If corporate shills among Republican governors, legislators, and other elected officials had their way, ALL labor unions would be banned and all federal and state labor laws regulating workplace conditions – including child labor laws – would be repealed.
Workers’ comp, overtime, paid vacation, health benefits, sick leave, pension funds, Social Security, minimum wage, etc. … all would be distant memories.
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God I am glad I got out of Wisconsin while the gett’in was good.
My relatives still live there and they HATE what is going on, but the big-money controls all the MSM and the Koch-backed PACS are pouring money and advertising into the 2014 elections.
I am now happily working a good paying job in a good performing state with a fully Democratic Government (both politically and civics-wise) that governs for ALL the people of this great state.
It took a few elections, but here in Minnesota we finally wised up and kicked the Koch-backed Republicans to the curb, and we are MUCH the better for it. We have two of the best Senators in Congress, and will be getting rid of our collective shame (Michelle Bachmann) for good in November. The Minnesota Republican Party is now in shambles and they bicker and fight over the remaining crumbs left to them. It really is a pitiful sight to behold as they accuse each other of not being “PURE” enough and not “HATING THE POOR” and not “HATING THE PRESIDENT” enough to deserve election as a Republican.
Whoever they run in elections against the Democrats they will get crushed.
Reality is a Bitch after all.
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Very true. Highly competent people who signed up with state or local government can and do go elsewhere and make more money. Yes. Educated and motivated people do choose to work in the public service sector as a means to advance the condition of their state and nation. They are a gift that is routinely scorned by political knaves.
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Welp, sounds like it is time for Wisconsin public employees to stage a mass walk out.
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Plan B: massive strikes of public workers in Wisconsin until their rights are re-established.
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“…collective bargaining remains a creation of legislative grace…”
I can see that.
So, states can legislate slavery – deny any ability to bargain – as well?
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Walker is soulless and completely owned by Koch, so he’ll just fire them all and privatize state functions.
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Because the nation doesn’t need it’s backbone. Deep pockets are all the support required to run a country. Throw away machines, (us workers), are cheap and in large supply.
Why even have an America in fact, just make us the world’s biggest dollar store, and sell American Pride bumper stickers that are also made in China.
Somewhere along the way, we have lost our way. The public is the check of the check and balance system of government. Obviously, this fight was never over and it’s time to reengage. The Oligarchs have nothing better to do and by making us work more for less, they have weakened us.
We can fight back with our votes, our pocketbooks, our determination and sheer numbers.
Everyone get on board and good things will happen, quickly.
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Right,… collective bargaining is creation of legislative grace,… as opposed to Court decisions which are Constitutional rights…even though the Constitution doesn’t say anything about courts having the power to give or take rights from the people.
What is the text code for “rolls eyes”?
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On a practical front, what Unions should do now is negotiate standardized paydays, direct deposit (almost everybody is using anyway) and have the union dues directly drafted from the employees accounts on those standardized pay-dates…authorized from employees’ end.
While you fight the fight, you have to keep the money rolling to fund the union.
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One other thing: Unions had better rethink the pension thing. This is the club that the right-wing is using to destabilize unions and remove public support. Convert jobs to 401K with matching support. Get the unions out of the pension, and you will find less opposition.
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“No matter the limitations or ‘burdens’ a legislative enactment places on the collective bargaining process, collective bargaining remains a creation of legislative grace and not constitutional obligation,” Justice Michael Gableman wrote for the majority.
Please excuse me but horse S##T! It breaks my heart just to think of all the valiant souls who died for the rights of workers to organize. Folks, we are toast.
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Don’t hold your breath on that one. No one with a pension is going to willing give it up in exchange for a 401(k).
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That’s not a bar. You institute 401K for new workers. In 30 years, out of the pension business. In IL and DE, the pension situation is destroying the state fiscal condition.
I’d say that there is a case for appeal, because only public safety, police were exempt, and that sector is or was run by the crony brothers (I don’t feel like looking up the surname).
Leaving roads, infrastructure, municipal health (water, vermin abatement etc.) and the rest of the public good to perform under substandard working conditions comparatively.
This suit will be challenged but Walker thinks he can head up a raiding party on pensions because that is about the only ‘sure’ bet left in states after the derivatives collapsed, and pensions are still being honored.
I know a retired fire captain, and have warned him occasionally that the Teahaddists are coming after his pension next.
There is nothing about which you said so eloquently that I could disagree with
It should have been argued on the terms that the ban doesn’t extend to fire and police. So in fact the state workers AND taxpayers of Wisconsin are subsidizing the states fire and police services at the cost of the preservation and maintenance of state buildings, infrastructure and services while . Fire and police service have the largest costs in terms of health care, pension, and retirement many of which are brought on by disability.
Remind me why we have Courts for certain issues if they are just going to be partisan? The “law” is just as partisan as anything else.
Unions were successful in the past because they used the power of the strike to impress upon the citizens the power of withholding or giving their work to society. Until this point is impressed upon citizens and more specifically the 1% and politicians, the erosion of benefits and conditions won by coal miners, auto workers, Pullman car workers and so on will continue. I see the most hope in the efforts to organize fast food workers and other service workers. A few weeks of no “Happy Meals” and such would make a lasting impression on the enemies of workers and the apologists for unregulated capitalism.
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Teachers haven’t struck here since the seventies, and I’ll be interested to see if they do. My suspicion is that they’ll keep their heads down.
Mathematician-philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote that if people desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, there’d be paradise within a generation. Sadly, that’s exactly where Wisconsin is at.
The Kochpuppets have got half the people so jealous of school teachers and snowplow drivers for having jobs at all, that they’d rather see the public employees brought down a peg than to fight for anything better for themselves.