The Wisconsin National Guard has not been activated but it is on alert.this is really nasty dog-whistle politics. he's both trying to intimidate the public sector unions and send a message to the tea partiers that he's not afraid to see some blood and brains if the unions don't roll-over.
"Plan for the worst, expect the best," Gov. Scott Walker explained to a jam-packed press conference this morning in the State Capitol.
It was the official roll-out of his broad rollback of collective bargaining rights for unionized government employees, part of his budget repair bill, seeking to resolve a $150 million shortfall in the next five months.
Walker said he was well aware that "some union leaders will try to incite their members."
To summarize, our study shows that Wisconsin publicAnd Walker wants them to take at least the equiv. of a 5% paycut.
employees earn 4.8% less in total compensation per hour
than comparable full-time employees in Wisconsin’s
private sector.
Natural Right to Join Unions: This right is established in 1891, but it is drawn together and fullyposted by drezdn at 6:54 AM on February 14, 2011 [7 favorites]
expressed at Vatican II in Guadium et Spes:
“Among the basic rights of the human person is to be numbered the right of freely
founding unions for working people. These should be able truly to represent them and to
contribute to the organizing of economic life in the right way. Included is the right of
freely taking part in the activity of these unions without risk of reprisal. Through this
orderly participation joined to progressive economic and social formation, all will grow
day by day in the awareness of their own function and responsibility, and thus they will be
brought to feel that they are comrades in the whole task of economic development and in6
the attainment of the universal common good according to their capacities and aptitudes.”
(Paragraph #68)
MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD: Governor Walker's office is taking a poll to gauge support for the Budget Repair Bill. The # is 608.266.1212. Call & let them know you Oppose the Bill!The woman who answered when I called seemed like she really wanted me to say that I supported the bill.
I take it that in a free country ... every person has the right to lay down the tools of his trade if he shall choose. Not only that, but in a free country where liberty of speech is guaranteed, every man has the right to go to his fellow man and say, 'We are out on strike. We are in a great battle for liberty. We are waging war for our fellow man. For God's sake, come with us and help.' "posted by drezdn at 12:30 PM on February 16, 2011 [2 favorites]
Gentlemen, I leave this case with you; here is Thomas I. Kidd. It is a matter of the smallest consequence to him or to me what you do; and I say it as sincerely as I ever spoke a word. No man ever entered this struggle for human liberty without measuring the cost, and the jail is one of the costs that must he measured with the rest; and if you see fit to send him there, he will take his punishment like a man, and ask no odds of any human being on the earth. But, gentlemen, I do not appeal for him. That cause is too narrow for me, much as I love him and long as I have worked by his side. I appeal to you, gentlemen, not for Thomas I. Kidd, but I appeal to you for the long line -- the long, long line reaching back through the ages, and forward to the years to come -- the long line of despoiled and downtrodden people of the earth. I appeal to you for those men who rise in the morning before daylight comes, and who go home at night when the light has faded from the sky and give their life, their strength, their toil, to make others rich and great. I appeal to you in the name of those women who are offering up their lives, their strength and their womanhood on the altar of this modern god of gold; and I appeal to you, gentlemen, in the name of these little children, the living and the unborn, who will look at your names and bless them for the verdict you will render in their aid.
Gentlemen, the world is dark; but it is not hopeless...
Through the Huffington Post, Joseph McCartin, a labor historian at Georgetown University said, "If it had simply to do with the budget there doesn't seem to be a need to eliminate collective bargaining. In other states where state's municipalities have faced difficult times, unions have helped negotiate the way forward."posted by drezdn at 3:40 PM on February 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
Here, however, is the most interesting tidbit, again through the Huffington Post, " The share of corporate tax revenue funding the state government has fallen by half since 1981 and, according to Wisconsin Department of Revenue, two-thirds of corporations pay no taxes."
I love cheese and Sargento products in particular (if you saw me, this would be obvious), but I'm writing to let you know that myself and others will be boycotting your product for the financial support your company provided Gov. Scott Walker.posted by drezdn at 4:49 AM on February 17, 2011 [6 favorites]
This boycott will continue as long as Governor Walker takes away collective bargaining rights from public employees. If he won't listen to the thousands who've already protested his actions, maybe he'll listen to his contributors.
If you want, I'll send you pictures of me buying Crystal Farms and other brands of cheese.
Remember, Democrats buy cheese too, just not from you now.
« Older Wake Forest University's slogan for their baseball... | As California goes, so goes th... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by ericb at 11:26 AM on February 13, 2011