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Thursday, March 10, 2011

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka ‘thanks’ Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker | The Raw Story #wearewi #WIunion

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka ‘thanks’ Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker | The Raw Story

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka ‘thanks’ Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker

By Eric W. Dolan
Thursday, March 10th, 2011 -- 8:24 pm
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The head of the largest federation of unions in the United States, AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka, jokingly thanked Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Thursday for igniting an impassioned debate on workers' rights.

"Well, thank you, Scott Walker," Trumka said during a speech in Washington, DC to the group Campaign for America's Future. "We should have invited him here today to receive the Mobilizer of the Year award! Because Gov. Walker's over-reaching has brought us to this moment to talk about jobs. This is the debate we've wanted to have. Well, guess what? Suddenly the debate came to us, and we're winning."

"In your lifetime, have you ever seen this much solidarity, this much excitement, this much activism?" he continued. "As progressives, it is our job to transform the outrage and make this moment a movement – to ensure that this corruption in the Midwest does not stand."

On Thursday, the Republican-led Wisconsin Assembly passed a bill to bust public workers unions, after Republican state senators managed to bypass Senate Democrats who fled the state and pass the