{"id":137,"date":"2011-03-01T19:27:17","date_gmt":"2011-03-02T01:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/?p=137"},"modified":"2011-12-05T22:54:39","modified_gmt":"2011-12-06T04:54:39","slug":"family-farms-and-unions-wisconsin-farmers-on-collective-bargaining-as-a-farming-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/?p=137","title":{"rendered":"Family Farms and Unions: Wisconsin Farmers on Collective Bargaining as a Farming Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some farmers are supporting union workers in Madison, WI who oppose a state bill that would cut collective bargaining for government employees.<\/p>\n<p>Here is FFD board member and organic dairy farmer, Jim Goodman, speaking at a rally at the WI State Capitol on March 5th about why farmers and workers are in the same fight.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"March 5, 2011- Jim Goodman of Family Farm Defenders speaks at anti-Walker rally in Madison\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Px0WvNOKhio?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And here is an article discussing the same issue, featuring another WI dairy farmer and FFD vice president, Joel Greeno:<\/p>\n<p>By <a href=\"http:\/\/colesville.patch.com\/users\/beth-borzone\">Beth Borzone<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Farm Fresh &#8211; Colesville Patch (Silver Spring, MD) 2\/25\/11<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><noscript><br \/>\n<a\nhref='http:\/\/adserver.adtechus.com\/adlink\/3.0\/5305.1\/1648780\/0\/-1\/ADTECH;grp=[group];alias=ox-colesville-slot7;size=300x120;target=_blank;loc=300;key=opinion+collectivebargaining+farmers+unionworkers+wisconsin'\ntarget='_blank'><br \/>\n<img border='0' height='120'\nsrc='http:\/\/adserver.adtechus.com\/adserv\/3.0\/5305.1\/1648780\/0\/-1\/ADTECH;grp=[group];alias=ox-colesville-slot7;size=300x120;target=_blank;loc=300;key=opinion+collectivebargaining+farmers+unionworkers+wisconsin'\nwidth='300' \/><br \/>\n<\/a><br \/>\n<\/noscript><\/div>\n<div>Five or six times a year Joel Greeno takes out his 1935 Allis Chalmers WC tractor to offer tractor rides in his Wisonsin community.<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe have a potluck dinner and go for a 35 to 40-mile tractor ride, come back and eat the leftovers, and then go back home and do chores,\u201d Greeno describes, explaining that it\u2019s a chance to enjoy life, have a good time with friends and get away from everything. \u00a0Now, he\u2019s hoping to use his tractor on Saturday in a tractorcade of protests in Madison, WI.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe applied for a police permit to take my tractor down and parade it around the capitol in support of the workers, but I haven\u2019t heard back if they granted our permit or not, so we\u2019ll see. \u00a0So if I don\u2019t get that, I may just go down Saturday and partake in events.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Greeno is a dairy farmer and Vice President of Family Farm Defenders,\u00a0a Wisconsin organization that has been working to support union members demonstrating in Madison.<\/p>\n<p>Demonstrators are challenging a bill in the Wisconsin state legislature that would end collective bargaining for public employees. The bill <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.aolnews.com\/2011\/02\/25\/wisconsin-assembly-passes-bill-taking-away-union-rights\/\">passed the Assembly<\/a> on Friday and is moving towards the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>Greeno and other family farmers in his organization fear that the bill affecting the union workers will also hurt them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis issue of collective bargaining rights hits a little bit close to home,\u201d Greeno explained. \u201cI founded a dairy co-op here in Wisconsin 12 years ago called Scenic Central Milk Producers. And that\u2019s grown from the smallest co-op in the U.S. to the 40th largest in the U.S. now.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Collective bargaining rights are the principles that all of our co-ops operate on. \u00a0And if they start eroding collective bargaining rights for workers, farmers in co-ops are just next on the chopping block, so if we don\u2019t stand together and defend our rights, we all going to take cuts in turn.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Greeno is also concerned that the bill could make it harder for family farmers to get healthcare.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the things that\u2019s involved in this bill 1318 is that it would give the governor and the Department of Health full authority at will to make decisions on Medicaid and the Wisconsin Badger Care program,\u201d Greeno said. \u201cIt would be one thing if they had good intentions, but their intentions are to cut those programs to bare bones. \u00a0Many of our state\u2019s farmers\u2019 only health care is the badger care because they can\u2019t afford anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>John E. Peck, executive director of Family Farm Defenders, agrees. \u00a0\u201cOne of the reasons the farmers are concerned is that it also affects our badger care which is our state Medicare\/Medicaid program. \u00a0A lot of farmers have no healthcare except what they can get from these taxpayer-subsidized programs. \u00a0That\u2019s been a big deal for a lot of farmers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Peck is also concerned that the bill could hurt farmers who participate in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs\u00a0in which members of the community buy shares in return for a percentage of the harvest. Many of the CSA members are teachers and public service workers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cConsumers won\u2019t be able to have as much money if their wages are cut,\u201d Peck said. \u201cThe recession is bad enough already. Why make it worse by taking away what few benefits and living wages that people do have thanks to the labor unions? \u00a0It doesn\u2019t make much sense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody deserves a living wage, not just a few people. \u00a0Farmers understand that because they are always at the bottom of the pile,\u201d Peck continued. \u00a0\u201cI think that\u2019s why they can empathize with the workers. It\u2019s just not fair. \u00a0It\u2019s a human rights issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In addition to Greeno\u2019s tractorcade, Farm Family Defenders has been supporting the demonstrators in Madison by bringing them food.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had one farmer who brought 10 gallons of milk fresh from his cows,\u201d Peck said, adding that he&#8217;s heard that people from around the country, even the world have been ordering pizzas on-line for the workers occupying the capital.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing in the capitol in Wisconsin right now is that people are organizing themselves, they\u2019re realizing that they can do things on their own. \u00a0You can do a lot of stuff on the local level,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some farmers are supporting union workers in Madison, WI who oppose a state bill that would cut collective bargaining for government employees. Here is FFD board member and organic dairy farmer, Jim Goodman, speaking at a rally at the WI &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/?p=137\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-foodsovereignty","category-workersrights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":574,"href":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions\/574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyfarmers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}