LAS VEGAS -- Hundreds of Nevada union members are holding rallies in Las Vegas and Carson City to show their support for union workers in Wisconsin who are fighting to keep their collective bargaining rights.
The union members gathered just before noon on Monday at the Grant Sawyer Building in downtown Las Vegas. Union members say what is happening in Wisconsin could have far reaching implications. The governor in Wisconsin wants to do away with collective bargaining for public employees to save the state money.
"I see it as protecting our way of life. When they can do away with your collective bargaining then they can do away with anything. It's union wages that set the bar for everything else if you can knock the union pay down to $8 an hour, that means everybody is going to make $8 an hour," said Mike Sherman, electrician.
Sherman is a traveling electrician from Florida who does work in Las Vegas and is a member of the electricians union. He says he showed up at the rally to support his union brothers and sisters.
"An America without union is an America with the super rich and super poor. Unions built the middle class and this is nothing more than an all out attack on the middle class to help Wall Street," said Dave Peter, SEIU Local 1107.
In recent days, thousands of people in Wisconsin have protested a bill that would take away collective bargaining rights. Some Wisconsin lawmakers have argued that union workers are overpaid and partly to blame for their state's budget crisis.
Nevada Assemblyman Mark Sherwood of Henderson says unions have too much power and they are merely middle men that create added expense and don't help members as much as they people think.
