Over one hundred workers and community members participated in a “Solidarity March and Rally” at the Wisconsin State Capitol Saturday morning to support several Madison-area labor unions affiliated with the South Central Federation of Labor, who are working to achieve workers’ rights and fair contracts with their employers, according to a SCFL press release.
Before gathering on the steps of the Wisconsin State Capitol building, farmers’ market goers clapped and danced along as participants marched around the Capitol building to pro-union tunes played by the Forward! Marching Band, a Madison band created in 2011 during large protests of anti-union bills.
Workers represented by the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 39, United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 1473, UW Nurses United – Service Employees International Union Healthcare Wisconsin, Starbucks Workers United, and Worker Justice Wisconsin attended the rally, along with other workers, elected officials and community members.
The rally comes five days after the United Auto Workers, led by Shawn Fain, reached a tentative deal with General Motors following a six-week-long wave of walkouts at Ford Motor, General Motors and Stellantis. The deal provides 25% in base wage increases through April 2028, and will cumulatively raise the top wage by 33% — more than GM workers have received in the past 22 years, according to UAW. Many rally attendees said they look to the UAW victory as a model.
Workers represented by OPEIU Local 39 spearheaded the rally. This included TruStage workers, who have not yet received a fair contract offer from their employer after their contract expired in March 2022, and Madison Gas and Electric workers, who say the company’s current wage offer is below inflation and have not received a pay raise since May 2022, according to the SCFL press release.
Member of the Wisconsin Starbucks Workers United Organizing Committee and Starbucks barista Maeve Perkins, who spoke at the rally, told The Badger Herald she loves her fellow baristas, the people she works with, and the customers she serves.
“But Starbucks has been continuously abusing labor laws and doing things that are extremely harmful to the community of baristas that I work with, and the customers,” Perkins said. “So I just decided that it was time to take a stand and join the union.”
Across the U.S., 361 Starbucks stores have unionized, but Starbucks has not yet recognized any union. The State Street Starbucks store voted overwhelmingly to unionize in June and held a walkout in September.
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According to the SCFL press release, workers at Madison Sourdough Co. won their union election in April and have been negotiating their first contract with the company since June. Nurses at UW Health are currently organizing their union with SEIU Wisconsin and pursuing collective bargaining rights through direct action and in the courts.
Vice President of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1 Miranda Wales, holding a sign that said “Unions make us strong,” said many parts of Wisconsin’s past, like Act 10 and the “right-to-work” law, have hampered workers’ rights.
Collective bargaining rights for most state and government employees in Wisconsin were severely weakened by Act 10, a bill signed into law by former Republican governor Scott Walker in 2011.
Before the law, public sector unions in Wisconsin could collectively bargain over salary, benefits and working conditions, according to Wisconsin Public Radio. Under Act 10, most unions in the public sector can only bargain for a pay raise no higher than the consumer price index.
In 2022, just 7.1% of Wisconsin workers were members of unions. In 2010, before Act 10, 14.2% of Wisconsin workers were members of unions.
“One person standing up against a mountain is not gonna move things, but when everybody comes together, we definitely will have the more power to get things done and get things moving,” Wales said.
Kevin Gundlach, President of the SCFL, spoke at the rally and introduced Perkins as well as UW Hospital Nurse Colin Gillis, Worker Organizer at Worker Justice Wisconsin Frida Ballard, MG&E employee Kelsey Hahn, retired Chair of Labor & Industry at Dane County NAACP William Franks Jr., Operations Manager at Madison Sourdough Spencer Schlenker, and TruStage employee Elizabeth Kidder.
State Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) and State Sen. Diane Hesselbein (D-Middleton) both spoke at the rally in support of the labor unions’ efforts.
“We have to seize power simply by choosing to fight,” Hong said. “We take on a power that we wouldn’t have otherwise. By fighting, we become agents of our own destiny. And that in and of itself is a victory. When we fight, we win.”
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect the fact that the person who spoke and introduced other speakers at the rally was Kevin Gundlach, not Chris Hamada.
