In Midst of Recession, Walker Gives Hundreds
of Working Families the Pink Slip
MADISON – “Pink Slip Scott” Walker today announced that he will be laying off hundreds of workers in Milwaukee County at a time when families are struggling through a national recession and need steady paychecks more than ever before.
The 230 pink slips will be handed out by Walker this year, along with wage and benefit cuts. Walker has already rejected 12,000 jobs for MilwaukeeCounty through his opposition to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, leaving precious few opportunities for finding new work in the county.
“By resorting to mass layoffs in the midst of a recession, Scott Walker earned himself a new nickname today: Pink Slip Scott,” said Joe Wineke, Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. “Rather than drawing up a comprehensive plan to solve his budget problems, Pink Slip Scott just stuck it to working families by slashing jobs, cutting paychecks and wiping out benefits.”
Yesterday, Walker’s first reaction to a new report outlining his county’s dire long-term financial future was to call for immediate cuts to salaries and benefits for county workers.
“Most workers are just happy to have jobs, even if there are changes in the wage and benefit structure,” Walker told a reporter yesterday. (Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 3.24.09)
Now it appears that wasn’t enough for Walker. Today, rather than coming up with a real plan, Pink Slip Scott announced that he will put the full burden on the backs of working families, by slashing an additional 230 jobs.
The workers Walker will lay off won’t be able to expect much help finding jobs from the remaining county staffers, either. Walker has banned county staff from working with the state Office of Recovery and Reinvestment on any efforts to create jobs to MilwaukeeCounty through the Recovery Act. Walker has even threatened to sue his own county board if it accepts MilwaukeeCounty’s share of the Recovery Act job creation funds.
“Unfortunately hundreds of families in MilwaukeeCounty will have to feel the pain from Walker’s layoffs,” said Wineke. “It is sad that their leader is so unbelievably out-of-touch.”
