Republicans sucker punch the Unions

[Jondalar]

Senate passes collective bargaining bill
The Business Journal
Date: Wednesday, March 9, 2011, 6:50pm CST
Related: Economic Snapshot

The Wisconsin state Senate Wednesday evening quickly passed a bill that would end most collective bargaining rights for public employees.
On a 18-1 vote, the Senate passed that bill that did not include any financial items included by Gov. Scott Walker. The 14 Democratic senators, who fled to Illinois three weeks ago to try and stop the bill, were not in Madison for the vote.
The bill is expected to be considered by the state Assembly Thursday morning.
In a statement after the vote, Walker praised the action and said Democratic senators had delayed the vote long enough.
"The Senate Democrats have had three weeks to debate this bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come home, which they refused," he said. "In order to move the state forward, I applaud the Legislature’s action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform government. The action today will help ensure Wisconsin has a business climate that allows the private sector to create 250,000 new jobs."


Read more: Senate passes collective bargaining bill | The Business Journal

[KarmaContestant]

http://scottwalkerwatch.com/?p=985

[Jondalar]

Thank you. This makes me sick to my stomach. I hope Obama gets aggressive and makes them pay.

[louielouie2000]

I have such mixed feelings on unions. I definitely like the idea of there being organized advocacy groups for American workers... but I can't say I really agree with the behavior most unions exhibit. For instance, striking during this economic depression seems soooo out of touch. Millions of Americans are struggling to find work, and unions are striking. Those workers should be supremely thankful they still have jobs. It just makes no sense to me.

And the coddling which unions have wrangled for their workers is just deplorable, in my opinion. This leads to poor workplace performance, in my view. And the exorbitant labor costs unions have brought on means that manufacturers and their products have suffered heartily. In turn, this leads to manufacturers outsourcing from the US. And foreign companies and their products gain huge advantages over US products.

I may be a card carrying Democrat, but I've also always lived in 'right to work' states (ie: no unions). It seems to me that the hardest hit states during the economic downturn have all been union states... and 'right to work' states have already started rebounding. I suppose when it comes down to it, on many issues I'm moderately fiscally conservative... but HUGELY socially liberal.

[estranged4life]

I live in a 'right to work' state, and I noticed once that law passed here more employers relocated to Oklahoma from 'union' states. I never needed someone to protect my job when the only person needed was staring back at me in the mirror, why would I give money to someone to protect my job, that in my mind is totally illogical.

I have seen SOME good unions here in Oklahoma, but most of those died off once NAFTA was signed and the jobs went South faster than you can say "Bill Clinton." The union that represented Bridgestone Tires in OKC (United Steelworkers) was one of the good ones, before that facility decided to close shop and ship ALL 600+ jobs to Mexico, the company heads wanted the employees in OKC to train THEIR REPLACEMENT workers from Mexico at the OKC facility (So once the new facility was up and running the Mexican workers would know how to do their jobs)- the union workers stood united and told the company heads to "f**k off and train them yourself".

[KarmaContestant]

I may be a card carrying Democrat, but I've also always lived in 'right to work' states (ie: no unions). It seems to me that the hardest hit states during the economic downturn have all been union states... and 'right to work' states have already started rebounding. I suppose when it comes down to it, on many issues I'm moderately fiscally conservative... but HUGELY socially liberal.

Colorado is a right to work state, but our state employees (as well as teachers) are also unionized, so the two can go hand-in-hand, and are not mutually exclusive. Right-to-work really means that you can be fired for no reason - it's 'right to terminate' without cause.

The bigger issue at hand with union busting is that unions are the largest contributors to Democratic campaigns. Bust the unions, and you singlehandedly remove the majority of campaign financing for Democrats.

I have mixed feelings, too, but in the case of Wisconsin, the public unions agreed to all the budget issues and concessions they were being asked to make - if they kept their right to collectively bargain. In the end, that wasn't enough for Scott Walker. So this really isn't about fiscal issues - it's about power and politics, using teachers, firemen and police officers as pawns in battle of the bi-polar American political system.

[Jondalar]

Colorado is a right to work state, but our state employees (as well as teachers) are also unionized, so the two can go hand-in-hand, and are not mutually exclusive. Right-to-work really means that you can be fired for no reason - it's 'right to terminate' without cause.

The bigger issue at hand with union busting is that unions are the largest contributors to Democratic campaigns. Bust the unions, and you singlehandedly remove the majority of campaign financing for Democrats.

I have mixed feelings, too, but in the case of Wisconsin, the public unions agreed to all the budget issues and concessions they were being asked to make - if they kept their right to collectively bargain. In the end, that wasn't enough for Scott Walker. So this really isn't about fiscal issues - it's about power and politics, using teachers, firemen and police officers as pawns in battle of the bi-polar American political system.

It's a total underhanded to get at the Democrats funding. People have fought for these rights. I'm very confident though that Obama will win the next election. The Repuclicans have no one who can beat him.