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All the attention on Occupy Wall Street has made it easy to forget another movement going on in the U.S.
Months before anyone spent the night in Zuccotti Park, there was another type of occupation happening in Wisconsin. In February, teachers and other public employees filled the state house to protest a law that would restrict their rights to collective bargaining.
Now, the fight to unseat Gov. Scott Walker, who proposed the legislation, has officially begun.
The drive to collect an average of 9,000 signatures a day, fueled by anger over Walker’s successful push to take away nearly all public worker collective bargaining rights, began with pajama parties and other events after midnight. Daytime activities included rallies, neighborhood canvasses and booths set up around the state Capitol.”
Walker’s proposal and the protests that followed made national headlines. Since, others Republican governors have attempted similar measures.
The recall effort launches a week after voters in Ohio repealed a similar but harsher collective-bargaining law. The repeal has galvanized anti-Walker forces in Wisconsin, which has long been seen as ground zero for the broader Republican push to curtail union rights as a way to trim state budgets.”
The governor’s opponents will have to collect over half a million signatures to force the recall.
Will Walker’s move against public employees leave him publicly unemployed?