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Nation's Eyes Turn to Wisconsin Amid Struggle over Collective Bargaining
MADISON, WI - The birthplace of Progressivism this week became the key battleground in a fight that has repercussions stretching from New York to California.
In this Feb. 18, 2011, file photo opponents to the Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's bill to eliminate collective bargaining rights for many state workers protest in the rotunda of the State Capitol in Madison, Wis. Stung by the wave of anti-union sentiment in Wisconsin and more than a dozen other states, organized labor is re-energizing as a political force and trying to take advantage of the growing backlash. They expect momentum from the protests to spill into the 2012 election cycle.
(AP Photo/Andy Manis, File) As protests against Republican Gov. Scott Walker's plan to severely curb collective bargaining rights for public employees continued for a fifth day at the state Capitol Friday, demonstrators were joined by union supporters from Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as well as national union leaders and civil rights advocate the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
The political fight has captured the nation's attention, landing on nearly every major network and spurring dialogue about its relevance for the rest of the country. To many, Wisconsin represents the line in the sand for public employee unions, who find themselves under siege in several states. Losing ground here, they fear, will cost them everywhere.
"This is a coordinated effort by the Republican Party to destroy the labor movement in this country," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, in town Friday for the largest day of rallies, estimated by Madison police at 35,000 to 40,000 people. "If Wisconsin passes this, there are at least another 12 to 15 states that will try it."
Republicans leaders who took office as part of the conservative wave the swept the nation in November are promising deep spending cuts and more fiscal discipline. Many are also fighting for major changes to labor relations.
Union membership decline
The efforts come as organized labor reels from a steady loss of members in the private sector. The public sector, with about 7.6 million members, now accounts for the majority of workers on union rolls, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Making matters worse for unions, most states are wrestling with major budget problems. It has gotten so bad that even Democratic governors — usually friendly with labor — are targeting public employees and unions as ripe for cutbacks.
Lawmakers in Tennessee, Indiana, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Nevada and California are considering severe cuts to public employees, including layoffs, pay freezes and increased donations to employee pension and benefit plans. Collective bargaining in each of those states is in danger.
In Ohio, where lawmakers face an estimated $8 billion budget gap, the Legislature debated a bill this week that would limit collective bargaining for about 400,000 public employees. Protestors have rallied at the statehouse in Columbus, but on a far smaller scale than in Madison.
Pieter Wykoff, who works for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, said public employee contracts have gotten out of hand.
"They are an albatross around government's neck," he said. "What you are seeing is state governments across the country making a stand. Taxpayers are tired of subsidizing benefits they never get."
In New York, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is facing a $10 billion budget gap. He has vowed to balance his budget without tax increases. One of the key parts of his plan is to cut about $550 million by freezing public employee salaries and requiring them to pay a bigger share of their pensions and benefits coverage. He has threatened unions with as many as 9,800 layoffs if they can't agree on a deal.
"We are all in the same boat when it comes to public employees," said Morris Peters, Cuomo's budget spokesman. "It's just math. You can't run from that."
Giving government tools it needs
Walker wants to remove nearly all collective bargaining rights for most of Wisconsin's 175,000 state and local government employees, allowing workers to negotiate only over salary. He has exempted most law enforcement, firefighters and Wisconsin State Patrol troopers from his proposal.
By ending state employees' ability to negotiate for their pensions and insurance rates, the governor will be able to increase employee pension contributions to 5.8 percent of salary and more than double their health insurance contributions.
Currently most state employees pay nothing toward their pensions and a modest amount for their insurance. Walker said those increases alone would save the state $30 million this fiscal year and 10 times that much in future budgets. He said that would help him overcome the $137 million hole in the current budget, and eventually help the state make up the $3.6 billion shortfall projected for the next biennial budget.
Wisconsin Education Association Council President Mary Bell and Wisconsin State Employees Union Executive Director Marty Beil have both said the state's unions are willing to consider the governor's changes to their pension and benefits plans. But the unions remain dead set against his bid to end most collective bargaining rights.
In his office Friday, a raucous crowd just outside his window, Walker stood firm on his goal.
"I know full well the negative impact collective bargaining has on a county, city, town and school district officials to balance their budget," Walker said. "We're going to give local governments the tools they've been asking for, for decades."
That promise is the stuff of nightmares for union leaders. Organized labor is expected to spend a lot of money on fights in Wisconsin, as well as the other states where lawmakers have targeted labor.
And if Walker's bill goes through, as expected, Trumka promised a massive labor uprising in the state.
"We will be in the streets," he said.
28 Comments so far
Show AllNo one wants to say this but.....(sigh)...
I can't really take this seriously UNTIL I start to see public service unions and the more 'traditional' union supporters (mechanics, pilots, you get the idea) start pushing for a massive all in no-one left out union drive.
In every business.
For every worker.
Anything else is obviously someone trying to safeguard their own piece of the pie, the rest of us be damned.
Agreed. Then we can work on eliminating this exploitive economic system once and for all.
I love this. Here's my check-off card.
X union represented
Now if only DILHR would recognize it. It wouldn't 2 years ago with Doyle still in office. And it wouldn't be any better with Barrett in there either. So Walker has company in my 86 file.
Nothing short of a general strike (which is well anchored in our still existing constitutional rights) will change the status quo. Nothing.
We all need to look up to the Tunisians, Egyptians and all the other countries where people finally said 'Enough is Enough'.
Chase those reptilians out of town.
"Trumka promised a massive labor uprising in the state." A good start in bringing back the former days of a militant labor movement as in the CIO and the I.W.W. This time every other section of society needs to be represented and not only students but environmentalists and the peaceniks.
We're there.
Strangely enough, just before all this erupted, t was on the state employees web site looking at job with a "Senior Technician " title.I was drawn to the position because the organization has the rep of being a good place to work, and because the pension and health care are solid. The wages--not so much, even less than I am earning now. Still I was inclined to accept those terms because where I am now I make substantial contribution to pension and to health care. So, I figured, it will more than even out. Not now. My union is weak but it can still bargain collectively and now that Wisconsin workers have to pay pension and healthcare costs too I'm better off staying where I am. Expect Wisconsin workers to start looking elsewhere, not that it would matter to a-holes like Walker.
Where do I start? There is so much in this that needs addressing.
"It has gotten so bad that even Democratic governors — usually friendly with labor — are targeting public employees and unions as ripe for cutbacks."
This is one of the big misconceptions. Democratic governors have only been friendly to labor in so far as it hasn't impacted enacting tax cuts and giveaways to businesses and the ultra wealthy or their campaign contributions. When push comes to shove over whether businesses and the rich should pony up taxes to pay for government or whether to cut programs and screw government workers, Governors - whether Democratic or not always choose the cuts and screwing of the workers.
"What you are seeing is state governments across the country making a stand. Taxpayers are tired of subsidizing benefits they never get."
Of course what Ohio's Governor nor his aide will say is that we should be working to increase the pay and benefits of the private sector workers and increasing their rates of unionism supported by strong union laws.
"In New York, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is facing a $10 billion budget gap. He has vowed to balance his budget without tax increases. One of the key parts of his plan is to cut about $550 million by freezing public employee salaries and requiring them to pay a bigger share of their pensions and benefits coverage. He has threatened unions with as many as 9,800 layoffs if they can't agree on a deal."
This in a state that rebates the over 16 billion dollars per year of financial trade tax money they collect back to Wall Street.
"Wisconsin Education Association Council President Mary Bell and Wisconsin State Employees Union Executive Director Marty Beil have both said the state's unions are willing to consider the governor's changes to their pension and benefits plans. But the unions remain dead set against his bid to end most collective bargaining rights."
Why, oh why is a union representative saying that they are willing to bargain away ANY gain they have made. When WILL the concessions end? If these public employees MUST because of the very real budget problems sacrifice then they damn well better be talking about ALL public employees - including management and elected officials. And they should be talking TEMPORARY cuts with SPECIFIC sunset clauses built in. Never has any wage or benefit concession EVER been restored once taken away.
Good article explaining Wisconsin's budget problems without ANY hype from either side:
http://www.wpri.org/Reports/Volume23/Vol23No1/Vol23No1.html
Then we have the "conservative" take on how to balance Wisconsin's state budget. From the MacIver Intitute of Wisconsin
http://maciverinstitute.com/2010/11/the-maciver-principles-to-guide-wisconsins-budget/
"Pursue privatization when cost-effective
The costs of providing compensation and benefits for public employees and retirees are a ticking fiscal time bomb. We can no longer afford to pay for state employees to provide janitorial services, food service and a whole host of jobs that the private sector could provide at a better value. In many cases the private sector can deliver cost savings, innovation and exercise the ability to adapt to meet changing needs in the way unionized public employees cannot."
Of course what they leave out in this gem of a paragraph is that the reason these oh so "efficient" private businesses can "save" money is because they don't provide any benefits to their workers and in far too many cases don't even provide living wages. How anyone can think it is possible to ADD profit (which is extra money) and still be able to save money is plain delusional - unless of course they are okay with lowering workers standards of living which is the ONLY place these "savings" can come from.
And of course I haven't even mentioned the fact that these people were ELECTED by these same people now so shocked at what they are doing. From the 2010 Wisconsin governors campaign we have the following two passages out of an Associated Press article from November 2, 2010 right after the election that saw Walker become governor.
"The 43-year-old Walker, the Milwaukee County executive, said his tax cut plans will generate economic growth and lead to the creation of 250,000 new jobs. He's promised to cut billions of dollars in taxes, which he said will help spur that economic growth while Barrett argued such a move was unrealistic and would lead to deep cuts to schools, health care and other state programs."
and,
"Voters who backed Walker said they thought he was the better choice to turn around the state's economy, spur job creation and cut the bureaucracy. Several also said they liked his opposition to a federally funded high-speed rail line between Madison and Milwaukee."
Its as if the people of Wisconsin hadn't learned a thing about cutting taxes and job creation from the past 30 years of "trickle down", or as G.H.W. Bush once said, "Voodoo Economics".
Thanks for your excellent deconstruction of this inside the beltway propaganda, that clearly bends over to service those wishing to bust the unions.
I didn't have nearly the patience, when I posted that this article is a better fit for the Washington Times, rather than CD.
I wholeheartedly agree. I am retired from the Kansas City Missouri Water Dept.. For the last 12 years of my employ, I was a Union Steward for AFSCME Local 500. Every "memorandum of understanding" was hard fought. Some years we got no pay increase, but always got something in the form of benefits, if not pay. The City invariably offered nothing to begin. There was a constant mantra of "privatize" this or "privatize" that, including a push for a while to Privatize the entire water dept. Clearer heads prevailed when an honest research found that in the long run a privately owned company always wound up costing the consumer more than the publicly owned non-profit company. Every job category that was privatized, though, brought the standard of living in KCMo. down. The employees of the private company were paid less per hour, and had fewer or no benefits. Many times they were located across the state line in Kansas. It is impossible to cut costs without cutting living standards except when the costs are found in waste or theft. Big business is always trying to bust unions. Big business controls government. Big business and government uses our fellow(non or anti-union(they're not exactly the same)) citizens making less money with poorer benefits or none at all to work against collective bargaining. They need to be educated so they know that they are aligned against their own self-interest. The enemy here is big business and the insistance on profit above all else.
I am a retired civil servant from Ohio. During the years I worked for the State we experienced wage freezes over the course of 25% of the years I worked. During most of those years, appointed officials (non civil service) got pay increases. The position I held required at least a Masters Degree, yet my wages during those years (ending in 2006) never once exceeded $70,000. I checked recently and learned that they are still the same now.
In all states the overwhelming majority of public employees have more advanced degrees than the general public AND far more than any elected or appointed officials other than lawyers. It is far too easy for politicians to criticize the salaries of public employees because they forget to mention the education required by law a teacher, a nurse, a counselor, or a social worker must have. And yet that teacher, nurse, couselor or social worker is rarely paid as much as police officer or fireman with the same seniority. So we have Wisconsin's governor trying to bust the union that represent the educated employees while preserving the police and firemen, obviously hoping they will be available to operate as his personal goon squad. ( Kudos to the FOP in Wisconsin for not taking the bait).
When I started working for Ohio in 1981, a painter made $11.22/hr. I was paid a little over $7.00/hr. Today the job I had pays about $69,000/yr if you 25 years of seniority. The painter is around $48,000 with the same experience. The painter may or may not be making more than the private sector. A nurse starts at $40,000 in the private sector but starts at about $32,000 in the public employment. The job I had at retirement exists in the private sector and pay about $30,000 more than I was making. Teachers, the bulk of public employees, make more than their peers in the private sector, only because their peers mostly work for religious and charter schools that rely on dedication or incompetence to fill their rosters. These are the facts that are being ignored.
Many times I heard someone say to me, "I sure would like to have your job." My response was usually, "Okay, go back to school for 7 or 8 more years, spend $120,000 on tuition and then pass the civil exam and get yourself selected from among the candidates for the job."
I predict that many states are going to find the pickings slim when they post jobs in the future.
Most union jobs are low pay. In WI, a union janitor makes $11 an hour. Need a job?There's bunches available no one wants - you too can breath toxic chemicals the rest of your life and live in poverty. Most of them are so poor, their families receive food stamps. My wifes gov union job, which requires a college degree and a state license, pays $18/hr, after 20 years of experience. There is no higher pay grade; she's topped out. Only because we both work are we able to own a 50 yr old house and provide for our children. Her father had a high school education and worked in the private sector and was able to own a home and support a family on just his income. Now it takes 2 people with college degrees just to have a baseline American dream. All while worker productivity has sky rocked due to automation and vast fortunes are accumulated by a tiny few feeding off the goods and services produced by workers. The system needs to be made more fair, not less fair.
Most union jobs are low pay. In WI, a union janitor makes $11 an hour. Need a job?There's bunches available no one wants - you too can breath toxic chemicals the rest of your life and live in poverty. Most of them are so poor, their families receive food stamps. My wifes gov union job, which requires a college degree and a state license, pays $18/hr, after 20 years of experience. There is no higher pay grade; she's topped out. Only because we both work are we able to own a 50 yr old house and provide for our children. Her father had a high school education and worked in the private sector and was able to own a home and support a family on just his income. Now it takes 2 people with college degrees just to have a baseline American dream. All while worker productivity has sky rocked due to automation and vast fortunes are accumulated by a tiny few feeding off the goods and services produced by workers. The system needs to be made more fair, not less fair.
As usual Spec, excellent comment.
This article is a better fit for the Washington Times, than CD.
¿Want to balance the budget? Make the corporations pay their share of taxes!
Politicians have just joined the Wal-Mart race to the bottom. Don't join in that race. We all deserve a living wage. I'm not saying that public sector workers have a living wage, now. I'm saying we ALL deserve a living wage.
Terran
Just wondering, will judges, prosecutors, district attorneys and prison wardens also be sharing in the sacrifice? They are public sector workers paid with tax payer money.
All I have to say is bravo to Wisconsin's public sector workers, though, in the end, Walker will spit in their faces because his financial backers expect a return on their investment in him. He was paid to destroy the unions and he knows better than to disrespect the corporate thugs who financed his campaign.
Change the term from "Collective Bargaining" to "Corporate Bargaining." It means the same thing, but sounds less "radical or revolutionary." Sound more business like, less "Communist."
Poor journalism!!
Author completely misses the fact that corporations have invested millions to elect politicians that cut their taxes. The reason we didn't have these fiscal problems in the 1970s was that corporations paid much more in taxes. Then came Reagan. Ever since, companies have held the public hostage, demanding and receiving tax breaks that should be considered criminal.
The easiest way to fix financial woes is to raise taxes. Walker will not even consider that. Hence, this whole Wisconsin debacle is not about fiscal issues. It's about creating a false financial crisis in order to break the unions.
We need to stick to that message.
Something is fishy with the election system. Why are such radical servants of the wealthy being elected to work against the very people who elected them?
Since electronic voting became the method of running elections, the candidates have been moving steadily to the radical right.
Something is crooked. Do you agree?
Absolutely.
Unequivocably
They call it rigging.
Again, it seems to be about time that the Unions and the Progressive poltical elements in this country band together to form a third political party in opposition to not only the Repuglicans who are under the thimb of the moneyed Power Elite (Ne: Corporatizers) and the Dumbocrats who are the sheepish followers of the Plutocracyand Oligarchy Greed-heads whose only interest is in the size of their estates, and begin to make some REAL governmental changes that will see that everyone can enjoy a reasonably comfortable living in the so-called "Land of Opportunity" - - and begin with a revision of the Federal Tax Code!
National Employed Workers Union NEWU New You...
A citizen task force, a non-whorporate plan, a band of lawyers who would fight corruption, a credit union, a health plan in house, a employee owned insurance company...hmmm
It is nice to see an article that explains the other sides perspective more clearly. I can see now the struggle governments are having. The issue then is why are we in this situation in the first place and what are we doing to change our ways? And we all know that tax breaks for the wealthy should not be on the table if the working class is taking such a hit, but what are the numbers? How much money would really be saved if we were all taxed equally?
Notice that 'Citizens United' gave speech rights to UNIONS as well as corporations.
This is a corporate offensive against that side of the ruling.
EXTREMELY CRITICAL TO HOLD OUR GROUND!!
Well, let's face it folks, We all know what happened, really bad trade policy.Nafta literally rushed jobs overseas. When these corporations left our borders, we should have packed up their wifes, kids, grandma and the dog, and sent them packing.
If they don't build in America, they don't live in America. I would just like to see this whole mess get over with. When george started his war, America just went to hell. That dirty little pervert and the real president mr. cheney, knew they were going to make a fortune on the war. You all know what happened, But it's not too late, corporations thrive on money.STOP SPENDING MONEY. Christ !we are already at the bottom, the only thing that can happen is they will all leave. Cut the bottom out of this house of cards ! Folks have lost jobs, homes, pensions. These items will not be replaced. The only thing left to save, is unions.
Without unions ....nobody would have a say in their income.or saftey in the workplace. The best thing we can do is to stop working for the gov't. Do your own backyard business. Organic gardens are great! I LOVE BACKYARD MECHANICS.I LOVE HAVING SOMEONE PAINT MY HOUSE,MOW MY YARD ETC.Its time to ask questions. It is time for civil disobedience, It is time to drive congress nut's with emails and phone calls, You will feel great....QQQQQQQQQQQQQQ