May, 21 2013, 01:04pm EDT
One Wisconsin Now to Travel to Iowa as Gov. Walker Pursues Presidential Ambitions
Will Share ‘Walker Resume of Failure’
MADISON, WI
Gov. Scott Walker continues to travel the country in pursuit of his national political ambitions, instead of focusing on his job in Wisconsin. As he travels to Iowa to address the Polk County GOP on Thursday, May 23rd, One Wisconsin Now will also be making the trip to share the real Walker resume of failure with residents of the Hawkeye state.
One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross commented, "As he pursues his ambition for higher office Gov. Walker is spinning yarns of his Wisconsin 'success'. But Scott Walker has one the worst job creation records in the nation and Wisconsin is rated dead last in short term job creation prospects, he enacted the biggest cuts to public education in state history and is now pushing a health care scheme that costs more to cover fewer people. The numbers don't lie, the real Walker resume is a record of failure"
Joining One Wisconsin Now will be their partner organization Progress Iowa. "When Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker joins Governor Branstad in Iowa on Thursday to promote his dangerous anti-middle class agenda, we'll be there to fight back with the truth," said Matt Sinovic, executive director of Progress Iowa. "Governor Branstad has said he's 'inspired' by Walker, which must be why he has wasted our tax dollars on giveaways to foreign corporations and puts the needs of working Iowans dead last. We want Governor Branstad and every Iowan to know the truth about Scott Walker's policies and the disastrous impact they have on working families."
WHAT: Scott Walker Truth Squad press conference, prior to Polk County GOP dinner featuring Governors Branstad and Walker
WHO: Progress Iowa & One Wisconsin Now
WHEN: Thursday, May 23rd, 5:00 PM
WHERE: Sheraton Hotel, Chambers Room; 1800 50th St, West Des Moines, IA
One Wisconsin Now is a statewide communications network specializing in effective earned media and online organizing to advance progressive leadership and values.
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Led by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, Republican leaders in 23 states on Tuesday filed a petition making clear their aim to allow petrochemical companies and other corporations to continue operating pollution-causing facilities without regard for the "disparate impact" they can have on low-income communities of color.
The attorneys general of states including Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas wrote to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan, asking him to amend Title VI under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The law prohibits recipients of federal funds from discriminating against residents based on race and national origin and allows residents to petition the EPA arguing that state agencies have intentionally discriminated or disparately impacted a particular community.
Title VI has underpinned hundreds of legal cases, including recent EPA investigations into the 85-mile stretch of land in Louisiana known as Cancer Alley, where dozens of petrochemical plants have been built and health experts have observed a disproportionate number of cancer cases and other medical problems among the predominantly Black population.
The attorneys general said they object to the Biden administration's use of Title VI to "advance what it calls 'environmental justice,'" and complained that the EPA aims to create "a condition in which no racially or economically defined group experiences adverse environmental impacts."
Andre Segura, vice president of litigation at the environmental legal group Earthjustice, said Wednesday that the Republican attorneys general aim to "eviscerate civil rights protections just to make it easier for industrial polluters to continue with business as usual."
"Everyone should be alarmed by these outrageous efforts," said Segura. "The fact is, many of the states that have signed the petition have historically allowed these harmful facilities to be placed in predominantly Black and brown communities, without regard for the health and safety of residents."
Manuel Fernandez, president of Miami-Dade County Democrats in Florida, said the effort was "embarrassing" and called on Moody to resign.
The petition was filed three months after U.S. District Court Judge James Cain Jr., an appointee of former President Donald Trump in Louisiana, ruled that Title VI requirements amount to "government overreach."
The EPA halted its Title VI investigation into the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) last year a month after Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican, sued the agency over its Title VI regulations. The EPA had been probing whether the LDEQ placed the historically Black town of St. John the Baptist Parish at risk by allowing companies to build petrochemical plants nearby.
There are more than 50 pending cases regarding Title VI violations, Earthjustice said.
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What actually threatens American workers?\n\u274c Anti-union, anti-worker propaganda like this\n\ud83d\udcb0 Corps that put profits over people\n\u26d1\ufe0f Safety standards not being met\n\n@GovAbbott & @GovernorKayIvey sound more like corporate lobbyists than governors here. @UAW backs American workers!— (@)
The Economic Policy Institutesaid Wednesday that the governors' anti-union statement "clearly shows how scared they are that workers organizing with UAW to improve jobs and wages will upend the highly unequal, failed anti-worker economic development model of Southern states."
Responding to the statement on social media, the Congressional Labor Caucus declared that "we speak up when we see threats to workers' rights. Workers must be allowed to choose whether to form a union on their own—free from influence from their employers or politicians. Shame on these governors for putting out this anti-union propaganda."
After Ivey shared the statement on social media, Nina Turner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy, asked, "Better wages and working conditions are against the values of your state?"
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The UAW vote in Chattanooga, Tennessee is set to wrap up on Friday. Then, attention is expected to shift to Vance, Alabama. Workers at a nonunion Mercedes-Benz plant there submitted a petition to the National Labor Relations Board earlier this month requesting an election to join the union.
Noting Ivey's social media post about the statement, Diana Hussein, who does communications work for the UAW, said: "She's mad cuz she wants to keep the Alabama discount that leaves workers behind. No more! #StandUpUAW."
Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, also took aim at Ivey, saying, "You used Alabama taxpayers' money to have state troopers escort out-of-state scabs to break the strike of YOUR constituents."
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More Perfect Union told Ivey that "unions only threaten your values if you value denying workers a living wage and good benefits."
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