Time for Crisis in Dairyland, Apocalypse Cow from Jon Stewart:
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin lawmakers voted Thursday to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from the state’s public workers, ending a heated standoff over labor rights and delivering a key victory to Republicans who have targeted unions in efforts to slash government spending nationwide.
The state’s Assembly passed Gov. Scott Walker’s explosive proposal 53-42 without any Democratic support and four no votes from the GOP. Protesters in the gallery erupted into screams of “Shame! Shame! Shame!” as Republican lawmakers filed out of the chamber and into the speaker’s office.
The state’s Senate used a procedural move to bypass missing Democrats and move the measure forward Wednesday night, meaning the plan that delivers one of the strongest blows to union power in years now requires only Walker’s signature to take effect.
He says he’ll sign the measure, which he introduced to plug a $137 million budget shortfall, as quickly as possible – which could be as early as Thursday.
“We were willing to talk, we were willing to work, but in the end at some point the public wants us to move forward,” Walker said before the Assembly’s vote.
Walker’s plan has touched off a national debate over labor rights for public employees and its implementation would be a key victory for Republicans, many of whom have targeted unions amid efforts to slash government spending. Similar bargaining restrictions are making their way through Ohio’s Legislature and several other states are debating measures to curb union rights in smaller doses.
Walker and the GOP assemblyfolk might have overplayed their hand. Voting to union bust in a northern midwestern state sure seems dangerous to me. Walker and his people might have won the battle but I question if they will win the war. Walker and his handlers purported that the average teacher salary was close to $100k. That simply wasn’t true. When supporters dug into records and interviewed teachers, it was found 2nd year teachers made less than $40k a year. Also added on as a benefit were numbers like FICA and medicare and other federally mandated fees that all wage earners are subjected to.
Very little was said about other public employees other than teachers. They got to be the sacrifical lambs, as it were. That probably wasn’t the group to chose either. Teachers are probably the most plentiful of the various public employees. However, they also have many expenses getting to their level of expertise. Many of the younger folks have $50k worth of college loans. Somehow $40k a year doesn’t seem like excessive pay.
Two main components will emerge from this 3 week ordeal. Obviously some folks have sided with Walker, and others have sided with the Public Employees. The union busting or taking away collective bargaining seemed to be the real tie breaker when it comes to sympathy. The other issue will how wide-spread union busting will get? Will it sweep the nation and how will average Americas respond?
Right now it is a wait and see situation.
watch for the backlash from joe sixpack, joe the plumber, and countless millions of ordinary taxpaying hardworking middle class americans who are disgusted with union thugs and corrupt democrat shenanigans. power to the people!
@e,
have you ever stopped to consider that joe sixpack might just be a union member? I am willing to bet that many of those people I saw on my TV demonstrating in Wisconsin are ordinary taxpaying hardworking middle class Americans.
The only change might be now they are no longer middle class.
e,
why are you so silly? What have unions done, specifically, to the middle class? They bargain for better wages and benefits and that is harmful? You don’t even make sense.
MH,
I loved the “cribs” MTV skit of teachers. What teacher does anyone know that lives “lavishly”. Good healthcare benefits are a “lavish” way of living. When the EFF did decent benefits become a sign of living high on the hog?
Every teacher I have known, and I guess, having been in the public school system, maybe it gives you an actual REALITY check into the hard work that teachers do with out getting paid. The ignorance by those is astounding to me. Where is the outrage for the fact cat bankers that, to this day, have suffered NO consequences for their greed. Why are we in a budget crisis? Do people have freakin’ alzheimers? Am I in some “opposite day” of a Seinfeld episode? This country is a fiscal nightmare because of recession that so bad, we were on the brink of a second depression. Once again, this is NOT NOT NOT the fault of the hard working middle class public employee.
@Elena
I have heard that there is a lot of sympathy for fat cat bankers and wall streeters because many people, especially men, aspire to being fat cats. I guess no one aspires to being a teacher so therefore, no sympathy.
I found that to be an odd reason but….what do I know.
I don’t have any sympathy for the fat cat bankers. They don’t need a bailout either.
@Cargo, they didnt need a bail out but our banks needed saving. Too bad we couldn’t throw Freddy Fat Cat over board while doing it.
@Moon-howler
And the truth is that the average guy who thinks he’ll be rich has the same chance as the poor kid on the basketball court. Practically zip, zero, nada. But that fact doesn’t stop them from buying the drivel handed down by those who truly do have the bucks. Keep Joe Six-pack mad at Jane the Teacher and Freddy Fat Cat can laugh all the way to the bank.
Joe Sixpack might not have gotten along well with teachers when he was a kid so the seeds are already sewn for Freddy Fat Cat.
Unions’ usefulness ended 50 years ago in the US. The fact that they still exist in the public sector is a testament to how corrupt politicians and unions are and how easy it is to fleece the tax payer.
They belong in 3rd world countries with citizens working for peanuts.
I agree Mando with at least part of your premise. If 3rd world countries actuallly had unions, their would be fair labor laws world wide and REAL global competition. Maybe we could even get some of our American manufacturing back to THIS country!
Why exactly do we want manufacturing back in this country?
We, as a country, have outgrown manufacturing. Compare our average household income with those of countries with economies based on manufacturing. Whom here aspires to work in textile mills and widget factories in assembly lines? And quite frankly, if we did bring manufacturing back to this country (through ungodly tariffs or some kind trade control) whom here wants to pay 5 times as much for their Nike shoes and Polo shirts?
Don’t wish that on us.
J-O-B-S
There are plenty of people willing to do that work. There are many people who haven’t gotten the education to do work beyond assembly lines.
no one with any cash and business savvy would want to invest in a hostile environment where profit is considered a cardinal sin, and union thugs put a gun to the employer’s head
there are just some people that are cut out for an assembly line or manufacturing type job. Not everyone has the mental capacity or personality to go to college, and get a professional job. Also, our second tier managers in many industries are being imported. At my company, we moved two IT managers here from India, because, we have outsourced all of our development, and the best candidate’s for the manager’s jobs were from the outsourcer – so, no American hired to manage the India team.
e – before you talk about union thugs – what about the CEO who makes his numbers look better by laying off employees, and then goes on to get an oversized bonus. Nobody is putting a gun to his head, but he would rather line his own pocket and leave workers to deal with their own financial issues. And note, at time lay offs are necessary, but if I were CEO, I would not accept an oversized bonus at the same time that I was removing people from the workforce.
You really want to maintain manufacturing capacity for national security purposes. For example we don’t want the F-35 built in China.
Who is going to break the bad news that this IS the backlash!
Keep thinking that, Country Mouse.
Declaring war on the middle class isn’t real smart. People vote their pocketbooks.
Good point, Cato. I hadn’t really thought of that.
e, would your own job be improved if it were a union job?
The ability to negotiate has improved many people’s lot in life as far as their job goes. Most employers are out for profit,, not the worker.
And another thing…[doing my best drunk impersonation]….I don’t think the sympathy would be there if you really were talking about coal miners, steel workers auto industry assemblers…..not wide spread sympathy.
But you are talking about community people. Cops, firefighters, teachers nurses, librarians. People can look around and see they don’t live in the lap of luxury. Declaring war on those people just is stupid.