Cliff Willmeng is a father of two and a registered nurse living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is a working class environmentalist and an activist with rank and file labor struggles. Cliff’s work against the oil and gas industry made national headlines when his town of Lafayette, Colorado banned fracking through a democratic vote of the community in 2013. He has had a long history of organizing in many forms, and was among the hundreds of people arrested in the direct actions that took place in Seattle against the World Trade Organization in 1999. Following the actions in Seattle, Cliff cofounded the Chicago Direct Action Network, which fought for community efforts and helped organize further protests against the organizations global capitalism including the World Bank and the Trans Atlantic Business Dialogue. While he was in the United Brotherhood of Carpenters Local 1, his rank and file group, “Carpenters For A Rank And File Union”, succeeded in lowering the age of retirement for 34,000 Chicagoland union members. 

Edward Asher has been working in EMS in some capacity for 14 years.   Eddie has spent time as a Firefighter and EMT on an ambulance as well as the Emergency Room.  Eddie first met Cliff in the Emergency Department of Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge Colorado where they found a common ideology as well as frustration for challenges of the work place.  Throughout his life Eddie has dipped his toes into a myriad of professions from the military, fitness coach, banker, EMT, and construction.  All in all, this means only one thing, Eddie understands what it means to punch a clock and earn a wage; and has seen first hand what the soaring cost of living with a stagnating wage can do.  DropEddie a line on the WDTW Facebook!