Welcome to the reckoning. We have met the fiscal apocalypse, and it is smack dab in the middle of the heartland. As Wisconsin goes, so goes the nation. Let us pray it does not go the way of the decrepit welfare states of the European Union.
The lowdown: State-government workers in the Badger State pay piddling amounts for generous taxpayer-subsidized health benefits. Faced with a $3.6 billion budget hole and a state constitutional ban on running a deficit, new Republican governor Scott Walker wants public unions to pony up a little more. He has proposed raising the public-employee share of health-insurance premiums from less than 5 percent to 12.4 percent. He is also pushing for state workers to cover half of their pension contributions. To spare taxpayers the soaring costs of byzantine union-negotiated work rules, he would rein in Big Labor’s collective-bargaining power to cover only wages unless approved at the ballot box.
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As the free-market MacIver Institute in Wisconsin points out, the benefits concessions Walker is asking public-union workers to make would still maintain their health-insurance-contribution rates at the second-lowest among Midwest states for family coverage. Moreover, a new analysis by benefits think tank HCTrends shows that the new rate “would also be less than the employee contributions required at 85 percent of large Milwaukee area employers.”
This modest call for shared sacrifice has triggered the wrath of the White House–Big Labor–Michael Moore axis. On Thursday, President Obama lamented the “assault on unions.” AFL-CIO and Service Employees International Union bosses dubbed Walker the “Mubarak of the Midwest” while their minions toted posters of Walker’s face superimposed on Hitler’s. Moore goaded thousands of striking union protesters to “shut down” the “new Cairo” while the state’s Democratic legislators bailed on floor debate over the union reform package.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan spurned the opportunity to condemn thousands of Wisconsin public-school teachers for lying about being “sick” and shutting down at least eight school districts across the state to attend capitol protests (many of whom dragged their students on a social-justice field trip with them). Instead, Duncan defended teachers for “doing probably the most important work in society.” Only striking government teachers could win federal praise for not doing their jobs.
Yes, the so-called progressives truly believe that bringing American union workers into the 21st century in line with the rest of the workforce is tantamount to dictatorship.
Yes, the so-called progressives truly believe that by walking off their jobs and out of their classrooms, they are “putting children first.”
If ever there were proof that public unions no longer work in the public interest, this is it. Big Labor dragoons workers into exclusive representation agreements, forces them to pay compulsory dues that fatten Democratic political coffers, and then has the chutzpah to cast itself as an Egyptian-style “freedom” and “human rights” movement.
Meanwhile, union leaders elsewhere are quietly forcing their low-wage members to share the sacrifice in order to preserve teetering health funds. In New York State, Skidmore College campus janitors, dining-service workers, and other maintenance employees received late notice from the SEIU that 4.15 percent of their gross earnings will now be deducted from their paychecks to cover the cost of the health plan provided through the behemoth 1199 SEIU Greater New York Benefit Fund. (If the name sounds familiar, it’s because this is one of several privileged SEIU affiliates that have received an Obamacare waiver.)
These workers are forced to join the union in order to preserve their jobs, and unlike non-union workers, they are locked into a single health plan. The SEIU has now decreed that they must pay new fees to include spouses on their plans and has hiked employee co-pays for doctor visits and prescription drugs.
What’s necessary for New York union workers is necessary for Wisconsin union workers — and for the rest of the protected union-worker class in bankrupt and near-bankrupt states across America. The “persuasion of power” so ruthlessly and recklessly exercised by the SEIU and its thuggish allies must be broken by the moral courage of fiscal discipline. It’s now or never.
Unions are bad for America. First, they result in high cost goods and services. Second, members largely vote for liberals. Third, unions themselves donate millions and millions of dollars to liberal causes
We need to give every worker the freedom to work wherever he or she wants and for whom ever he or she wants and for whatever wage and benefits he or she deserves.
Likewise, we need to give employers the same freedoms. Do that and lower taxes and roll back spending to 1925 levels and we'll get explosive job growth, dazzling innovation, and wealth beyond imagination.
This is just another example of the advanced case of Demosclerosis (see the book by Jonathan Rauch).
We have already witnessed the hardening of the arteries of government through the accumulation of failed programs that can never be eliminated.
Now, we are seeing the ugly truth of Government as Interest Group.
There is simply no excuse for the lawmakers to leave town. Do your job. Show up. make your case. vote no if you feel like it. offer alternatives that can help close the deficit and the gaping pension holes. Don't take your ball and go home ........
Michelle, beyond your hyperbole is the basis of a good debate on the excesses of unions and the realities of the modern American work place. Others will add provocative ideas about the very appropriateness of public sector labor. But this is NOT what Governor Walker is doing. He is simply saying we need to do this to balance the budget. It is subterfuge by a man unwilling to share the state his full agenda. He said he would get tough on the unions. The voters agreed. But we hire police and DAs to get tough on crime not kill every criminal.
Don't believe most of the workers of Wisconsin are protesting because they have to pay their fair share. Their protesting because a 70-year tradition is ending. That they fear that vengeful school boards or government agencies will gut their middle-class way of life. Is this not a fight worth calling in sick a day for?
I work in higher education to a neighboring state to Wisconsin. I pay about 28% of my healthcare. I also pay half of my retirement and my university kicks in the other half. I am not a union member. These folks in Wisconsin better get a grip on reality and step up and start paying for a reasonable portion of their own benefits like the rest of us. It is only fair.
"they fear that vengeful school boards or government agencies will gut their middle-class way of life."
The same fear as the overtaxed people of WI, who have been forced to placate the unions through onerous taxation and ruinous financial commitments that neither they nor their children nor even their grand-children can ever hope to pay.
Who shall the taxpayers coerce by union style bullying, striking and the destruction of the democratic process to maintain their lifestyle?
BTW, am I the only person who has noticed that only Democrats leave town if they might lose a democratic vote?
Republicans always stay and take their medicine. They stay, though they know they will lose, and abide by the democratic process.
I have no respect for Democrats who will stop democracy because its outcome does not suit them.
The Democrats are stuck in an impossible position. The State is broke, not only broke but in debt. Because the unions in question refuse to be part of the solution, they have put themselves into the position of being the problem itself. If that is true in fact is no longer part of the discussion.
Now, because the Democrats get most of their funding from unions they dare not offend their money cow. But because the unions are preceived as the problem, the Democrats have cast themselves as the party of the problem, not the party of the solution.
This can only damage an already badly damaged Democratic party. Unless and until they abandon their union ties, and start actually giving into real solutions, they will end up voted out.
I am reminded of the comment made by the judge looking over at Alfred Packer. "Packer, you are an evil man, there weren't but three Democrats in this state, and you done ate two of them." It is looking more and more like the unions have the morals and hunger of Alfred Packer.
Personally I would call myself a union moderate. I have worked union and non-union. I have seen some pretty good unions and some pretty bad unions. Very mixed bag. Currently I am technically covered by a union but pay no dues and receive no benefits that I can identify. Go figure.
In the best union I worked under, the union, not the employer ran the health insurance and pension fund. The employer paid cash and their responsibility ended there. The union invested it for the pension and bought the health insurance.
In this model, the company is not dragged down by the future liabilities and they cannot rob or underfund the pension fund. The workers pooling their money together, still get the economies of scale when buying health insurance and can do creative and profitable things with the pension fund.
I was an iron worker and some of the iron worker pension fund was loaned out for construction projects which of course stimulated more iron work. I think it worked pretty good for everyone.
jpranger--I am a WI State worker, and you have information from union propaganda or liberal media. The true fact is that the union can still exist and bargain for wages, the results have to be approved thru the people by having the legislature approve it, and I am not FORCED to belong or have my union dues taken from me with no say from me. Why isn't anyone mentioning the furlough days saved, the (yes small) raises scheduled and the sick days, vacation days, etc. This is all about the unions saving their own butts, not the rights of the workers--those are still intact!!!
Walker is just like Mubarak (except for the fact that Walker was elected in November and has been in office for 6 weeks and some other small details)
The protest is just like Egypt (except Badgers have the right to vote, freedom to assemble and petition the gov't for redress of grievances).
These teachers just want what is fair (except for the fact that the retirement and healthcare benefits are far and away more generous than any of their fellow cheese-heads).
Let's all let out a Howard Dean "yar" in solidarity with the Wisconsin teachers.
The headline is exactly right. Let's decide this here and now. Will Public Employee Unions be allowed to bankrupt the citizenry or won't they. In Ancient Rome, the fall was not only the result of barbarian invasions (notice any modern parallels?) but extremely high taxes. And thanks Michelle for your courageous work promoting individual liberty!
The problem with public collective bargaining is that it puts the union on both sides of the table. The leaders of these unions are negotiating with the people that they contributed to get into office. There is too much mutual back scratching.
The idea of collective bargaining is that it should be an adversarial process. With public unions, it typically is not.
That is part of the reason why the growth in incomes and benefits in public unions seem to defy economic gravity.
Maybe it's time that all the people who are unemployed or have seen their real incomes fall in the last two years should protest the protest.
Of course, we're the ones working or looking for jobs while we pay their way to protest.
The union mentality derives from a very bad self image and the inevitable erosion of pride, confidence and ambition. Imagine thinking like a unionist:
1. I cannot look after myself, so I will band together with others like me for my welfare.
2. I don't want to be judged on my own competence. I prefer to be judged as a nameless, faceless, non-person.
3. I don't have the confidence to sell what I have to offer the market. I want to be told how much to work for, and I'll obey as long as it's the same as the guy next to me.
4. I can't make decisions for myself. I need to be told what to do, and when.
5. I don't want to be responsible for my actions. I need others to rally around me and protect me from the consequences of my own inadequacy.
It is really pathetic when you stop and think about it. Who could think that way?
Doesn't sound like a problem to me, all you need is one brave Republican State senator to change party affiliation to Democrat and then have your vote. The other 14 Dems can keep hiding in another state indefinitely.
These union members are despicable. They expect the private sector to pony up for their increases in pay and benefits and their use of children (who don't have a clue as to what they are protesting) is beyond low. Have no sympathy for them. I hope they all get fired and join the unemployment roles. (of course they would be paid for nearly 2 years to do nothing as well. Maybe not much difference in performance.)
"President Obama's Organizing for America is descending upon the state capitol in Madison for bought-and-paid-for protests against Governor Scott Walker's courageous challenge to the teachers' union." Next we'll be hearing that President Obama will bring to bear "the full force and power of the Presidency" on the people of Wisconsin just like he did the people of Arizona because what they dare to challenge his right to decide for them how they should act. Doesn't this guy have anything better to do than to undermine, oppress, and beleaguer the people who elected him? Sounds kinda like that Egyptian dictator who was just ousted. Now there's and idea. Hopefully, it won't take 30 years.
Governor Walker should follow Reagan's footsteps give those bleeding teachers an ultimatum report back to work or you are terminated. Reagan did it with the air controllers and it should be done with them. No backing off.
The war these protestors are waging is one on the Wisconsin taxpayers! These teachers want citizens to pay for their health care care and pension plans. This is the problem with public sector unions.
I applaud Governor Walker for standing up for the taxpayers in that state. I contacted his office to give my opinion and also to express my disgust for the teachers who are teaching the students to lie while depriving them of their education. I further advised that the Democrats who fled to Illinois are cowards and are cheating the taxpayers who have payed them to do a job!
Fire striking teachers. Do we want them teaching our children anyway? Personal misconduct or lying about illness should be sufficient cause.
Then call on mothers and grandparents to substitute teach until non-union replacements can be hired. Call up National Guard to protect these wonderful scabs.
Recent reports of 3000 teachers to be laid off in Dallas alone look like there will be plenty of qualified applicants soon.
