Wisconsin is looking a little like the middle east now. Wisconsin protests continue against 'union bashing'.
Ezra Klein describes What is actually being proposed in Wisconsin. "In it, Walker proposes that the right to collectively bargain be taken away from most -- but not all -- state and local workers. Who's left out? "Local law enforcement and fire employees, and state troopers and inspectors would be exempt from these changes." As Harold Meyerson notes, these are also the unions that happened to be more supportive of Walker in the last election. Funny, that."
"Walker tries to sell the change in collective bargaining as modest. "State and local employees could continue to bargain for base pay, they would not be able to bargain over other compensation measures." But that's not really true. Read down a bit further and you'll find that "total wage increases could not exceed a cap based on the consumer price index (CPI) unless approved by referendum.""
There are other rule changes that are designed to weaken unions, making it harder to collect dues, etc. "The best way to understand Walker's proposal is as a multi-part attack on the state's labor unions. In part one, their ability to bargain benefits for their members is reduced. In part two, their ability to collect dues, and thus spend money organizing members or lobbying the legislature, is undercut. And in part three, workers have to vote the union back into existence every single year."
The other real problem with this is whole proposal is it's the result of a manufactured crisis.
"The Badger State was actually in pretty good shape. It was supposed to end this budget cycle with about $120 million in the bank. Instead, it's facing a deficit. Why?...The governor called a special session of the legislature and signed two business tax breaks and a conservative health-care policy experiment that lowers overall tax revenues (among other things). The new legislation was not offset, and it helped turn a surplus into a deficit [see update at end of post]. As Brian Beutler writes, "public workers are being asked to pick up the tab for this agenda.""
Some protesters are calling for Gov. Walker to be recalled. That can't happen for another year, but Eight GOP State Senators In Wisconsin Can Be Recalled Right Now and only 3 need to change to Democrats they would have a majority in the Senate.
1 comment:
The only thing that Republicans despise more than Social Security and Medicare is a union.
If Republicans can destroy the public unions, they will be able to eliminate the last effective organized center of support for the democratic party. Private sector unions have been effectively eliminated as a political force in this country, and the repubs do everything they can to keep it that way. Their overlords, like the Koch brothers, pay them handsomely to keep it that way.
In classic republican strategy (i.e., appealing to the reptile brain thru fear mongering) they are trying to pit non-union workers against union members, private sector workers against public sector workers, even cops and firefighters against teachers and garbage collectors.
It was no mistake that Ronnie Raygun's first big action, as a newly elected president, was to break the Air Traffic Contoller Union. The modern conservative movement is dedicated to keeping a large percentage of the population somewhere between too busy trying to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table, but not so desperate as to riot in the streets. Don't look now, but the riots have started.
By the way, where is Obama on this?
TT
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