In light of events in Wisconsin this week, rallies are currently being organized in state capitols across the country to show solidarity with our Wisconsin public sector employees and their unions, as well as raise awareness of the ongoing attacks on working families and the middle class by big business and their political allies. In many of your states, these rallies will be taking place on Monday or Tuesday. We urge your participation. Find a rally near your home and join the fight for worker's rights. Specific information concerning the rallies will be added to the STOP THE WAR ON WORKERS web site as provided. Check often for updates.

Following are simple talking points for use with principal officers as well as with elected officials. If you have any questions regarding efforts in your state, please visit the IBT’s main page at STOP THE WAR ON WORKERS

Background

What’s happening in Wisconsin is also happening in statehouses all over the country.

Republican governors and lawmakers are trying to ram through right-to-work (FOR LESS) laws, huge cuts to government worker pensions, weakening or elimination of collective bargaining for public sector unions, elimination of prevailing wage laws and project labor agreements.

Right now the key battleground states are Wisconsin, Ohio, New Hampshire, Indiana, Missouri, Maine and Michigan.

This is more of the same old partisan politics.

This is political payback to CEOs and billionaires who spent hundreds of millions of dollars to elect politicians.

The cost of living is going up, our wages are getting cut and politicians are giving tax breaks to corporations and CEOs.

Politicians need to work together to create jobs and restore the middle class instead of attacking their political enemies.

Corporations want to weaken or eliminate unions to take away workers’ voices, freeing them to send jobs overseas.

People joining together in a union can work as a check on corporate power and restore balance to the economy.

Workers like firefighters, teachers, nurses, corrections officers and sanitation workers are essential to the well-being and safety of our communities.

CEOs already have too much influence over politicians. If right to work (for LESS) becomes law, unions will be weakened and we will lose our voice.

Laws will favor big business over workers and consumers even more than they do now.

Right to work (for LESS)

Right to work (for LESS) would endanger our pensions. People who’ve worked hard all their lives and paid into their pensions shouldn’t have to worry about their retirement security. That’s already happened in right-to-work (for LESS) states like Idaho, Mississippi and Texas.

Right to work (for LESS) would make it almost impossible for workers to keep their unions strong. Employers would bring in freeloaders who wouldn’t pay union dues but would get the wages and benefits that the union bargained for.

Pensions

Instead of taking retirement security away from public employees, we should be working to make sure that more workers have retirement security.

Government workers pay a significant portion of the costs of their pensions, and they’ve never failed to make their contributions on time. It was politicians who often failed to make required contributions. In New Jersey, for example, the politicians skipped pension contributions in 13 out of 17 years. It isn’t fair to punish employees for politicians’ failures.

Prevailing wage

Without prevailing wage protection, big construction projects will be awarded to the lowest bidder. He’ll cut corners and take risks to cut costs and increase their profit on the job. We don’t want highways and bridges built by cheap labor with inferior skills or lower-quality products.

Prevailing wage laws help prevent construction companies from driving down wages throughout our state.

Keep Updated at STOP THE WAR ON WORKERS