Mike VandenBrook came to a rally at the state Capitol on Sunday afternoon with his head and leg in bandages and using a walker. He wore a sign that said, “I didn’t see it coming” on the front. On his back a sign read, “I must have been in a coma.”

VandenBrook was one of about 150 people who converged on the Capitol to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to strip state workers of most of their collective bargaining rights. His costume was a reference to Walker’s comment Friday that people who didn’t see his proposal coming must have been “in a coma.”

Walker was “pretty slick pulling that on a Friday,” not allowing the public time to organize, said VandenBrook, a psychologist at Oakhill Correctional Institution in Fitchburg who has worked for the state for 33 years.

“Most of the people here realize these are difficult times,” he said. “I’m certainly willing to play my part and take a cut. That’s not the major issue. The major issue for me is that we weren’t even asked or included in the decision. That’s not the democratic process.”

Diane Meier, 64, a retired teacher and administrator, said she remembers a time in the late ’70s, before collective bargaining, when schools were closed for more than a month because of strikes.