I hadn't posted here because I've been down at the capitol marching for the last few days, when I wasn't at work or school.
The majority of teachers I've spoken too understand that the budget is a mess, and that concessions have to be made. They're generally willing to make those concessions.
They're not willing to give up the right to bargain for those concessions, instead of just being handed whatever their employer likes.
The bill in question removes the public workers unions right to negotiate collectively for anything other than wages, and wage bargaining is only allowed to within a certain price index set by a third party (I do not recall what the index is off the top of my head) unless allowed to do so by a public vote.
It also removes the unions ability to require members to pay their union dues, and makes it so all union members have to vote to keep the union in force yearly. If the union doesn't get a majority vote, it's dissolved.
That sounds like union busting to me, pure and simple.
I may be entirely wrong, but it seems to me this is a straight ploy by the republicans in this state to remove the democratic power base.
The republicans are funded, for the most part, by corporate business. They are the business party, in simple terms.
The democrats are funded by the unions. They're the worker's party (again, in very simple terms).
How this is part of a budget repair bill, I do not understand. While the budget may be in disarray, it's not caused by what we're paying our teachers, nurses, firefighters, and police. (BTW, the firefighters and police unions are exempt from all of the above in the bill.)
Quote:
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Originally Posted by http://joshhealey.org/2011/02/17/class-warfare-in-wisconsin/
1. The deficit is a made-up crisis.
Like most states, Wisconsin is struggling in the recession, but the state government isn’t actually broke. The state legislature’s fiscal bureau estimated the state would end the year with a $121 million balance. Walker claims there is a $137 million deficit — but it is not because of an increase in worker wages or benefits. According to the Capital Times, it is because “Walker and his allies pushed through $140 million in new spending for corporate and special-interest groups in January.” Nice. A man-made “crisis” as an excuse to push neoliberal cutbacks: Shock Doctrine, anyone?
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I don't agree with the tone of the above, but his point is a sound one. Legislative mismanagement is the issue here. Doing this to our public servants won't fix it.
So, I march. I may head back there again today.