Apocalypse Now: Wisconsin vs. Big Labor

[Guest]

by Michelle Malkin

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 GOP Gov. 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.

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 has 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.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=41868

[abelisle]

I think the real issue is the not so subtle desire to get rid of all collective bargaining and eventually all labor unions. From what I've read, they're willing to negotiate financial cutbacks.

If that happens, who protects the worker against work related abuses initiated by the employer?

Alex

P.S. Nice pic!

[Dr. Shane]

We know that labor unions will help usher in the National Sunday Law so we have to be very cautious about supporting them. We also know that the unions are more interested in self-preservation than in the welfare of the employees.

When we talk about protecting employees from employers one would normally think we are talking about workers being oppressed by a greedy boss - in other words, the private sector. I think when talking about public employees, everyone involved would be better served with laws regulating pay and benefits rather than unions.

[Guest]

P.S. Nice pic!

[bonnie]

I think the real issue is the not so subtle desire to get rid of all collective bargaining and eventually all labor unions. From what I've read, they're willing to negotiate financial cutbacks.

If that happens, who protects the worker against work related abuses initiated by the employer?

Alex

P.S. Nice pic!

who protects the worker against work related abuses initiated by the employer?

The same that protects the vast majority of american employee's. Only a small percentage belong to unions.

Most I believe are the government worker.At the end of WW2 it still was only between 30-35%.Today it is about 15%.

Only about 10% in the private secter belong to unions

My husband was always non-union.Until he went on his own if he felt the employer unfair he found another job.As a adult he did not feel the need to whine and ask someone to protect him

What may have been the case years ago no longer applies. You would be hard pressed to find a non-corrupt union.

Collective bargaining is limited to pensions and health care and the need for them to pay a little more towards their own health care and pensions.

Poor babies,why should they pay more towards their own needs?

Amazing how many of us could take care of our own.Pay all of our own insurance and any pension.

Would love to see all those teachers flat out fired

[Dr. Shane]

I think unions did serve a purpose at one time. The fat man use to dance and make the skinny man pay the band. In the private sector, many companies took advantage of their workers in such a way that only the fires of hell will do them justice. In those days, unions were a necessary evil. But society has progressed to the point where most private sector companies are regulated in such a way that unions have become obsolete. The public sector remains highly unionized and it is probably about time that society decides that is not needed. The government hasn't been taking advantage of its workers for a long time.

[bonnie]

Maybe you think the female teacher that was moaning and groaning about how upsetting it would be to tell her daughter she could no longer take dance lessons. However will she deal with that deprivation.Families are losing their homes,have a tough time putting food on the table and this empty headed,self centered so called teacher whines about dance lessons.

Let us not forget as well that a hizzy fit was thrown about viagra not being paid for thru their health care.

[Guest]

I remember that....