Letter to Governor Walker from Fr. John Jones, Philosophy Professor and former Department Chair at Marquette
Saints Cyril & Methodius Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church in America
2505 South 30th Street
Milwaukee, WI 53215
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February 19, 2011
Dear Gov. Walker,
We are writing you to express our strong dissatisfaction with provisions of the current budget repair bill that would limit or eliminate the right of public workers to engage in collective bargaining. We oppose these provisions. We have strong objections to the fact that such provisions would be put forward for a vote by the State Senate with no adequate time for sustained and open public discussion.
Many Orthodox Christians who immigrated to this country during the late 19th and early 20th centuries worked in factories, mines, and other industries. They experienced dreadful working conditions and sustained opposition to their efforts to engage in collective bargaining to improve those working conditions. They struggled with great difficulty to gain the civil and legal rights of workers to unite and collectively bargain with employers. Those hard-won rights reflect a deeper moral right of people freely to associate with others to obtain and maintain a decent standard of living. As you well know, Wisconsin was the first state to grant public workers the right to organize