Greendale, Greenfield Teachers Protest on 60th Street Overpass
About 40 people waved American flags and signs to passing cars for about 90 minutes during rush hour.
In their first public group protest to Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill, Greenfield and Greendale teachers chose a very visible place to get their word out.
Teachers from all over the area protested the bill on nine major Interstate overpasses Friday afternoon. Greenfield and Greendale teachers chose the 60th Street overpass just down the road from Greenfield High School.
About 40 total protestors lined each side of 60th Street, waving signs and American flags at commuters passing them and driving underneath them.
“(The bill) is an attack on our rights,” said Doug Perry, a fifth-grade teacher at Maple Grove Elementary School. “We’re in rush hour here because we know a lot of people are coming home from work and we’re just trying to get the message out.”
That message is that teachers and other public employees are not happy with Walker’s plans to strip them of most of their collective bargaining rights.
“This bill is not just about money,” Perry said. “This bill is about workers’ rights and taking collective bargaining away from public workers.”
“I face 29 kids in my classroom right up the road every day,” Perry added. “They depend on me to do my best. One of the ways I do my best is, I’m represented by my union and I don’t have to worry about if one of my kids gets sick or if I get sick. I don’t have to worry about that and those different things and I can focus on being a teacher.”
Perry, like other teachers from either district, has been back and forth to Madison multiple times to join in protests that are garnering national attention. But this is the first time either district protested as a group right in their backyard.
“We, as a district, our job is to teach kids,” Perry said, when asked why his district did not organize a sick-out like other districts have.
Tim Burch, a chemistry teacher at Milwaukee Area Technical College, joined in Friday’s protest on 60th Street.
“The bill that’s proposed is going to make unions irrelevant essentially,” he said. “They’ll have no sense in being there. Might as well be a knitting club.
“Most of my colleagues and I, we’re are kind of beside ourselves. You’re walking around, waiting for something to happen. And you don’t know what to do. This is why this is good to come out here instead of sitting on the bench.”
Some teachers feel that collective bargaining rights give them a sense of security.
"It ensured that we weren't taken advantage of being that teaching is not the most high-paying job," Greendale English teacher Natalie Cook said. "It ensured we had good benefits, what we deserve, and ensuring we were secure at our jobs."
Greendale High School math teacher and union representative Deborah Weyer believes Wisconsin is a "better" state and does not deserve what is being done to it.
"I find it incredibly ironic that there are people across the world in the Middle East losing their lives to create a democracy and rights for their people," she said. "And we here in the state of Wisconsin, some of us are willing to toss them away overnight. I find that incredibly unfair and unreasonable. Wisconsin deserves better than this and we are a better state than that. We should not be passing this bill."
KHD
2:27 pm on Saturday, February 26, 2011
Teachers are a bunch of whiners. You don't like it, quit and get that higher paying job you say is out there. Frauds
Jean
7:50 am on Sunday, February 27, 2011
In no way, shape or form do I think Scott Walker is a "hero". However, our state is in a desperate situation much like many others and I think this bill should pass. I have a child in public school. I worry every day about how her education is being affected by budget cutbacks. Our school district has cut millions of dollars over the last several years, with more to come. I believe giving the districts more ability to bargain will at least help to " balance out" the situation. About a year ago I overheard a teacher complaining about having a $200 deductible added to their insurance. That same year our out of pocket insurance expenses were tripled by the very large, well known worldwide company that my husband works for. We went from a zere deductible to $2000 in one year. So, I feel their pain and I know they have agreed to the salary and pension deal, but change must happen.
Jean
7:51 am on Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sorry, that should be ZERO deductible!
Kathy Borowski
9:50 am on Sunday, February 27, 2011
I urge people to go back and read the article and other media stories. The unions (not just teachers) agreed to the money issues. The teachers above are talking about collective bargaining rights. You need to know that teachers and all union members who collectively bargained, gave up salary for their other benefits. It has, essentially, cost you nothing additional for them to have these benefits. They've been giving up salary increases for several years, as I recall.
Go to democraticunderground.com and do some reading or watch videos. All of this is about collective bargaining rights. Learn your history about unions in this country and what they have done for all workers by setting the bar higher. Why in god's name do you think Walker and the others are working so hard to get rid of these rights? They are effective for worker's. Do the "gooogle" as G. Bush would say. Google "Bay View Massacre" and find out something about the history of this state. Go to the Bay View Massacre memorial held every year in early May. Learn something about how it is ALL workers earned the right to 8 hour days and other rights that YOU wouldn't have at all if people hadn't died to get these rights. Realize why these rights are slipping away - because unions are being destroyed, by people not supporting them and not just politicians.
The middle class was CREATED by unions. And as unions go, so goes the middle class. Stop this us vs. them stuff. Who do you think profits from that? Not us.
Kathy Borowski
10:18 am on Sunday, February 27, 2011
I want to add that I am not a teacher, nor am I a union member, but my father and his father who came here from Poland, were. My father was a teacher and ultimately moved to management level and no longer needed to pay his union dues, but continued to do so until he retired because he understood exactly what the unions did for him, even as a member of management. He still benefited, so he still paid and supported his fellow teachers when they went on strike.
Union history has intentionally been left out of our school curriculums. We have now crossed the threshhold to the next Gilded Age because of the growing economic differences between the rich and the poor, and continuing destruction of the middle class. The last thing the people benefitting from this growing divide want is for you to support unions. Or, worse yet, to join or create a union in your workplace. Again, think hard about why they are working so hard to get rid of unions. Unions can be incredibly powerful for working people and they understand that much better than you do. If not for unions, there would still be children working in factories - although truth be told, there still are. Welcome to the new age of the Robber Barron's - CEO's making 4-500 times more than you do, without working 4-500 times harder than you. Those are the people you should be angry with, not teachers and union members in general. They have managed to distract a lot of people and turned attention away from them, the real villians.
KHD
1:28 pm on Sunday, February 27, 2011
Kathy, go to a democratic website to get the facts. Hahahahahahahahaha. Go get a sign and join the teachers and then get a clue.
Kathy Borowski
5:05 pm on Sunday, February 27, 2011
I can only hope you at least realize there is absolutely no information contained in your post. You have said nothing. I would have hoped that intelligent people could do better than that. Very sad.
Jeramy Melka
9:51 pm on Thursday, March 3, 2011
On a side note-
The Greendale IFL Panther AAA semi-pro football team has just announced we welcome both sides of this debate to our games this upcoming season. The schedule has just been released and 2011 is the year of the Panther. Please visit www.pantherdise.com for more information. First home game is June 18th vs. the Fond Du Lac Crusaders 7pm kickoff at Steven J. Gavinski Memorial Stadium located at Greendale High School $5.00 admission for all Greendale residents.
obtw
5:47 pm on Saturday, March 12, 2011
Tim Burch, are you the MATC instructor who made $128,964.00 in 2009, paid $0.00 toward your pension and $55.00 a month toward your health plan? How much did you pay in union dues? It's pretty sick when you "invest" more in union dues than you do in your own pension.
You, sir, and your union are the ones who are ripping off the working middle class.
obtw
5:56 pm on Saturday, March 12, 2011
Oh, and you can help the students (read the teacher made sign) by volunteering or tutoring instead of marching with those who always say "it's for the children". It's not for the students, it's for I want mine". When is the last time anyone protested "for the children".
the tree
1:42 pm on Tuesday, March 15, 2011
I was wondering who was on that overpass. It did disrupt traffic on 894.