Monday, February 28, 2011

Trumka: ‘This Is Not About a Budget Crisis’


by Donna Jablonski, Feb 27, 2011

“No person should have to face the loss of their rights or the loss of their jobs,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said today on NBC’s Meet the Press. His remarks came in response to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) threat to begin laying off public employees if he doesn’t get his way on a sham budget bill that would strip away collective bargaining rights.

Governors with state budget problems who sit down and bargain with public employees can solve problems, Trumka said, but Walker’s attack is not about budgets. Public workers have agreed to fiscal concessions Walker’s budget bill seeks, but in his drive to kill bargaining rights Walker has refused.