Unions go head to head with governor in Wisconsin

Posted by on Wednesday, February 23, 2011 · 5 Comments 

Republican Scott Walker was elected governor of Wisconsin in the US mid-term elections last year. He ran on a conservative platform emphasizing fiscal responsibility.

Once in office, Walker set about dealing with Wisconsin’s debt problem. He targeted the benefits of Wisconsin’s public sector unions.

Knowing that they would lose if the matter came to a vote, Wisconsin’s Democratic senators fled to deny Republican lawmakers from bringing the matter to the floor.

When Walker started threatening to cut benefits, public sector workers like teacher, firemen and nurses were enraged.

Despite threats from Walker that he might mobilize the national guard against the unions, 25,000 strikers converged on Wisconsin’s state capitol to protest the proposed cuts.

The protest struck a chord all over the world. A local pizzeria got orders from as far abroad as Egypt to help feed the strikers. But what will happen to Wisconsin’s fiscal condition if they get what they want?

wisconsin final Unions go head to head with governor in Wisconsin (Next Media Animation TV)

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  • Britnee

    Members of unions CAN choose to contribute to a PAC sponsored by their union; however, union dues cannot be used for political donations.  Unions are not primarily political lobbies; they allow people to bargain for reasonable working conditions–conditions that extend well beyond the number of $ in one’s paycheck.  In Wisconsin, state workers have forgone numerous cost-of-living pay increases in favor of maintaining their healthcare and pension benefits.  Now that seems like a bad bargain.   (BTW: I teach college courses and make $35,800/year.  I do not think I am overpaid for what I do.)

  • http://westanddivided.blogspot.com/ Dividist

    If Public Sector workers work for “the people”, they should not be permitted to strike or enact work actions against “the people”.
    As FDR said in 1937:
    “The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service,”  Yes, public workers may demand fair treatment.. I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place” in the public sector. “A strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government.”

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  • http://tryingtoohard.org Zack

    Right on, right on!
     
    Unions are only vessels used for funding the Liberal Democrats.

  • max

    A public sector employee is not working for the “man”, they work for the people….  –