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December 22, 2011 at 9:31 PM UTC

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This article is part of the December 26, 2011 issue of businessweek.

Marty Beil
Executive Director,
Wisconsin State Employees Union
Beil, 65, is leading an effort to recall Governor Scott Walker, who signed a law curtailing bargaining rights for state workers.

We’re in the middle of a drive to recall the governor. We have 60 days to basically get 575,000 petitions signed. We are going to every nook and cranny around the state. To meetings, to Green Bay Packers games. On Black Friday, at shopping centers, we were there. As of yesterday [Dec. 6] we had about 450,000 signatures. We’re signing up about 20,000 people a day. It shows how deep the feeling of angst is.

This year has been a huge challenge for us. We saw our collective bargaining rights being taken away by our governor. What’s been interesting is that though it’s not been the best of times, our membership has really coalesced around this. We’ve seen a renewed sense of militancy amongst our members.