December 2015

For Milwaukee, it’s a tale of black and white, a city so marred by segregation; it affects every part of life

“You’ve got 40% of the population is poor, you’ve got very high rates of joblessness, in some of those neighborhoods well over 50%, of the working age population not working and on top of that you have the high concentration of high segregation.” University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Professor and Director for UWM’s Center for Economic Development Marc Levine said.

Two weeks after voting to strike and two days after Thanksgiving, members of Auto Workers (UAW) Local 833 are staffing picket lines round the clock near the Kohler plant in the Wisconsin village that bears its name. It’s 35 degrees outside and sunny—in fact, almost balmy compared to what it will be when the Wisconsin winter sets in. While hopeful that the strike won’t last that long, UAW members are nonetheless prepared to tough it out.