The Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are calling on the Milwaukee Common Council to overrule Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s veto of a 4% raise for city workers.
The mayor’s veto comes days after the Milwaukee Common Council—with the vocal support of DSA-endorsed Alderman Alex Brower—voted 13-1 to increase the raises in Mayor Johnson’s proposed budget, which initially only included a 2% pay increase for general city employees. Despite this overwhelming support for the 4% raise, the mayor used his veto pen Tuesday to drop the raises to 3%.
“Mayor Johnson’s letter regarding the veto asks if there is a ‘better way’ to incentivize residency, and we have one: pay a fair wage,” Ian Gunther, chief steward of American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 47 said. “Workers should not pay the price for City Hall’s failure to budget for the workforce that keeps Milwaukee running.”
Union officials with AFSCME, whose members work across multiple departments in the city of Milwaukee, said the 4% raise included in the amended budget was already a compromise of their initial demands.
“The residency tier was a concession, not our demand; we fought for a 6.5% raise for all,” Gunther said. “With inflation at 5.9% over the last two years, and no raise last year, cutting this back to 3% is effectively a pay cut.”
Milwaukee DSA is urging its membership to contact City Hall and tell officials there to support city workers with a 4% raise, overruling the mayor’s veto.
SEE MORE: Tell City Hall to Support City Workers
“Elected officials need to hear from regular people that they support the raises in the budget as amended by the Council, which raised wages by a total of 4%,” Brower, who represents District 3 on the Common Council, said.
Milwaukee DSA is Milwaukee’s largest socialist organization fighting for a democratic economy, a just society, and a sustainable environment. Join today at dsausa.org/join.