Like navigating our city’s ever-shrinking public transit system, keeping up with Milwaukee’s media cycle can be an unreasonably arduous journey. Most working class people don’t have time to peruse the dailies daily, and so many important stories quickly fall to the wayside if one doesn’t pay close enough attention. That’s why we at the Leader traverse the local news each week, stop at the stories that didn’t get enough attention, and present you with a tidy summary to keep you in the know. This week features the ongoing shared revenue debacle, direct anti-cop action, do-nothing pontificating from our mayor, a bigotry update on Christian voucher schools and anti-abortion zealots, more reasons why the working class can’t afford to buy a house, and a fitting memorial. We’ll start with this week’s stop story: upheaval at Master Lock.
“Like a Death in the Family” – Master Lock to Flee Milwaukee, Upend Lives of Its Union Workers
After 100 years in our fair city, Master Lock announced plans this week to shut down its Milwaukee plant. Master Lock’s corporate overlords told the plant workers, unionized with UAW 469, that the plant would shut down in March 2024 and production would move to other “North American and global manufacturing operations as well as external suppliers.”
Master Lock has an assembly facility in Nogales, Mexico, as a likely destination to offload their labor onto the backs of a cheaper and more pliable (read: not unionized) working class. Master Lock opened their Mexico plant in 1997 and has shipped 700 jobs there over the years. Beyond offshoring jobs to save money on labor, this is a deliberate tactic by Master Lock to pit Mexican and American workers against each other.
In protest, United Auto Workers (UAW) Region 4 organized a rally on Wednesday at Master Lock’s 32nd Street plant. The union’s pushback drew support from a wide variety of labor groups, socialist and progressive organizations, and state and local officials. The rally included speeches from incoming UAW 469 president Yolanda Nathan, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, Milwaukee County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson, president of the state AFL-CIO Stephanie Bloomingdale, UAW director Brandon Campbell, former Lieutenant Gov. Mandela Barnes, and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.
Protesters struck a tone of outrage. Thanks to capitalism, Master Lock has long been the lifeblood of so many people in the area. Attendees emphasized the fact that hundreds of workers depend on the Master Lock to pay their bills, and those same workers generated the company’s profits for over 100 years. Now, they’re worried about their future. “I’m 60 years old. I can’t go out here and compete with the 20 year olds, trying to find a new job … [my coworkers] come here every day to give all they can Master Lock,” said Lorraine Baker, a protester and Master Lock employee. “If Master Lock moves, it’s almost like a death in the family to me,” said another protester.
Workers also expressed a determination to not let the parent company of Master Lock, Fortune Brands, shut the plant down. “We’re extremely disappointed that somebody from somewhere else can make a decision and make [the plant] just go away,” said Mike Bink, Outgoing President at UAW 469.
Now comes the hard work of putting those words into action. If the Master Lock workers are to succeed, it won’t be just because of what these leaders do, but what we do as well. We need collective action. (CBS 58)
Shared Revenue Update: State Republicans Still Want to Destroy Milwaukee
Tone Madison published a handy guide on Wednesday that illustrates just how much the GOP hatred of Milwaukee seeps into the shared revenue debate. The derision is nothing new; for many years now, Milwaukee has received less than it deserves from the state budget. During a May 17 Assembly hearing, Rep. Darrin Madison (D-Milwaukee) pointed out the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County have contributed $400 million over the last decade and received only $0.27 out of every dollar in return.
Not surprisingly, the GOP-led State Legislature holds the same attitude towards mid-size and large cities statewide. In the 1980s, shared revenue covered one-third of local spending. Now, it’s only 11%. Republican lawmakers are only acting now because this erosion is finally reaching their small town base. Their solution? Give communities of 5,000 or fewer residents a 1,000% increase in shared revenue, while larger municipalities would receive only marginal gains. Keep their constituents happy while the rest of the state crumbles.
As it currently stands, the shared revenue bill contains a laundry list of odious stipulations that are just for Milwaukee:
- The city and county would not be able to approve new expenditures without a two-thirds vote from the city council or county board.
- Contributions to nonprofits and arts organizations capped at 5%.
- Mandatory police at Milwaukee Public Schools.
- No Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) positions.
- No tax levy spending on Milwaukee’s streetcar.
- Strips oversight power from the Fire and Police Commission.
Republican leaders are so blinded by hate and limited by ignorance that they fail to see how crushing Milwaukee will soon crush their towns as well. How do they plan to recover after they successfully annihilate the biggest driver of the state’s economy? (Tone Madison)
Milwaukee’s Cop Car Bandit Strikes Again
Now for a bit of a palate cleanser — in one of the more fun police-related stories you’ll read for a while, a man who is currently awaiting trial for stealing a squad car has been arrested again … for stealing another squad car.
The suspect (or hero, depending on your point of view), 34-year-old Daniel Barton, was first apprehended last December near Richards and Burleigh Streets after an officer reported that Barton stole his car during a traffic stop.
Facing one charge of misdemeanor car theft, Barton decided to commit to the bit and commandeer another cop car on Tuesday, this time on Capitol Drive in Shorewood. Dash cameras caught Barton “giggling as he drove off,” and he was eventually found hiding in a trash can.
Shorewood Police Chief Heather Wurth said Wednesday they are “conducting a review of our practices” in the wake of the theft. Considering Shorewood’s over $7 million budget allotted for “public safety,” Wurth et al certainly have a hoard of funds to help them get their shit together. (WISN 12).
Mayor Cavalier Johnson Calls Milwaukee a “War Zone”
During a cozy get-together at the Rotary Club of Milwaukee on Tuesday, Mayor Cavalier Johnson described an audio recording he had recently heard capturing an outbreak of gun violence in Milwaukee, likening the city to a “war zone.” The audio recorded 25 rounds shot in just six seconds on May 6 just south of Historic Mitchell Street. It was recorded by Shotspotter, a gunshot detection technology that alerts cops to gun violence.
Why is there so much gun violence in Milwaukee (or in America, for that matter)? Johnson seems completely befuddled. “I don’t understand a couple of things: Why people think it’s OK to go and shoot guns off like that, either in the air or towards other people in a densely populated city,” Johnson told the Journal Sentinel. “I don’t understand the rationale behind that.”
It seems that Johnson has forgotten that he’s the mayor, which is a great person to be if you actually want to help change the status quo and not just bloviate. You know what could help bring about a more civilized atmosphere? Fewer nights out, fewer private flights funded by Republican gun nuts, and more governing. Enact some gun control laws already. (Journal Sentinel).
Publicly Funded Voucher Schools Target LGBTQ+ Students
Voucher programs serve about 52,000 students across Wisconsin. 95% of the participating schools are religious, and many of them are of that particular strain of Christianity that often traumatizes its LGBTQ+ students.
There is no state law protecting LGBTQ+ students from discrimination once enrolled in a voucher school. And the federal Title IX law exempts religious institutions from complying with the anti-discrimination law if it runs counter to their religious beliefs.
This leaves religious voucher schools like Sheboygan Lutheran High School, whose current handbook dedicates over 1,000 words to a policy that uses Biblical teachings as the basis for its hateful policies, free to discipline or even expel gay or transgender students for expressing their gender identity or their sexual orientation. A Wisconsin Watch investigation has found that many voucher schools have policies that allow such treatment.
“If I was a kid with gender dysphoria, or even, like, questioning how people refer to me using my pronouns or if I wanted to use a different name and I read this, if this was what the school provided to me, that would have been extremely traumatic,” said Nat Werth, a Sheboygan Lutheran graduate. (Wisconsin Watch).
Confused about Wisconsin’s Abortion Laws? Republicans Want to Make it Very Clear
Quick reminder for anyone out there with a uterus — Republicans are still actively trying to remove your bodily autonomy. Republican state lawmakers introduced a group of bills Tuesday to clarify Wisconsin’s archaic jurisprudence on abortion. They aim to keep the 174-year-old anti-abortion law in place, with a modifier that allows for cesarean sections, the removal of a miscarriage, or an ectopic pregnancy, where the fertilized egg implants somewhere outside of the uterus and will not result in a birth. How generous!
Republicans also want to grant $1 million to Choose Life Wisconsin, Inc., an anti-abortion group that runs many of the state’s morally reprehensible and duplicitous “pregnancy resource centers.”
For his part, Gov. Tony Evers said he will veto any anti-abortion bill that comes across his desk. He also intends to restore abortion rights for pregnant people up to 20 weeks of pregnancy as well as exceptions for victims of rape and incest, which is about the best you can expect from Tony. (WPR)
Milwaukee’s Spiraling Foreclosure Crisis
Did the Great Recession of 2008 ever really end? Milwaukee’s working class is still reeling from its effects 15 years later, according to new data on home foreclosures in the city. From 1995 to 2006, Milwaukee saw an average of 800 home foreclosures a year. Then, in 2007, there were over 1,300 foreclosures. That jumped again to almost 2,500 in 2008. During the decade of 2007-2016, records show a total of 21,500 foreclosures.
The pandemic, with its sharp increase in home values, saw foreclosures drop to their lowest levels since at least 1995; records indicate 351 foreclosed homes in 2020, 393 in 2021, and 434 in 2022. Foreclosures by lenders have declined in recent years likely because rising home values mean that a homeowner struggling to make their mortgage payment can often avoid foreclosure by selling their house for a profit.
The cumulative effects after a decade of unrelentingly high foreclosure rates are staggering. Citywide, 14% of all houses experienced at least one foreclosure from 2007 to 2016. In Sherman Park and Washington Park, more than three out of every 10 houses were foreclosed on. Predictably, real estate vultures have been swooping in and making a killing on foreclosed homes. Since about 2018, several corporate landlords with private equity backing have bought up properties left and right, effectively taking over these neighborhoods. (Urban Milwaukee)
For Another Year, Satan Declines to Call Henry Kissinger Home
Prince of Darkness Satan has declined once again this year to exercise his option to call down Henry Kissinger, who turned 100 on May 27, to Hell. Kissinger, the author of or accomplice in such atrocities as the bombings of Laos and Cambodia during the Vietnam War, genocide in East Timor, and the military coup against Salvador Allende in Chile. He has worked hard all his adult life to earn his place at the right hand of the Fallen One, but the Dark Lord seems unmoved. When reached for comment, Satan said, “Meh. What has he done for me lately?” (The Guardian)
