MILWAUKEE – The Wisconsin State Journal on Monday reported that a commemorative protest to mark the one-year anniversary of the start of the Madison demonstrations over Gov. Scott Walker’s collective bargaining reforms drew only 500 people. According to the story, Ileen DeVault, a Cornell University professor, believes that the protests “reinvigorated the labor movement” in addition to reshaping Wisconsin politics.

Media Trackers Communications Director Brian Sikma responded to that comment, and the planned week of protests saying, “A mere 500 people showing up a year after thousands of people marched in opposition to common sense reforms is not exactly the sign of a reinvigorated movement. If anything, the fact that they couldn’t muster more than 500 people to attend this event indicates that a large number of Wisconsin citizens believe the difficult reforms were necessary and are now benefiting the state.”

Collin Roth, a researcher for Media Trackers, noted in a report on the organization’s website that union membership in Wisconsin and the nation is down and has been declining for several years. Roth said that labor unions appear “to be a movement in its last desperate death throes with the most radical core fighting for their lives to preserve gold-plated pensions and expensive entitlements that are bankrupting governments across the country.”

In the year since common-sense collective bargaining reforms were enacted Wisconsin has:

-Erased a budget shortfall of $3.6 billion, balancing its budget without raising taxes
-Given local governments more control over their own budgets
-Achieved cost savings without jeopardizing essential services or harming the quality of public education
-Brought public employee compensation in line with what Wisconsin’s working class families can expect in their own compensation
-Cut property taxes for the first time in 5 years

In that same year Big Labor in Wisconsin has:

-Lost its attempt to defeat collective bargaining reform
-Failed to elect liberal environmentalist Joanne Kloppenburg to the Supreme Court
-Failed to capture the state Senate majority after a series of recall elections-Lost membership
-Laid off employees
-Lost public confidence when some of its leaders secretly met with Democratic candidates for governor and managed to exchange political support for an extracted promise from Kathleen Falk (D) to shut down state government if union demands are not met.

Sikma concluded, “Over the past year the biggest winners have been Wisconsin taxpayers who have benefited from principled reforms enacted despite opposition from those who would prefer to expand special interest benefits by taxing Wisconsin’s working class more than ever before. Wisconsin has experienced a new and better way forward, and an attempted re-run of last year’s protests will not bring Big Labor’s good old days of reckless spending back.”

***