Our members know how to fight.

• Author: Sadlowski, Edward A.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

ON FEBRUARY 11, 2011, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker boastfully proclaimed to reporters who were questioning the overreaching nature of his antiunion legislation: "If you didn't see this coming, you must have been in a coma." Randy Frost hadn't been comatose, but for the Rock County highway worker and AFSCME member, political buyer's remorse came quickly. "Walker's agenda was not what I voted for," he reflects. "I follow politics closely, and I admit that I liked some of his policies. But I did not see or hear this coming. The Walker budget is a simple redistribution of wealth from the backs of workers to the pockets of the wealthy." Since Walker's crackdown, Randy has attended rallies at the capitol in Madison, and he has stepped up his commitment and involvement in Local 1077.

Like many of the highway shops in Wisconsin, Local 1077 was chartered by AFSCME International years before the 1959 bill that granted collective bar gaining rights to public sector workers in the state. Through collective political action in 1955, the local successfully advanced a demand for a $35 per month wage increase.

Our members know how to fight, just as they know how to keep the rest of us safe in our travels, clearing the way during really bad storms.

Marv Vike is a heavy truck driver with Rock County. Marv also serves as president of Local 1077. Born and raised in Stoughton, Wisconsin, Marv and his wife, Connie, live in Janesville. Connie, a recent retiree from Rock County, was an active member of her union at the courthouse, Local 2489, AFSCME. Together, the Vikes are representative of couples who chose public service as a career and who now face an uncertain economic future as a result of Walker's agenda.

In February, when word broke regarding Walker's assault on workers' rights, Marv garnered support from his membership and set about negotiating a "Union Days" agreement with the county. The deal effectively granted lost-time pay and job protection to any member of the local making the choice to report to the capitol and defend our state. On February 15, fifty-three members (of the seventy-five-member local) were some of the first workers to arrive on the scene as part of AFSCME's initial fight-back against Walker's agenda. The euphoric sense of solidarity set in, and on any given day thereafter, Marv and scores of proud and determined members of...