Rally to Defend Civil Service

press release: Join us on Saturday, June 17, to remind people of the benefits to the state of clean and capable government provided for over 100 years by Wisconsin’s strong civil service system. Bring the family by the farmer's market and gather to the tunes of Forward! Marching Band (invited).

Noon, State Street Corner of the Capitol Square

Keynote speaker: Matt Rothschild of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign

Civil Service is the system that requires state agencies to hire and promote the best qualified candidates for the job. Civil Service promotes clean government and stops cronyism & Corruption. Civil service is the alternative to the spoils system and patronage Jobs in the public sector. Wisconsin passed a civil service law in 1905. An early slogan of the system was “The Best Shall Serve the State”

It has been almost one year since the Wisconsin Act 150 made major changes to the civil service system including rescinding the requirement for civil service exams at the state level, changing the standard for disciplining or firing state employees, and dismantling other key elements of the civil service system. The full effect of these changes may not be visible yet, but they have weakened state agencies and the UW, and contributed to a climate where cronyism and corruption will take root.

Attacks on civil service have continued in Wisconsin since then. The proposed 2017-2019 state budget includes elimination of funding and positions at Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC), a key institution in the state's civil service system. The budget also eliminates 180 Dept. of Transportation engineering positions, shifting their work to private firm at an additional cost of millions more to taxpayers.

Recently at the federal level there have also been attempts to weaken unions and make it easier to terminate employees. President Trump tried to get the list of EPA employees who worked on climate issues which could have led to their ouster for political reasons, exactly what the Civil Service System is meant to prevent. The VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017 – called the VA Firing Bill by unions – was approved in the Senate June 6 and a similar bill has passed the House. This bill deals a blow to Civil Service at the VA and could signal a return to patronage and the spoils system and would allow private healthcare companies to capture more profit from veteran care.

We need to retain the basic, common sense agreement that is the Civil Service System. The alternative is rolling out a red carpet for patronage, corporate influence, and crony staffing in public agencies. We need to get back to a system that assures that “The best shall serve the state.”

Since 2011, a group of related anti-democratic policies have been implemented in Wisconsin including allowing dark money in elections, a restrictive voter ID law, so-called right-to-work, and the dismantling of the nonpartisan Government Accountability Board (GAB). Come out to celebrate Civil Service with us and call for a more democratic future.

Sponsored by the WI Coalition to Save Civil Service.

The Coalition to Save Civil Service includes the South Central Federation of Labor, AFSCME Council 32, American Federation of Teachers-Wisconsin (AFT-W), the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, the Association of Career Employees (ACE), Blue Jean Nation, AFT-W State Employee Council, Wisconsin Professional Employee Association, POWRS, NAACP-Dane County, Progressive Dane, AFSCME Locals 171 and 68, AFSCME Retirees Subchapter 52.