It seems that Scott Walker’s troubles just keep piling up. Perhaps its because he really doesn’t have a real good notion of ethical governance.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Let me guess, the attack will be on Rachel Maddow to deflect criticism of Saint Walker….err make that Scott the union buster, cop and teacher hater.
Several weeks ago, Maine Governor Paul LePage (R) stirred things up by ordering the removal of a mural in the Maine Labor Department depicting a few scenes from the labor history in the state. Scenes from Rosie the Riveter tat Bath Ironworks to the a shipyard strike. According to Huffington Post:
The governor has said that he wants the mural out of the Department of Labor because it doesn’t fairly depict the perspective of employers: “Were the bosses in the mural? Were the employers in the mural? History is about two sides … I think it’s inappropriate for [the mural] to be in the Department of Labor when everyone comes in, employers and employees, and they’re confronted by one side of the question.”
The mural was erected in 2008, after the Maine Arts Commission chose Taylor’s piece through a jury selection.
There was a hue and cry over the quiet removal of the mural and now the empire strikes back. The U.S. Labor Department has told Maine to put the mural back or pay the price, in today’s Huffpost:
The federal government is stepping into the labor mural controversy in Maine, demanding that the state either put the artwork back up at the Department of Labor or repay the cost of the mural.
In a letter first obtained by the Associated Press, Gay Gilbert, a senior U.S. Labor Department official, writes that the federal government appropriated the funds to Maine for the mural.
What a difference a few decades makes. Ronald Reagan, the golden boy of the Republican party would be an outcast in the fair state of Wisconsin, Florida, Indiana, as well as some other places here in the United States.
Reagan himself had been president of the Screen Actors Guild which was a union. The Screen Actors Guild has connections to the AFL-CIO. He was a strong supporter of Poland’s Solidarity Movement and had great respect for its leader, Lech Walesa.
Reagan castigated the Polish government for outlawing Solidarity.
Reagan stated:
“By outlawing Solidarity, a free trade organization to which an overwhelming majority of Polish workers and farmers belong, they have made it clear that they never had any intention of restoring one of the most elemental human rights—the right to belong to a free trade union.”
Many have argued that Walesa’s leadership in Poland was the beginning of the end of communism. Just what is it that these elected officials fear?
They fear the power of numbers. Had those in Wisconsin only been a few hundred dissonants, they would have been arrested and jailed. That is hard to do with thousands.
Perhaps those opposing the rights of public employees to form unions and to engage in collective bargaining need to reexamine their motives. Maybe they had better put their American flags away while they are lifting their legs on Miss Liberty’s golden door.
Reagan’s ” Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost!” will be just a lone echo in the wind if someone doesn’t get rid of these union busters elected to office.
Gothic horror writer Stephen King and his author wife Tabitha own property in both Maine and Florida. K8ing blasted Republicans at a recent rally according to Kennebec Journal:
So, you’ve got LePage in Maine, Walker in Wisconsin, you’ve got Scott in Florida. Larry, Curly and Moe. That’s what we’ve got here,” he said, according to a video of the event posted on YouTube.
The multimillionaire also questioned why he isn’t asked to pay more in federal taxes.
From Rawstory.com:
State Sen. Scott Fitzgerald (R), the Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader, must have forgotten his talking points while appearing on Megyn Kelly’s Fox News show. This afternoon he admitted on-air what many liberals have long-suspected: rescinding collective bargaining rights from state workers is Wisconsin is as much about the 2012 presidential election as Wisconsin’s 2011 budget shortage.
As first reported by ThinkProgress, Fitzgerald told Kelly: “If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you’re going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin.”
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.
Several weeks ago, several scrappy little labor unions banded together against big brother out in Wisconsin. Support grew until thousands of protesters piled into Madison, the state capital, to protest the attack on the very life blood of unions everywhere. Governor Scott Walker might just have overplayed his hand.
Walker went after the public sector unions using the state budget crisis as a reason for draconian measures that held union members accountable for a higher percent of health care and pension contribution. The union conceded and then Walker tried to take collective bargaining away from them. Like the gambler, he couldn’t walk away from the table and now he has a tiger by the tail. The 14 Democrats are still self-sequestered away so a quorum is not possible. Thousands of people from other unions have joined in solidarity with the Wisconsin public employees. Read More
From the New York Times:
As labor battles erupt in state capitals around the nation, a majority of Americans say they oppose efforts to weaken the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions and are also against cutting the pay or benefits of public workers to reduce state budget deficits, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
Some rather surprising data came out of this poll.
The nationwide telephone poll was conducted Feb. 24-27 with 984 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all adults. Of those surveyed, 20 percent said there was a union member in their household, and 25 percent said there was a public employee in their household.
Further information can be obtained from the link to the New York Times.
Jeff Schapiro of the Richmond Times-Dispatch explains why Wisconsin can’t happen here. Virginia is a right to work state. This status has only been reinforced through the years as this mini history lesson tells us.
Many of us are comfortable with Virginia being a right to work state. Does that mean that that there is no collective bargaining with the private sector? It is illegal for the public sector to have collective bargaining. Would that make salaries higher if that trend were reversed?
Are you a public employee? Have you ever been one? Are you part of the VRS, the federal retirement program or other pension fund? Do you get a matching 401k from a government agency?
All those who can answer yes need to pay close attention and watch things closely. When will someone go for your pension or retirement fund? When will you get cut out of that for which you have worked for years?
First they came for the Wisconsin Public employees.
I didn’t do anything because I wasn’t from Wisconsin.
Then they came for the union folks.
I don’t have collective bargaining so I paid no mind.
You know where this is going……
Decent government pay means decent government!
Everyone needs to be concerned about the scapegoating of public employees and the attacks on civil servants.
What is being done locally?
Jon listens in on the fake David Koch phone call. It seems that Badger Boy is not quite the honorable young lad he would have us believe.
Stay tuned. Badger Boy will appear in the morning. Prepare to be embarrassed. If you think fake doctor notes and vanishing Dems are bad…
So, is it ok to trick the Democratic legislators? I thought the coyote was supposed to be the trickster, not the badger.
It sounds like Governor ‘Badger Boy’ Walker has a trick or two up his sleeve and might have some explaining to do.
Interview with the prankster from the Buffalo Beast
Listening to Governor Christie of New Jersey, I am speechless. He is saying that the health care package of public employees in NJ is $24,000. WHAT???!!!!! What does that do for someone? In PWC, which is probably higher than much of the rest of the state, the health care package is around $6,000 a year per person. Now why is New Jersey’s health care package 4 times higher? Unfortunately, when people hear about unions breaking the middle class, etc, they assume that is what is happening to them here in Virginia. No it isn’t. Virginia public employees cannot do collective bargaining.
What is the big issue with collective bargaining? If both sides sit down at the table, isn’t it a situation of you give/I give? You cave here/I cave there? That’s how it is supposed to work. However, in the past, many jurisdictions have just acquiesced to the unions. So, who owns that problem? Is it because the unions gave to their campaign funds? Has there been complicity and wink wink nudge nudge from legislators? Have union demands been ok’ed by negotiators at the direction of those who are elected in exchange for big union bucks next election campaign?
Let’s think about redefining the role of collective bargaining so that it really is exactly that…bargaining. Many people are very uncomfortable with union busting. Many people are uncomfortable with union excesses. Perhaps this is the time to seek balance rather than the time to kill off unions. The American worker will not go quietly to the union grave. Too many people gave up their lives for the right to form unions.
Jon Stewart weighs in on the crisis in dairyland. Nothing escapes Jon’s watchful eye:
John gives us a quick overview of the crisis in dairyland, as only Jon can. According to the Daily Show postm “
Rachel Maddow connects the dots between 2 seemingly unrelated stories. It seems that MR. Walker made a few real bad decision in his other union busting life, fired the union security people in his county, hired some Wakkenhut Security jockeys and had a security chief who had been in jail. He had to hire back the union security and pay back pay to the tune of nearly a half million dollars.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Mr. Walker’s union busting doesn’t have a real good track record.
We haven’t had Rachel around for a long time. Enjoy. We will bring Jon in on the subject also.
The Public Employees Unions have conceded the pension and health care contributions to Governor Walker. What remains on the table is collective bargaining. To give this up would be total loss of power.
Link to Wisconsin Education Association. (WEAC)
Nurses, firefighters, EMTs, doctors, are all in here with the teachers, security personnel, bus drivers etc.
Listen to their point of view. It has changed my mind. I had to step out of my own regional ethnocentrism for a minute since I am not of a union mind set. If I were, I would definitely want collective bargaining. Otherwise, I would not have a union. Collective bargaining is what really defines a union. Otherwise, you are just another group of employees with a wish list. Collective bargaining gives that wish list some teeth and some nads.
