A Maine state representative is returning home from Madison, Wis., where protesters are fighting a possible limitation of collective bargaining rights for state employees through demonstrations that threaten to cripple government and education systems.
Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland, took three friends and a U-Haul trailer full of supplies halfway across the country, utilizing thousands of dollars in donations to create a mobile coffee and hot chocolate stand for protesters.
The state’s governor, Republican Scott Walker, said Feb. 11 that balancing a $3.6 billion budget deficit in the state will require the slashing of collective bargaining rights, pay and benefits for state employees, including teachers.
“The Republicans are constantly talking about how they feel the unions are probably going to wane, but I don’t see that happening. There’s just such a remarkable sense of energy and dedication and determination,” Russell said Wednesday.
Russell was on her way back to Portland Wednesday night from Wisconsin’s capital, where reported crowds of tens of thousands have gathered in and around the Capitol building for more than a week now.
She said her experience on the ground in Wisconsin was “the greatest adventure of my lifetime.” Community outreach, she said, was “stunning.”
A local Indian restaurant handed out food on the sidewalk, while people with pizza and soup offered food to passers-by, Russell said.
“It was all driven by volunteers and local businesses. The small business community really stepped up,” she said. “Everybody’s so damn nice. I can’t begin to tell you how polite everybody is.”
After a Sunday Huffington Post article and a Monday afternoon interview with conservative Fox News pundit Sean Hannity, donations poured in. Russell said as of 5 p.m. Wednesday she has received nearly $3,000 in donations through PayPal on her website, solidaritywisconsin.wordpress.com.
She used $900 to buy Dunkin’ Donuts coffee for protesters and gave away 150 packages of hand warmers. Gas was also paid for with the donations.
The rest of the money, she said, is going to a group looking to raise the $140 million needed to fill the budget gap Walker says these labor changes will create.
“Yesterday, I was in the rotunda and people were saying, ‘Kill the bill’ and ‘This is what democracy sounds like.’ Now, it’s ‘Fill the bucket.’ It was amazing,” she said. “I think the vast majority of people realize that there’s a growing wealth gap and they realize that this isn’t just about unions. This is about working class people having opportunities.”
If this budget proposal passes in Wisconsin, many believe school districts and government agencies will be allowed to draconically cut their respective budgets by axing salaries at will.
Many Democratic legislative leaders have exiled themselves in Illinois to prevent a quorum vote on the bill, as they are outnumbered in both houses.
Russell said Monday that the implications of similar laws in places like Michigan and Ohio — where Republicans are also considering laws to tamp down collective bargaining — could spill over into GOP-dominated states such as Maine.
“It’s part of a broader pattern [for Republicans] and you’ll see in legislatures that have completely turned over, or the Republicans have gotten most of the control of it, they’re sort of rushing this stuff through,” she said. “My big concern is this could come to Maine.”
She said she got a phone call from a Tea Party individual who said they were asked to tell Russell by others in the rising political movement they did not support what she was doing in Wisconsin.
“They said, ‘I’m calling to tell you that I do support what you are doing,’” she said. “This is not a partisan issue. It’s a workers’ rights issue.”
Russell also said young people in Maine — especially students — should be watching the proceedings in Wisconsin.
“This is the youths’ protest — what’s happening in Egypt, what’s happening in Tunisia and Iran and Libya now — these are all led by young people,” she said Monday. “You have the longest and most vested interest in the economic viability of the state because you’re going to live in it the longest.
“My parents’ generation left my generation nothing and I’ll be damned if I’m going to leave that to you guys,” Russell added.
Citing patterns in Maine’s GOP-majority leadership in the state Senate, House of Representatives and the executive branch, Russell said her action was done to learn about the situation in Wisconsin and aid protesters.
Maine Gov. Paul LePage’s budget, released Feb. 10, suggested the retirement age for newly or recently hired state employees be raised from 62 to 65. State retirees will also be asked to accept lower cost-of-living increases in benefits.
Another key tenet of the governor’s budget plan is to repay debts to Maine hospitals — using $69.5 million of state money to supplement federal funding to bring $248 million to 36 Maine hospitals.
In a leaked e-mail to Republican allies, published first by Democratic-leaning blog Dirigo Blue on Jan. 28, LePage’s Director of Communications Dan Demeritt seemed to use hospital payments as political leverage in a “business plan” to make for election of Republican candidates in future state elections.
“We are probably going to pay the hospital debt through 2009 as part of the supplemental budget — about $259 million,” Demeritt wrote. “And I’ll even make sure our members know the exact day, the exact amount of State funding transferred (and the amount) to their local hospitals so our members can show up with a big symbolic check to make it a press event.”
“On one hand, he’s going to pay back the hospitals and it’s going to be a political win for him, and on the other hand, he’s going to balance the budget on the backs of our already-retired people,” Russell said in response. “We’re talking about people who already paid into the system.”
Contacted on Tuesday via e-mail, Demeritt responded to Russell’s evaluation of the hospital payments.
“If keeping your promises is a political win, I guess that is a fair characterization of the governor’s commitment to paying Maine’s hospitals the $400 million owed in unpaid Medicaid claims going back to 2006,” Demeritt wrote.
State employees will also be asked to give 2 percent more of their salaries to the state pension system. They currently put in 7.65 percent.
There is a $4.4 billion unfunded liability in the state employee pension system many Maine GOP leaders say could become uncontrollable without prompt action.
According to Demeritt, LePage does not have any plans to reform labor currently in the works.
“We do not have any union-specific proposals under development,” Demeritt wrote. “Ultimately, Governor LePage believes that working people should be free to organize and become members of workplace unions if they choose.”
On Wednesday, Russell said LePage’s announced support of a “right-to-work” proposal by Rep. Tom Winsor, R-Norway, looks to preclude a foray into union policy. This proposal would make it so those who work at unionized businesses would not be mandated to pay dues and join the union.
Democratic and labor leaders maintain that workers should not benefit from union activity without paying and any law to the contrary would weaken unions entirely.
“You can’t have it both ways,” Russell said. “You can’t say that you’re not introducing legislation that is similar to what is happening in Wisconsin … and say that you are supportive of right-to-work.”