not have any money,” Walker said.
Walker says he will not retreat and may fire 10 thousand state workers to balance the books.
“This is a coordinated effort by the ultraconservatives, Wall Street, corporations and the Chamber of Commerce to fight back and to strip the voices of the working families and working people all over this country,” said Lee Saunders, a top official from AFSCME, which sponsors the protests.
Meantime, union leaders say they are encountering the greatest challenge to their collective bargaining rights since the 1930s thanks to cash-strapped state governments and new Republican governors determined to weaken the power of public unions.
With so many Republican governors elected last November and now in charge, and dozens of states facing huge recession red ink, many are considering moving against public workers unions representing teachers, firemen, cops and state employees.
——–Agencies