The failure of Democrats in Wisconsin to stop passage of a budget repair bill, including a scaling back of public sector collective bargaining as to benefits, is being portrayed as a “gift” to Democrats and public sector unions. The usual suspects are describing Gov. Scott Walker’s victory in the legislature as Republican’s “Waterloo.”
There will be no groundswell of support for public sector unions, even as people feel a connection to public sector employees. The reason is that not much really has changed for public sector employees or the public, other than putting Wisconsin’s ship of state on a proper fiscal course.
Wisconsin has been a devastating blow to public sector union power and pocketbooks, but it was not a blow to public sector employees whose jobs now are more secure because layoffs will not be needed to balance the budget.
In a few days or weeks, even with the recall efforts by national unions and Democratic groups, the nation will have moved on …
to the possible government shutdown in Washington, D.C., budget crises in multiple other states, more controntations between Governors of each party and public sector unions, and so on.
The protesters will be bused elsewhere. The public sector employess will see more money in their paychecks.
There are hockey games to attend, snow to shovel, and a private sector economy to grow.
——————————————–
Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube
Visit the Legal Insurrection Shop on CafePress!
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
GOPs Waterloo. Whatever. What they won't say is that for decades this has always been the implied threat, "challenge our power and we will organize against you". One Governor and 18 Senators finally said "bring it".
Precisely.
Odd that no one noticed Idaho taking collective bargaining away from teachers.
http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/mar/08/bargaining-rights-face-ax-for-idaho-teachers/
From da techguy:
"Yes, E.D. Kain, Wisconsin is the Republican Waterloo … they are playing the role of Wellington."
i am a public sector employee, as are many of my friends. we support walker (shh don't tell our union reps)
So happy to be wrong about Walker, but I am worried about the "chilling" effect on other governors who need to do the same thing. I just hope they all do it at once, even the union thugs can't be in ten or twenty states at once.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 14.2% of Wisconsin workers are union. That means that 85.2% are not.
It was the non-union workers who flipped Wisconsin from blue to red. So if the Dems think that recalls are going to be a viable tactic, I suggest they think again. Those who voted for Walker, and the Republicans, are seeing a governor who is doing what he said he would do; lower the deficit that Wisconsin suffers.
If this was such a loss for Republicans, why the need for the unions to bus thousands of people to Madison? Why not just allow Walker to do what he was going to do and defeat him in four years, returning to the same old Democratic ways that put Wisconsin in the financial red to begin with? It is because for all their huffing and puffing, the unions know if their backs are broken in Wisconsin, it is a movement that will spread to every state in the nation that is suffering from not enough money to pay the bills.
Union leadership is not stupid. Richard Trumka cares more about his power, and tony six figure income, than worker's "rights." He also knows that when the union can no longer continue to fund sympathetic Democrats for election, the power of the Democrats will also be greatly reduced.
This was not about "rights" but about the out-of-control power PEUs have gained in the last two decades.
This was an excellent victory in Wisconsin. We need to keep this momentum going and achieve more such victories, which started with the success of the Tea Party and the elections last fall.
Celebrate this, and be proud.
Look at this absolutely pure blackmail.
http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2011/03/wisconsin-unions-now-threatening.html
It looks to me like the signers of this letter should be in jail for very real threats.
Other thoughts, @Fuzzy Slippers, this was no means a PR win for the Unions. They expended an exorbitant amount of cash and 'good will' on their Madison operation that blew up in their faces. I say, let 'em show the world their true colors.
What would be best is if we could keep these Madison protests going until next elections. That would be delicious, union goons and their abhorrent behavior as front page news every day for two years! They would PR and Waterloo themselves into oblivion! Excellent.
In this mixed-up rebellion, who are the Rebels and who are the Union supporters?
I never fail to be amazed at what you can learn with a little bit of web surfing.
While Michael Moore-on was busy telling the protesters in Wisconsin that the state was NOT broke, that "it's our money and I want it back" and other such far leftist assinine comments, it seems that Mr. Moore-on is a "fat" cat himself, in more ways than one.
How much did Moore-on earn from his bogus crockumentary, Sicko? Well, it seems more than most producers would. The movie cost $9 mil to make and earned roughly $25 Mil in U.S. theaters. Moore negotiated via his agent, a tony 50% of the movie's gross profits (minuse the theater owner's take of ticket sales). And while most producers get a 20% take of DVD sales, oh, no, not the man of the people. He gets 50% of all DVD sales.
So Michael Moore-on's Sicko take seems to work out to about another $10 million to add to the already $10 million of his estimated worth.
And who was the agent that negotiated such a lucrative deal for Michael Moore-on? None other than Ari Emanuel, brother of the former White House Chief of Staff and now the newly elected Mayor of Chicago.
Now, I'm off to see if I can find out how much money Moore-on donates to charity. I am sure he just saves enough to live off of in some little suburb outside of Walawallah. But then, he does have to keep enough to send his kids to that private school with such great [non-union] teachers.
Everyone needs to keep in mind that this group
http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2011/03/communist-party-calls-for-stepped-up.html
is running the attempt to destroy the US in Wisconsin.
The Communists have trained their whole lives, in many cases, to defeat us.
My father was a shop steward with the CWA. He hated the union, but because of the closed shop, he got every employee to join the union they were forced to pay into .. might as well get what you were forced to pay for. If they had been given a choice not to pay, the whole shop would have dropped the union in a minute.
I expect to see a lot of defections as union members get the choice not to pay their dues.
I am a bit confused. I thought the issue in Wisconsin was about the budget. If this bill passed does not affect employees' compensation, how does it deal with those budgetary issues?
Seems like this is good old fashion union busting, dressed up as fiscal restraint.
obpopulus — it's fiscal restraint by limiting their ability to extract more from the taxpayers. Nice try, though.
obpopulus ….
"Union busting" ….. sure…
Tell us again who the eeevilll exploitative employer is in the "public union" scenario.
Lets see, government could act like any other employer and renegotiate contracts or use hring freezes and layoffs to control costs; but Wisconsin decides to take away all collective bargaining rights and reserve unto itself what it deems necessary to give to its employees. The new attitude fed by envy is let them eat cake.
Don't tell me that the unions still have some collective bargaining rights as unions can still negotiate wages. Any increase there can easily be offset by the government increasing employee contributions to other benefits.
Wisconsin has set itself up to be sole arbitor of the work place without any counter weight, in essence no checks or balances upon its power.
Our government system is replete with checks and balances so to insure that government does not become to powerful and eventually, tyrannical.
So those who believe in limiting government power in all other areas of our life as a healthy fear of government's oppressive nature feel it is appropriate in this one instance for government to act without any counterbalance.
It is what it is and that is union busting in order for government to consolidate power. Simple as that.