Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
There’s been a lot going on in Wisconsin in the past week. I hope most Americans are aware of the reason why so many Wisconsinites have converged on the state capital to hold demonstrations.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a Republican, claims that the state is in financial trouble. He’s asking teachers, plow drivers, janitors, nurses, garbage collectors, and other public sector workers to contribute more to their pensions and to pay a larger amount of their health premiums. It appears many of those workers are willing to negotiate with the governor and to consider having more money taken out of their paychecks for their pensions and health insurance. What those employees are not willing to do is relinquish their right to collective bargaining.
I can understand why Governor Walker is asking public employees to have more deductions taken from their paychecks during these fiscally difficult times. What I question is his budget-repair bill that would strip public employees of their right to collective bargaining. If the governor believes that taking away that right will help with the state budget shortfall, why isn’t he demanding that police, firefighters, and state troopers give up their right to collective bargaining too? Could it be political payback? Does that sound like a possibility to you?
Here is an excerpt from an article that Todd Richmond wrote for Bloomberg:
Walker has introduced a bill that would strip public employees across the board — from teachers to snowplow drivers — of their right to collectively bargain for sick leave, vacation, even the hours they work. But absolutely nothing would change for local police, fire departments and the State Patrol.
The bill smacks of political favoritism for public safety unions that supported Walker’s election bid last year and sets up new haves and have-nots in Wisconsin government, said Paul Secunda, a Marquette University professor who specializes in labor law.
“That’s called ‘thank you, I got your back,'” Secunda said. “There’s no surprise there. This is the worst type of favoritism there could be.”
Well, Wisconsin firefighters are showing their solidarity with their fellow public employees. There’s a post at Mother Jones about an interview that Uptake’s Oliver Dykstra had with Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin. (Mother Jones also posted a video of the interview.)
Here are some of the highlights of that interview—which I’ve taken from Mother Jones:
- “The reason that we are here is because it’s important that labor sticks together. There was a message from the governor’s office to conquer and divide…collective bargaining is not just for us, police and fire, it’s good for all involved. It’s a middle-class upbringing.”
- “When firefighters see an emergency, one thing we do is respond. And we see an emergency in the house of labor, so that’s why we’re here.”
- “Every day, if you notice, we lead the AFSCME employees, the SEIU employees, all the public sector employees into the building, because we are here to fight with them.”
- “Collective bargaining is not about union rights; it’s about rights of workers…We ask Gov. Walker to come back and negotiate with the people, negotiatie with the state workers’ unions, and get things worked out, as opposed to just putting out this bill and we don’t hear from him again.”
- “Us as firefighters, we have been exempted from this bill…There’s a 5.8 percent pay into the pension, there’s a 12.4 percent pay into the health care premium benefits…For the betterment of the government, for the betterment of the state, we don’t mind helping to pay for that. We don’t want to price ourselves out of a job. Ever. What we want to do is have a fair and equitable treatment among our members.”
I have great respect for the Wisconsin firefighters who are supporting their fellow public employees—even though they have nothing to gain politically or financially by doing so.
“We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” ~Benjamin Franklin
Sources
From Think Progress
After Progressive Pressure, Sunday Show Will Feature Labor Leader
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/24/mtp-labor-pressur/
Today, ThinkProgress and others noted that the Sunday morning news shows did not feature any labor movement leaders or members last week — and none had been booked for this weekend — despite the ongoing protests in a host of states. A Main Street Movement of workers, students, and lawmakers has come together to push back on conservatives attempting to strip collective bargaining rights from public employees, yet the Sunday shows hadn’t see fit to include any of their voices, instead opting for a slew of conservative commentators and Republican governors. However, ThinkProgress has learned that NBC’s Meet the Press today booked AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka for Sunday. We applaud NBC’s decision and encourage the other networks (ABC, CBS, Fox News, and CNN) to also give a voice to working people.
lol
After that little exchange, I somehow feel less guilty about my previous “nice girls” joke. 🙂
Elaine,
…. marinate …
Blouise,
“Oh My God … they are eating their own!!”
And I’ve heard they don’t taste very good. They’re very bitter, tough, and chewy.
Steven
1, February 24, 2011 at 7:36 pm
Mike Spindell:
…..
He is having a Koch for dinner this evening, so he has to prepare for that. So he asks you to please excuse him.
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Oh My God … they are eating their own!!
Mike Spindell,
It is not often in the history of humanity that individuals get to enjoy two worthy revolutions in one life time. Those of us who put our lives on the line to bring the promise of civil rights into reality and were instrumental in causing two very powerful presidents to step down in order to end a needless and wretched war now get to bring all that we learned to a third revolution … the comeuppance of corporate America and their lackeys and partners in crime.
They are a slimy bunch, arrogant in their self-absorption and audacious in their greed but then so were Nixon, Johnson, McNamara, Wallace, and General Wastemoreland. They had their KKK and their CIA and their FBI but that did not save them. We had some very good newspersons but now … now we have the internet and women and unions and independents and experience.
Plus, it would be nice to clean it all up before we die and that is the motivator that has replaced the ignorance and naivety of youth.
Mike Spindell:
Since Larry isnt here, I am accepting in his honor.
Larry wants to say thank you, thank you. He just wants to be loved, you have made his day. He even cried when he heard the news, it was hearting.
He is having a Koch for dinner this evening, so he has to prepare for that. So he asks you to please excuse him.
Elaine,
That just brought a big ol’ smile to my face.
Both the legal troubles for Walker and the Gumby analogy.
My husband said that Gov. Walker reminds him of Gumby. What do you think?
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj1e3UhQIMA&w=480&h=390%5D
From The Nation:
Wisconsin Governor May Have Violated Labor Law in Koch Call
John Nichols
February 24, 2011
http://www.thenation.com/blog/158824/wisconsin-governor-may-have-violated-labor-law-koch-call
Excerpt:
When Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker discussed strategies to lay off state employees for political purposes, to coordinate supposedly “independent” political expenditures to aid legislatures who support his budget repair bill and to place agent provocateurs on the streets of Madison in order to disrupt peaceful demonstrations, he committed what the former attorney general of Wisconsin says could turn out to be serious ethics, election law and labor violations.
While much of the attention to the “prank” call that the governor took from a blogger who identified himself as billionaire David Koch has focused on the bizarre, at times comic, character of the discussion between a blogger posing as a powerful political player on the right and a governor whose budget repair bill has sparked mass demonstrations in Wisconsin communities and a national outcry, the state’s former chief law-enforcement officer described the governor’s statements as “deeply troubling” and suggested that they would require inquiry and investigation by watchdog agencies.
“There clearly are potential ethics violations, and there are potential election-law violations and there are a lot of what look to me like labor-law violations,” said Peg Lautenschlager, a Democrat who served as Wisconsin’s attorney general after serving for many years as a US Attorney. “I think that the ethics violations are something the [state] Government Accountability Board should look into because they are considerable. He is on tape talking with someone who he thinks is the funder of an independent political action committee to purchase advertising to benefit Republican legislators who are nervous about taking votes on legislation he sees as critical to his political success.”
Lautenschlager, a former legislator who has known Walker for many years and who has worked with many of the unions involved in the current dispute, says: “One of the things I find most problematic in all of this is the governor’s casual talk about using outside troublemakers to stir up trouble on the streets, and the fact that he only dismissed the idea because it might cause a political problem for him.”
From Think Progress
VIDEO: Main Street Movement Erupts As Thousands Across Country Protest War On The Middle Class
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/24/main-street-movement-thousands/
Excerpt:
Inspired by the events in Wisconsin, thousands of Americans all over the country are taking action to battle legislation that would attack their labor rights, defund their schools, threaten their health and safety, and decimate the American middle class. Here are just some of the places across the nation that are taking part in this new “Main Street Movement” to defend and rebuild the American middle class:
– GEORGIA: Hundreds of workers demonstrated outside the Georgia capitol yesterday, declaring their solidarity with striking Wisconsin workers. Some demonstrators wore “cheesehead” hats, a clear reference to a cultural tradition in Wisconsin.
– IDAHO: Hundreds of teachers marched against legislation that would layoff 770 teachers and leave schools severely understaffed.
– INDIANA: In Indiana, House Democrats fled the state, preventing a vote on legislation that would enact “right-to-work” laws that would’ve crippled the right to organize. After the House Democrats took off, hundreds of workers and students marched into the capitol building and staged a massive sit-in, pledging not to leave until the radical legislation was withdrawn. Yesterday, Indiana’s Main Street Movement scored its first victory as Republican lawmakers withdrew the anti-union bill. Indiana Democrats are refusing to come back until right-wing legislators withdraw legislation to undermine the state’s public education system.
– MONTANA: More than a thousand “conservationists, sportsmen, firefighters, teachers, correctional officers and others” descended on the Montana capitol to protest against “unprecedented GOP attacks on public services and education and laws that protect land, air, water and wildlife.” Students carried signs that read “Keep Us In School,” protesting crippling cuts to the state’s education system.
– OHIO: In Ohio, thousands of ordinary Americans who rely on the right to organize to earn good, middle class incomes are facing off with Wisconsin-style legislation backed by Gov. John Kasich (R). Nearly 10,000 protesters demonstrated in Columbus, Ohio, gaining the support of former Gov. Ted Strickland (D-OH) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). So many demonstrators showed up that the Ohio Highway Patrol was ordered to lock the doors of the state capitol to stop more demonstrators from getting into the building.
– TENNESSEE: Hundreds of Tennesseans gathered to protest a bill that would completely strip Tennesee teachers of collective bargaining rights. “What you have right now is 300 or so of us, standing and asking the state legislature to focus on what the priorities are right now, instead of attacking working people,” said Mary Mancini, executive director of Tennessee Citizen Action. “If they listen to us, well then that’s great. … If not, I can see this thing growing.”
– WASHINGTON: 2,000 demonstrators in Olympia, Washington, marched against the state’s proposed budget cuts that would harm students and middle class Washingtonians and in solidarity with workers in Wisconsin. “If Scott Walker succeeds in ending worker rights in Wisconsin, the birthplace of public servants’ liberty, it could happen here,” said Federation of State Employees President Carol Dotlich.
I posted this on another thread but its relevant here also:
Do as I say not as I have done.
“eniobob 1, February 24, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Hummmmmm!!!
“According to the Princetonian, Daniels was arrested after police officers discovered enough marijuana to fill two large shoe boxes in the dorm room he shared with two other individuals. Officers also found LSD and prescription drugs in the room.”
A comment:
“wooper 28 minutes ago (12:31 PM)
181 Fans
He must have had a good lawyer. There are many people who have spent a long time in jail for possession of less than that.”
WHO??:
ndiana Gov. Mitch Daniels not only smoked pot, he inhaled.
But the potential Republican presidential candidate said he learned a valuable lesson when, while a student at Princeton University in 1970, he was arrested and convicted for possession of marijuana – a crime that carried a $350 fine.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/24/mitch-daniels-talks-past-_n_827577.html
SL,
Seconded and adopted by unanimous acclaim of the regulars!
By the way thanks for your post on Governor Malloy, it changed some of my thinking.
“I’m going to have to stop reading your posts because I agree with them too much and find myself chomping at the bit to get the revolution going. 8)”
Blouise,
The revolution is his, bigger and better than ever. I had this epiphany watching the Grammy’s and the presence/performances of Dylan, Jagger, GaGa, Arcade Fire, The Avett Bros., Mumford and Sons, Eminem and the entire hip-hop/rap crew. The 60’s Revolution coalesced around the music, given impetus by Seeger, Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary. Then came the Beatles and the game was on.
The music of revolution and distrust of the establishment has returned again and will work its’ charm on a generation, smarter, hipper and empowered by technology. I realize in a sense how ridiculous this may sound given that it’s just a glitzy awards show, but I’ve been brimming with a new found hope ever since it aired. Now with the reawakening of Labor throughout the country and the chord it rings with the debt ridden, jobless middle class, average people have begun to see the game being played on them.
Perhaps the November election was the best thing that could have happened to us. It brought in a wave of so many out of touch corporate tools and it reminded us that we need to get to work and keep working at it.
I’m going to bring this up again,I wish there was a way we could see how many demonstrators in all these states that are trying take away the rights of workers to have a union, are the same people who were marching in the tea party demonstrations.
And now find that they have been played,big time.I know they are there.
Mike S,
Lol – I second your motion for the awards!
“You think there aren’t a couple of potential FW Woolworths in the management or labor of Circuit City? How many jobs will they create?”
Sam,
I’d like to present you with February’s Award for the most stupid post submitted. You must be kidding……aren’t you?
“Its the 60′s, its the 60′s oh boy, yippee, I can relive the glory days of sex, drugs, rock and roll, irrationality and dirty clothes. I’m free again. Peter and Paulette Pan rise again.”
Lawerence,
you come in second, not for a particular post, but for your body of work on this thread. By the way, I don’t know if you’re someone who lived through the 60’s, but I’m sure you would have had trouble finding a sexual partner if you had and I’m damn sure you can’t dance.
Stamford Liberal
1, February 24, 2011 at 5:04 pm
Lottakatz,
“Thank you for the article. This is a war fought on many fronts and these facts shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. There needs to be a lot more of an outcry from the civil rights and women’s rights communities about this. It’s probably not a coincidence that a massive assault on women’s health/reproductive rights is taking place right now, it all part of the same war, just a different front.”
You are very welcome. And, you are correct – the war is on, but I think the GOP highly overestimated their November “mandate”, and woefully underestimated women.
This is a battle I am ready for.
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Bring it on
Mike Appleton
1, February 24, 2011 at 5:24 pm
BIL:
I thought the 19th Amendment was a lounge. Or maybe I’m thinking of the 19th Hole.
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Hmmmm
Mike A.,
Which is very funny considering how many GOPbaggers are doing their crying in that very same lounge in country clubs that exclude women and probably Jews and blacks. 🙂