MADISON, Wis. — As four game wardens awkwardly stood guard, protesters, scores deep, crushed into a corridor leading to the governor’s office here on Wednesday, their screams echoing through the Capitol: “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”
Behind closed doors, Scott Walker, the Republican who has been governor for about six weeks, calmly described his intent to forge ahead with the plans that had set off the uprising: He wants to require public workers to pay more for their health insurance and pensions, effectively cutting the take-home pay of many by around 7 percent.
He also wants to weaken most public-sector unions by sharply curtailing their collective bargaining rights, limiting talks to the subject of basic wages.
I think we’ll be seeing more of this.
Found by Cinàedh.
#56 ReadyKilowatt
Where I was born and reared, there used to be two huge steel mills. They employed, directly and indirectly, the entire population of the city. One mill was fully unionized and the other mill wasn’t unionized at all.
My father spent his entire life in the non-unionized mill and most of my family members financed their way through college in the non-unionized mill.
We were always very grateful to the unionized employees because our mill paid whatever the union mill workers and their families literally fought and bled and sacrificed to gain, plus we always got one more dollar per hour than they got in their contract. That was to (successfully) bribe us not to form or to join a union.
I have never been a union person either but I have always understood and appreciated their history, their sacrifices and their dogged perseverance in the face of overwhelming wealth and power.
You might want to try it sometime.
Consider this, if you will. You are currently on the side of the intellectual MikeN and the rest of the Koch Brownshirts.
If you have a shred of decency in you, you might want to think about that for a moment and perhaps reconsider.
#61, Yeah, right to work without being threatened and intimidated by a bunch of union goons who would like nothing better than to have the state shelter them from labor competition.
#64->
Sounds like your non-unionized mill had a very smart and savvy head. I would have been proud to work for him.
I’m confused, though. Were you defending unions or criticizing them? Your example is a good one on why unions aren’t needed anymore.
Consider this — His labor costs were more than the unionized one and he still managed to compete with it. How did he do that? Did the workers actually work 8 hours a day or risk getting fired? What?
#66 G2
Everyone in the non-unionized mill was terrified of getting fired at any time for any reason or for no reason. Workers had no rights or recourse when they were treated badly. They could quit and starve, I suppose, although most people didn’t consider that a viable option.
It was like slave labor for Nazis, except you got paid.
After working there for 27 years, my father was taken off steady days (which he had earned) and was put on midnights. He wasn’t very happy for the next five years, then he died.
Both mills were sold, closed and shipped to China, so it hardly matters anymore which system was best, does it?
The rich owners and stockholders got even more fabulously wealthy and the poor workers got fucked, as usual. It’s the American Way, neh? End of story.
#52, Reagan, so what parts don’t you agree with? Increased labor productivity allows workers to produce more while working fewer hours? Or that capital investment by the employers is what causes labor productivity to increase? Or you just don’t like it because it doesn’t jive with your idea that unions are the only reason that we all aren’t still working 16 hour days in early 19th century factory conditions (which themselves were preferable to toiling all day long on the family farm).
#67->
Terrified? 27 years is a long time to be terrified?
If it was that bad, why didn’t he move to a place where the working conditions were better? He should have acquired some skills during that time period that would most certainly have been of benefit to someone else.
I’m not trying to slam you dad. My dad had the same experience except it was IN a unionized plant. He wasn’t in constant fear of being fired, but the working conditions were pretty horrible. And this was a UAW plant. He worked there for for over 30 years. Retired and dropped dead.
I always asked why he didn’t look for something else. Golden Handcuffs was his response.
Like your dad, this plant was moved to Mexico.
Unions at one time served a purpose. They were for craftsman. Now they are political bodies with momentum of their own. I lived in a union household and I saw it first-hand.
I guess the grass is always greener . . .
Cheeseheads.
Looked through some stories in the media, and I notice that none of the stories say that the protesters are ‘mostly white,’ which they loved to do during Tea Party protests. Why isn’t the media pointing out this fact now?
The people don’t want the law but it will get voted into law anyway.
Yay, democracy.
I recall a story about a somewhat cranky guy who worked as a janitor in a hospital run by the Catholic church. He was doing his job and talking about wages with a co-worker, and at one point he said: “I’m never paid what I’m worth”.
A nun standing nearby overheard, and snapped back at him: “You’re always paid what you’re worth!”.
The cranky employee and the stiff penny-pinching manager. What a parable.
Anyway, I’ve been both a ‘worker’ and a ‘professional’ in my time, and I found that if you are skilled and confident in what you do, and if you think you’re not being compensated enough by your employer, you simply “vote with your feet” and go find a better situation (I’ve seen it happen a number of times).
The problem seems to be that if your skills are limited to pushing a mop etc. you don’t really have much to choose from in that regard, union or not. A culture must try to empathize with such folks and help them as best it can, but without ‘coddling’ them.
It’s gotta be one of the greatest dilemmas of all time.
Everybody vomits their venom on federal and state employees. You might want to do a little research and stop watching TV and movies for your education on what they do. Everybody wants to cut both state and federal government programs and workers. They want to cut every program that they don’t use. The problems is that everyone uses at least one of those programs. What do you cut when every program is used? Missouri no COLA for the last two years. No raises period except for a politically motivated one back on 07. Lowest paid state employees 50 out of 50. They jumped to 49th after the raise in 07 Mississippi jumped back up with two raises. With a degree figure 39K top end not starting. Five years to become vested in the retirement program. A copay insurance program. If you go to work for the state today, again no COLA or raise, eleven years for vestment plus you pay 4% for your retirement in MOSERS and a deductible plan. If your a government employee you either love what you do, or your an idiot, possibly both.
As a side note the reason the dems vacated the state is that if they stay away the bill dies due to the state time lines for bills.
Second side note I am a state employee-as a third career-and there are days that I feel I fall into all of those categories.
$75 that’s about what I think government workers should be making.
There were over 60,000 people protesting today:
http://wkow.com/Global/story.asp?S=14062370
Shades of Egypt. Maybe the governor isn’t learning the lesson of Mubarak.
I’m a state employee and trust me….I’m not overpaid! I could make twice as much in the private sector. What state employees get is a sense of job security and a base package of benefits and little else. They are not assured a career ladder, they don’t get a generous match for a 401K, they don’t get good health insurance, they don’t get a good retirement package, and the pay is always under the competitive minimum. They also can’t unionize, and the public unions that do exist cannot strike, they cannot collective bargain, they can’t walk out, they can’t sit-in, they can’t do work slowdowns, and all they really have is an advocate who can lobby legislators, that’s it.
Rick, I did make twice as much in the private sector. State work is what will probably be my last career. I found “retirement” rather boring. When the position that I took came open a couple of people who I have known in the state called me and asked if I would be interested. I had never really thought about govt work at the time. I also bought into most of the stereotypes promulgated by the media. What I found was actually a group of people who put our a great deal of effort to do a good job. Yes there are those who are lazy or incompetent. Just like every where else I have ever worked. They are a very small minority, and due to the way jobs work very hard to remove. Pretty much like a union shop.
Mike, you should remember you get what you pay for. Think about that the next time you go for a drive.