Politics

UPDATE: GOP Will Be Allowed to March in Wausau Parade After Labor Groups Lift Attempted Ban

GOP Will Be Allowed to March in WI Labor Day Parade After Labor Groups Lift Ban

The Blaze has reported closely on what has been brewing in Wausau, Wisconsin between local labor groups, Republicans, and the Labor Day Parade. To make a long story short, the President of the local county labor council that is organizing the parade came out earlier this week saying that he planned to bar Republicans from participating in Wasau’s family-friendly yearly Labor Day event. Marathon County Labor Council President Randy Radtke said that because of the GOP’s position in the public sector employee collective-bargaining reform that has gone on in Wisconsin over the past year, he planned to ban them from the parade. At one point the labor council president even said that Labor Day is about honoring hard-working people and, in his opinion, “Republicans don’t represent those values.”

When news of the GOP-ban surfaced, Wasau’s Mayor Jim Tipple delivered an ultimatum to the local labor council, saying:

“The banning of a political party from participation at any event co-sponsored by the City is against public policy and not in the best interest of all the citizens of the City of Wausau. And therefore, we encourage the event organizer to invite all interested parties, or reimburse the city for other costs.”

The Wausau Daily Herald reports today that the labor council has budged and that the ban has been lifted:

“In an email statement issued shortly before midnight, Marathon County Labor Council President Randy Radtke said everyone will be permitted to march in the parade ‘because we don’t want to have community groups and school bands affected.’

‘We didn’t start this fight in Wisconsin, but were responding to anti-worker positions and policies supported by local Republican politicians, including those who have complained about not being invited,’ Radtke’s statement read. ‘With the track records that Pam Galloway, Sean Duffy, Scott Walker, and Jerry Petrowski have all put together this year, they should be ashamed to even show their faces at a Labor Day parade.’”

Not exactly a call for both sides to join hands and sing Kumbaya. But between death threats, protesters marching into the capital, and Democratic senators skipping town to avoid voting, the backhanded admission should be no surprise in a dispute between Big Labor and Republicans that has been both contentious and unconventional.

Comments (66)

1 2
  • ripvanwinkle
    Posted on September 1, 2011 at 1:36am

    Dear Mr. Radke:
    With all due respect, your stereotyping is wrong, and the union argument consistently avoids the core issue. Specifically, after decades of irresponsible stewardship of public money, the social safety net has run out of people to stick it to. Society is a fragile thing so pay attention as you help push it over the precipice. Afterwards, go back to basics and ask yourself a fundamental question: Where do jobs come from?

    Report Post » ripvanwinkle  
    • Jaycen
      Posted on September 1, 2011 at 2:04am

      C’mon, Rip. You know that jobs are created via government stimulus such as Food Stamps and direct Welfare payments.

      Obviously, doing it any other way was an abject failure for the first 160 years in our country’s current form (1779 – 1939).

      Report Post » Jaycen  
    • biohazard23
      Posted on September 1, 2011 at 5:19am

      Jaycen, you forgot to add unemployment checks to that list.

      Report Post » biohazard23  
    • NHwinter
      Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:52am

      They are corrupting the meaning of Labor Day. Do union thugs think they are the only ones who work in America? Who do they think pays for their health care, retirement? We the working tax payers. Americans are sick of these lying, bully thugs.

      Report Post » NHwinter  
    • smithclar3nc3
      Posted on September 1, 2011 at 8:05am

      Republican want RIGHT TO WORK STATES and the Democrats THINK PEOPLE SHOULD BE FORCED TO PAY UNION DUE TO GET JOBS(basicly pay to work)

      SO WHO SHOULD BE ASHAMED AGAIN?

      Report Post »  
    • JRook
      Posted on September 1, 2011 at 10:09am

      Well if your implying they come from the wealthy you are incorrect. Jobs come from demand. Demand comes from a large group of individuals who have money to purchase things they need. The wealthy along with banks, mutual funds, pension plans, etc. invest in companies so that can expand to meet the demand. The notion that rich people sit around and decide I’m gonna create a few jobs today is nonsense. If they are reasonably intelligent they do it because there is a substantial market for the product or service for them to make an adequate ROI. As real wages continue to decrease in the US, relative demand will go down. The reason QE1, QE2 and QEn have produced limited inflation is that we would otherwise be in a deflationary cycle which is much much worse. Case in point is that my son was paid the same amount in his summer job last year that I was paid over 30 years ago. The shipment of jobs overseas was not caused by unions, as it has occurred in countless companies that were non union. Don’t tell me unions are responsible for declines in real wages. Do you really think that workers in the US should be paid $2 an hour or for that matter the minimum wage, which is barely a living wage in the US. The problem with the world economy overall is that workers in China and similar countries are paid so low they can’t afford to buy much beyond food. As such they do not add to global demand and certainly cannot buy anything from the US.

      Report Post »  
    • 13th Imam
      Posted on September 1, 2011 at 10:20am

      JCROOK the blame America first dork is at it again.. The ROI he/she/it speaks about is confiscated by the DEMOCRAT thieves, and doled out to their union buddies, for eventual donation to BARRY“S ”Screw America Reelection Bus Tour”.

      Report Post » 13th Imam  
    • oneshiner
      Posted on September 1, 2011 at 10:41am

      These Unions remind me very much like the Congressional Black Caucus, all liars, hateful, mean spirited, and trouble makers. If anyone should be ashamed, it should be members of Unions who condone this sort of treatment to Americans.

      The naughty blacks in congress and the Satanic Unions should all be ashamed of what they’re doing to this Country, trying to split us apart…….and for what reason? To gain power, to make us all into the likes of communism? That way they can and want to control every move we make.
      Guys, pray for God to see all this corruption and ask for redemption from these communists regimes
      if we want to have and keep our freedom. These people want to take freedom away from us.

      Report Post »  
    • JRook
      Posted on September 1, 2011 at 11:47am

      @13th Imam That’s it that is your intelligent contribution. Sir you don‘t even know what you don’t know. I believe that medication or shock therapy may address your anger issues. As far as the ignorance, well you have shown that is a chronic, lifelong issue.

      Report Post »  
    • Wilbur D Pig
      Posted on September 1, 2011 at 12:23pm

      @Jrook– Jobs come from demand? Or demand comes from having disposable income? It’s the chicken and the egg. It all comes from having a free market! Sure, Richy Rich doesn’t say, “I want to create jobs today.” He says, “I want to make money today.” Is that bad? The union thugs say the same thing. Otherwise they would be for more jobs over having higher wages and more benefits. It all comes down to working in our own self interest. I work because I like to eat. Anything more is just icing so that I can buy things that help other people to eat.

      I don’t know how people can deny the invisible hand theory after nearly 250 years. If I want a living wage, I will learn a trade. Minimum wage was never meant to feed a family of six! For me to demand that I be paid as much as a master craftsman, means that I have to have that level of skill. If I have it and don’t get paid for it, then I go to my boss’s competitor for it. You seem to pontificate over the reasons, but in this economy it boils down to this. The boss knows times are rough so he knows his workforce is secure. Expanding in in an atmosphere of political uncertainty (Obama’s regulatory morass) is an irresponsible risk for any CEO. Until the politicians stop squawking about “taxing them out of business” (H/T Maxine Water) companies will not release their capital.

      Are you gonna say I need meds or treatment too? Will that be your intelligent contribution?

      Report Post » Wilbur D Pig  
  • Rayblue
    Posted on September 1, 2011 at 12:42am

    The camaraderie of a dangerous profession. We’re considered dangerous by a lot of people.
    Do you understand what that means ? It’s a sign of a shuddering respect from those who wish they were really deadly serious. Which they aren’t. It’s just a show to them.
    It’s life in the fastest lane on the narrowest road through the darkest night of the world. And we’re in the biggest car, listening to the best tunes and heading for the brightest morning this planet has to offer. So don’t stop, Don’t even slow down around the curves. The roadblock can’t stop us. We’re moving too fast now. We’ll be remembered by our progeny for centuries. But only if we strip the gears and stomp the gas.
    The camaraderie of a dangerous profession. We always were the professionals.

    Report Post » Rayblue  
    • The10thAmendment
      Posted on September 1, 2011 at 1:09am

      The Union workers are the ones who should be ashamed. Overpaid, underworked, turn out garbage products, and still beg for more. Screw the Unions the way they have screwed America.

      Report Post » The10thAmendment  
    • Jaycen
      Posted on September 1, 2011 at 2:06am

      Great remarks, Rayblue!

      I love this quote by Leonardo da Vinci – Obstacles cannot crush me; every obstacle yields to Stern Resolve.

      Report Post » Jaycen  
    • the hawk
      Posted on September 1, 2011 at 2:40am

      I’d go and walk with them , except for my kids! might even go walk with them anyway ! Think I will! put a bat in my wan ! with a baseball glove of corse !

      Report Post »  
  • Boola519
    Posted on September 1, 2011 at 12:36am

    our Wis cousins and families, all union tradesmen and republicans, are not attending that parade now, and are keeping their hard-earned take-the-family-go-have-fun dollars in their own Wis town. and from what we heard, a LOT of their buddies feel the same way. obama’s democrats and communists have made the word “union” the same as saying you have dogdoo on your shoes.

    Report Post »  
    • loriann12
      Posted on September 1, 2011 at 6:54am

      I guess they didn‘t want to reimburse the city for what they’re cost-sharing. Goes to show it’s all about money. If they really didn’t want Republicans to attend, they would just reimburse the city and have the parade for the unions only. Labor Union bosses are in it for the money. I remember back in the early 90′s there was a union leader who put an ad out for someone to start his car every morning. Paid really good money, and that’s all they had to do, start the car. Makes one wonder, huh?

      Report Post »  
  • JQCitizen
    Posted on September 1, 2011 at 12:23am

    Radtke:

    THEY are not anti-worker, YOU are. I have a friend whose son worked in a Union shop for three years, and said in all his time there he could never get the connection how “Labor” and “Union” fit together.

    Good one, Michael; My opinion exactly.

    Report Post »  
  • jsDway
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:56pm

    I am 62 years old and never new that Labor Day was just for the unions! I thought anyone with a job was a laborer – who in the HELL do the unions think they are. I believe that they are only 13% of the work force, and I believe they need to be dismantled! Unions are just a place where the democrat party gets their campaign money, the stimulus money that Obama has been handing out is being funneled through the unions back to the democrat coffers! The few jobs that have been produced with the stimulus money have cost many, many thousands of $ per job.

    Report Post »  
    • Chuck Biscuits
      Posted on September 1, 2011 at 12:14am

      I make it a poiqnt to always work on labor day. Just another Monday to me.

      Report Post »  
    • Boola519
      Posted on September 1, 2011 at 12:38am

      right, just another Monday. we don’t work, we don’t get paid. we work and pay our bills and we can feed our families ourselves, there’s no slavery hand-outs from the democrat plantation here. and we’re PROUD to labor for what we EARN.

      Report Post »  
    • RepubliCorp
      Posted on September 1, 2011 at 12:43am

      Why wouldn’t they think this way? Did tax dollars ever bailout non-union jobs? Not that I know of….

      Report Post » RepubliCorp  
  • ericthebarbaric
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:48pm

    Watch for the union thugs to intimidate and provoke a fight. The media thugs will show a Tea Partyer retaliating and deflect the truth once again.

    Report Post »  
    • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
      Posted on September 1, 2011 at 12:01am

      Of course they will, and in the case of a Tea Partier going on the offensive, they will claim one of their own provocators as being a “tea party terrorist” if they cannot provoke a response from one. They want to have a violent reaction, even if one has to be engineered. I hope the members of the tea party and conservatives there have plenty of cameras to capture anything that does start up.

      Hopefully though, no incidents will happen. That would be the best occurance, none happening, for all sides.

      Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
    • Any_One_But_Obama
      Posted on September 1, 2011 at 1:02am

      WHAT THE UNIONS/DEMOCRATS WERE TRYING TO DO REMINDS ME OF OBAMA’S CHANGE CAMPAIGN…

      He being the most partisan president I remember, has broughten change to the US Govt. They try to take our freedoms from us and take away our options. They take away our desires to succeed and reward those who do nothing. This is Change Obama Believes in but not me. Krauthammer was right about Obama’s change not being good for our nation: http://www.americanparchment.com/video/2011/aug/krauthammer_change_america.html

      Report Post » Any_One_But_Obama  
  • Lord_Frostwind
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:45pm

    Moral of the story, always remember who controls the purse strings before you get on your pedestal.

    Report Post » Lord_Frostwind  
  • KZnextzone
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:45pm

    Please get out there and do it. I would suggest just picking up trash behind the union marchers. I would be there if I wasn’t 1500 miles away, but trust me I march for you here in Southern California.

    Report Post » KZnextzone  
  • shimauma
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:41pm

    “At one point the labor council president (LIBTURD)even said that Labor Day is about honoring hard-working people” These libturd union folks amaze me how they think they have any inkling of labor day. The hardest working folks I ever knew never belonged to any union!!

    Report Post » shimauma  
  • libertydoc
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:36pm

    How old and sickening this line of dialog is becoming. So if your a Republican (or tea party) you are anti labor? No it simply means that you do not support the progressive marxist polices of the big labor organizations or the democratic pary politicians they buy. I am conservative and I labor every day. Yet these people have supported the massive progressive growth of government. they use their manditory collective bargaining power to confiscate wealth form there own workers to foster their own greed and power. They have destroyed American manufacturing. I labor everyday and both the state and the fed reach into my poket to confiscate and redistribute my wealth. I watched the video from Wisconsin and it was sickening. I am a Doctor and I watched the leftist thugs from the the U of W medical school commit fraud by writing bogus medical exuses for absent teachers. These are the same handful of quacks that Obama put out in their white coats to sham Americans into accepting the tyrrany and fraud of Obamacare. I would have loved to have gone to Madison and screamed out my support of Scott Walker. Thank you for making a stand Mr. Governor, I wish more you your party was willing to fight. The rest of us MDs had to go to work and take care of patients. Where is my voice for collective bargaining? Oh thatstright, It’s called TEA!!! You communist goons will not silcence this voice!!

    Report Post »  
    • rghtwngcrzy
      Posted on September 1, 2011 at 12:09am

      Well said, Doctor.

      Report Post » rghtwngcrzy  
    • The10thAmendment
      Posted on September 1, 2011 at 1:32am

      @LibertyDoc

      I didn’t make it to Madison, but I did make it to Columbus, Ohio and East Lansing Michigan in the “labor” disputes. The most hilarious idiots at BOTH places we the same commy pinko’s from Code Pink and the newly formed SDS. In Columbus a group of Panthers was there also and you know the Panthers, always “non- violent”. They didn’t have a clue how to respond to 200 members of the Young Black Conservatives, and the Constitution Party standing in front of them and talking over their vitriol. There were former Football players, 2 former World Champion Fighters and some of the meanest rascals the inner cities ever produced, just smiling at them politely and asking them to move along back to the plantation of Uncle Sam’s racist welfare checks and food stamps.

      Not angry, just no longer silent, and especially no longer willing to be herded like sheep by the hate filled liberal slave trade.

      Report Post » The10thAmendment  
  • PauletteW
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:36pm

    I didn’t know that union leaders had that kind of power. One more reason they should be reigned in.

    Report Post » PauletteW  
  • PeachyinGA
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:35pm

    Big deal. They ought to slap together a MOON OVER WAUSAW float if you get my drift.

    Report Post » PeachyinGA  
  • dontbotherme
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:33pm

    I’m proud of the Mayor for standing up to the thug unions. I worry about the republicans safety.

    Report Post »  
  • Mateytwo Barreett
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:25pm

    We;;, well as luck would have it!! There will be a little extra “security” in Wausau that very day. Look fer the suthin labil. . .

    Report Post » Mateytwo Barreett  
  • Okie from Muskogee
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:21pm

    Is the Blaze going to delete this article after we all start posting on it like as was done on the Allen West sending letter to CBC? How dumb! 

    Report Post » Okie from Muskogee  
    • macpappy
      Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:32pm

      It was not deleted, but moved back due to other stories headlining.
      At the bottom of home page is a link to “Older Stories” West story is about 3 down.

      Report Post » macpappy  
  • I.Gaspar
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:20pm

    If I were this guy, I’d be ashamed to take my face out of the bag.

    Report Post »  
  • Mateytwo Barreett
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:19pm

    Whodda Thunk?!?! The hair(less)ball that started all the crap has a name of Radke!!!!! Got some concerns about the kinfolk and kiddies, allusudden! Or did they just spend the family fortune on the recall election? You didn’t start the fight? Damn! it’s fun to listen to (or read, as the case may be) how the thug types try to walk stuff back!
    Now, if it were I. . .being a conservative, it would seem some private“security” would be in order. Goons don’t like being called out. Remember a few months ago…….

    Report Post » Mateytwo Barreett  
  • 1casawizard
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:17pm

    The people of the U.S. appreciate Wausau’s Mayor Jim Tipple for standing up against heavyhanded tactics, trying to influence a Labor Day Parade. Thank You, Jim

    Report Post » 1casawizard  
  • Whirled Peas
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:15pm

    Yeah yeah yeah… close enough to a double post…. So sue me for wasting electrons!

    Report Post » Whirled Peas  
  • Whirled Peas
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:14pm

    The time for pandering to spoiled petulant children in ‘tantrum mode’ is LONG past due. “You can’t march in my parade!” is a sorry excuse for acting like an adult. Then again, we ARE talking about bed wetting lib/progs with superiority complexes.

    Report Post » Whirled Peas  
  • ronaldg261
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:13pm

    Read Ann Coulter’s Demonic. She explains Wisconsin and every other mob.

    Report Post »  
  • NuffSaid
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:13pm

    Destroy all public employee unions. You are weak and you are pimps. You talk a good fight but if the fight is going to happen in the daylight, you cower like rats and frightened women.Public union leaders and members are whores and will take money from anyone.

    You have NO RIGHT TO WORK. Being an employee is a privilege that UNION members have not earned.

    Report Post »  
  • Patriot Z
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:08pm

    “Labor Day is about honoring hard-working people and, in his opinion, “Republicans don’t represent those values.””

    yeah cuz thoes evil repubs wanted thoes hard working people to keep the money they work for instead of giving it to lazy azz union officials. how dare walker not tax everyone to death and ask unions to make reasonable concessions that have been more than proven to help the entire state. why limited taxes and free markets is just plain un-american.

    Report Post » Patriot Z  
    • Deb C
      Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:45pm

      Just because I never smoked pot in my car & drank alcohol out of a brown paper bag on my lunch hour – and have it reported on TV – guess I’m not labor union material

      Report Post » Deb C  
  • Whirled Peas
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:08pm

    Lib/progs are nothing more than petulant children when they don’t get their way. They seem to think tantrums will STILL get them adult attention and deference just to shut them up. That game should have been over LONG ago!!

    Report Post » Whirled Peas  
  • mikenleeds
    Posted on August 31, 2011 at 11:06pm

    Union thugs should be ashamed of showing up at all ..
    g.o.p. will be loud and proud for standing up to union thugs

    Report Post » mikenleeds  
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