Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/30780
GETTY IMAGES/MARK HIRSCH national I REPORTS streets of Madison to protest Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s move to crush public-sector unions. That he has succeeded in signing into law (though a judge has blocked it tem- porarily) a bill to dissolve public work- ers’ collective-bargaining rights—an action being imitated by Republicans in other states, most recently Alaska—is not only a blow to union- ized workers but also to women. The public sector is the last bastion Fight on, Wisconsin! W The union-busting that has stirred protests in Madison is a particular blow to women workers E WERE RIVETED THIS March to images of tens of thousands storming the SEIU (Service Employees International Union). “I think this is a coordinated at- tack on workers’ organizations, and it’s landing disproportionately on women because we’re in the public sector.” In Wisconsin, Walker specifically exempted the male-dominated police and firefighters unions from his proposed cuts, focusing on female- dominated industries such as teaching and nursing. Eighty-two percent of public school teachers are women, and nearly 95 percent of registered nurses are women. Teachers have too often become of unionized labor, with more than a third of its workers represented by unions, and 56.8 percent of those public-sector workers are women. SEIU and AFSCME, two of the largest unionizers of public-sector workers, are each 56 percent women. “Where women were able to enter the workforce most easily was in state service and education,” explains Mary Kay Henry, the first woman president of the new “welfare queens,” with “bad teachers” pitted against parents who want a good education for their kids, and unions blamed for the persistence of those bad teachers. John Kasich, Ohio’s governor, has said he’d like to “break the back of organized labor in the schools.” “Do I think that there is an ele- ment of putting women in their place, not just here but nationally? I think the answer is yes,” says Cindy Clark, a Wisconsin teacher and pro- tester. She adds that stripping work- ers’ rights to bargain collectively won’t fix state budget holes caused by a vicious recession, but will probably force women to accept lower wages and cut their benefits. And that will roll back the gains that unions have helped women make. Union women have maintained a smaller gender wage gap than non- unionized women, earn 11.2 percent more than non-union women and are nearly 19 percent more likely to have employer-provided health insurance. Largely because of union efforts, the public sector also has stronger dis- crimination protections and thus is safer not only for women but also LGBT workers and workers of color. Women, including state Sen. Lena Taylor and Dian Palmer, president of SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin’s District 1199W, have been active in the fight against the Wisconsin coup. But what now? Protests continue, a recall of eight Wisconsin Republican state senators is in the works, and there’s talk of a large-scale general strike— something the country hasn’t seen since 1934. In this year marking the 100th an- niversary of the disastrous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, which killed 146 garment workers, mostly women, who worked in unsafe conditions, it’s time to remember again what organ- ized labor does. The fight of public workers to have a say in their work- place is the fight of all women to de- termine the conditions of their lives. —SARAH JAFFE 3Wisconsin teachers protest plan to cut their bargaining rights. 16 | SPRING 2011 www.feminist.org