The Fiscal Bureau of Wisconsin just said in January that it will end this year with a $123 million surplus. So the fact of the matter is that this is not being done because of a lack of money. This is being done because political forces, conservative political forces, would like to disempower public employee unions and remove that voice for a strong public sector. That’s what austerity really translates as.--John Nichols speaking on Democracy Now! this Tuesday.
As this proposed legislation has energized labor unions more than anything else in recent years... they should make a point of not wasting the current opportunity they've created with their protest. Rather than accepting a toned down version of the legislation, or even a complete scrapping of it, they should be the ones demanding concessions at this point! They should be demanding even more labor rights and the right to organize more easily. It's as simple as that. Labor has held, and does hold, most of the cards in modern society. If they choose to shut the city down, or even the entire state, there is little that can be done about it. And then how will Governor Walker react? It's quite possible that the National Guard, made up of workers, won't carry out his orders.Nihilo Zero on the protests
The terms Left and Right to refer to political affiliation originated early in the French Revolutionary era, and referred originally to the seating arrangements in the various legislative bodies of France. The aristocracy sat on the right of the Speaker (traditionally the seat of honor) and the commoners sat on the Left, hence the terms Right-wing politics and Left-wing politics. (Cite.)Without a coherent political left that remains active in America today representing the interests of our own non-aristocratic masses, there's essentially no coherent coalition representing ordinary people's interests in the political process anymore, and large numbers of people who knowingly or not belong to the left wing of our society don't even understand that regardless of how they view themselves, they actually are the left wing of society whose interest's they are being led to work against.
But I'm reasonably confident, as a layman, in asserting that the presence in the employer/employee relationship of an employee representative agency that is dedicated to bettering the lot of members as a whole will not support sacking members or paying some members more.This is a reasonable position for a layman to take, but it's not very tightly to connected to reality, at least in my experience. Private, non-unionized employers still use wage scales in order to make things routine and predictable. Forget the unions--try giving one of your ten employees a merit raise out of line of everyone else and see how your department functions after that. Try firing Betty, the secretary who's not that fast or pleasant but has been there forever. And my father, a senior government employee, once fired a union member--the only thing the union did was ensure that the agreed-upon process was followed. I've personally had nearly incompetent coworkers who weren't fired because our manager didn't want to risk losing the allocated position.
Again, I do not think their interests are the same as mine, and I do not see why I should support them.You're an employer, of course their interests are different from yours. If they weren't then unions wouldn't be needed.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Walker said he spoke with Ohio’s Republican Governor John Kasich by telephone.posted by desjardins at 8:05 PM on February 17, 2011 [1 favorite]
“Don’t blink,” Walker said when asked what advice he gave Kasich about demonstrations. ”The bottom line is, it’s the right thing to do.”
if there were strong laws and government intervention into employee/ermployer relations it might make Unions redundant.If only there were some example of such a situation, appropriate to discuss in this thread, where the employer in question was 100% under government control.
However, that's a hypothetical. Such a situation does not exist.You might have stopped looking a little too quickly.
Thank you to the thousands of constituents who have contacted me to express opposition to Governor Walker’s attack on workers’ rights. As you know, I am strongly opposed to this attempt to destroy the Wisconsin Way. This bill is the most anti-worker legislation in Wisconsin’s history, and I will continue to do everything I can to defeat it.posted by symbioid at 2:52 PM on February 18, 2011 [6 favorites]
As I write this update, our Capitol is once again filled with tens of thousands of taxpayers, all here to peacefully rally for our rights. They are here to stop this Republican scheme to take away the rights Wisconsin’s nurses, teachers, EMTs and other workers.
One week ago, most thought passage of Walker’s manufactured “budget” scam was inevitable.
But your actions – your letters, phone calls, and rallying at the Capitol – are making the difference!
On Monday, the bill’s backers were confident they had the votes to ram this terrible bill through the State Senate by Thursday. They failed. The Republican controlled Joint Committee on Finance tried to silence Wisconsin’s citizens by shutting down the public hearing. They failed. And today, the Republican Assembly leaders tried to silence me and my Democratic colleagues. They failed, thanks to the citizens who have to come to Rally for Rights. Like the Republicans’ tactics, this response from citizens is unprecedented.
In Wisconsin, we solve problems by working together, not by denying workers a place at the table and refusing to listen to them.
Public employees are willing to make sacrifices and have sacrificed, but they are not willing to sacrifice their rights—and neither am I. No worker should be asked to silence their voice for a paycheck.
I am doing everything in my power to stop this attack on the rights of Wisconsin workers, and encourage you to keep making your voice heard. Together, we will ensure that we live “Fightin’ Bob” LaFollette’s legacy, that “the will of the people shall be the law of the land.”
Yours in Solidarity,
KELDA HELEN ROYS
This is what the Teacher's Unions spend OUR taxpayer $$ on http://bit.ly/eYFBSuOk, I think I see the problem here. Looks like some people are confusing "taxes paid" with "salary earned." After the state employee gets their check, it stops being OurTaxMoneyTM and becomes their wages. Imagine following a teacher around as she shops in her grocery store. "Steak, no. Hamberger, yes. Put that foreign muck back on the shelves, missy. How dare you spend our tax money on honey-mustard pretzels!"
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posted by blucevalo at 9:33 AM on February 17, 2011