...And democracy dies in Wisconsin.

[Nitro Express]

The last real Democrat in office was JFK. Since then they all have been fake.

[Nitro Express]

Not surprising this was on the Council on Foreign Relations website:

Wisconsin's War With Union Represents Progress
Author:
Amity Shlaes, Senior Fellow for Economic History
February 22, 2011
Bloomberg
Targeting public unions is unwise, rash and retrograde. That's the take in some quarters on Republican Governor Scott Walker's plan to curtail collective bargaining for public-sector unions in his state, Wisconsin.
In a tone reminiscent of a Madison professor pouring cold water over an ill-judged dissertation, President Barack Obama recently admonished: “It's important not to vilify them or suggest somehow all these budget problems are due to public employees.” On Salon.com, contributor Stephanie Taylor described Walker's effort to strip away long-standing public- sector bargaining rights as “a step backward, not forward, in the march of American progress.”
Such analysis has it backward. Walker's decision to reduce public-union powers isn't rash. It is overdue. Teacher pensions do weigh down state budgets, both in Wisconsin and the other 49 states. And Walker's move won't necessarily hurt his career. It may catapult him to the national stage, or even the presidency.
As for the gubernatorial campaign to end collective bargaining for his own employees, it may benefit the average worker across the country. That's what happened in 1919 when another unknown Republican governor, Calvin Coolidge, stood firm in Massachusetts against a strong union representing government workers.
American Uprising
The similarities start with the indispensability of the group at issue. Teachers and prison guards are two classes that are crucial to Wisconsin's functioning. In their day, the Boston police, Coolidge's target, were even more crucial. As World War I closed, many Americans, especially in rough port cities, wondered if revolutions in Russia and Europe might inspire Americans to rise up as well. Industrialization was new enough that people believed it may require another political format.
In February 1919, the city of Seattle had moved close to anarchy in a general strike. Returning veterans were cash-short and angry. In Boston, the police were public insurance against the city morphing into another Petrograd.
And just as Wisconsin's teachers do now, the police of Boston made a compelling case. Their pay raises had lagged behind inflation. Vermin populated their police stations; rats were known to make meals of the leather in police helmets. Yet the police commissioner seemed indifferent, arrogant in his knowledge that police contracts prohibited unionization.
Off the Job
In the summer of 1919, the patrolmen and officers determined to protest. In August, they announced plans to unionize. Members of the Boston Social Club, the policemen's euphemistically named proto-union, then affiliated publicly with the American Federation of Labor. This choice, too, was made carefully: the convivial Sam Gompers was known for his ability to get along with public officials. Then, on Sept. 9 at 5:45 p.m., about 1,000 patrolmen walked off the job.
The sound of breaking glass filled the city within hours. Riots ensued in South Boston and West End. Groceries were looted. Crowds sabotaged a rail track so that a trolley derailed. In Roxbury, the New York Times correspondent reported, a conductor was shot in the leg by a youngster with a rifle. With Coolidge's backing, the police commissioner, Edwin Curtis, fired the police for breach of contract.
Like Walker, Curtis, with Coolidge in the background, chose not to grant the police their concessions. The state government got the blame for leaving Boston unprotected. On Sept. 11, inexcusably late in the view of many, Governor Coolidge called out the state guard. Commissioner Curtis, for his part, made it clear there would be no compromise in Massachusetts.
No Right
The police were fired. Instead of melting into conciliation, Coolidge plowed ahead, in mid-September sending the astonished Gompers a decidedly cold and categorical letter. There was, Coolidge wrote, “no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time.”
It was an election year in 1919 for the Bay State. Democrats expected the statement would hurt Coolidge's re- election campaign, especially in combination with his failure to keep Boston streets safe in those crucial September days. The party included an explicit line reflecting that in their platform: “we condemn Governor Coolidge for his inaction and failing to protect the lives and property of the people of Boston.”
Richard H. Long, Coolidge's opponent, sided with the strikers. The former policemen campaigned across the state against Coolidge. Coolidge, a career politician, is said to have told a colleague: “I do not care whether I am re-elected or not.”
‘Boston Police'
But Coolidge was re-elected. And his suddenly became a national name. In 1920, the Republicans made Coolidge the vice presidential candidate. Three years later, when President Warren Harding died and Coolidge became president, “Boston Police” remained American code for the principle that union causes do not trump others. The concern that the U.S. might succumb to European-style revolutions lifted. Strikes abated. Wages rose without unions in Motor City. Private-sector union membership declined. Joblessness dropped. Companies poured cash, which they otherwise would have spent on union relations, into innovation.
Walker isn't identical to Coolidge. Walker actually exempted many law-enforcement officials from his new restrictions on bargaining: an error. Walker isn't staving off progressivism, as Coolidge was. He is staving off bankruptcy.
But he may yet crystallize consensus, as Coolidge did. In 1919, as in 2011, the country suddenly realized that someone has to stop those excesses, and began to tell itself that that someone might as well be a governor.
Amity Shlaes, senior fellow in economic history at the Council on Foreign Relations, is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.
This article appears in full on CFR.org by permission of its original publisher. It was originally available here.

[lesfunk]

At least they still got cheese

[Nitro Express]

At least they still got cheese

It's not very good cheese. They make better cheese in Oregon.

[lesfunk]

That's a bold statement

[Nitro Express]

Both Stevie Ray Vaughn and democracy died in Wisconsin.

[Nitro Express]

That's a bold statement

Wisconsin cheese is to cheese what Pabst Blue ribbon is to beer.

The best cheese is from Holland and next to that, the best cheese is in Oregon.

[lesfunk]

Then we could say that their democracy is as good as their cheese ...

[FORD]

It's not very good cheese. They make better cheese in Oregon.

Better beer too.

[FORD]

Then we could say that their democracy is as good as their cheese ...

Yeah, because in Oregon they did the right thing and started taxing the rich.

We tried to do it here. Even had Bill Gates daddy doing the commercials, but the whore media up here is completely right wing and they distorted the whole issue like the good little corporatist puppets they are, and it failed.

[sadaist]

My favorite part of all of this was the pro-union people protesting when they did this vote. they yelled out " you cowards!". HAHAHAHAHA! Cowards for voting openly in the capital building? I think the cowards are the ones hiding at the Motel 6 across state lines too afraid to show their faces. The ones who fled are the cowards.


But today was a big fat win for the majority of regular Americans. You may disagree now, but this will start the ball rolling across the country & things will improve in the future because of this vote today.

[sadaist]

http://itmakessenseblog.com/2011/03/08/5-reasons-unions-are-bad-for-america/

5 Reasons Unions Are Bad For America
March 8th, 2011 | Author: jimschaffner

Townhall March 8, 2011 By John Hawkins

At one time in this country, there were few workplace safety laws, few restraints on employers, and incredibly exploitive working conditions that ranged from slavery, to share cropping, to putting children in dangerous working conditions. Unions, to their everlasting credit, helped play an important role in leveling the playing field for workers.

However, as the laws changed, there was less and less need for unions. Because of that, union membership shrank. In response, the unions became more explicitly involved in politics. Over time, they managed to co-opt the Democratic Party, pull their strings, and rewrite our labor laws in their favor.

s Lord Acton noted, “Power tends to corrupt,” and that has certainly been true for the unions. Unions have become selfish, extremely greedy, and even thuggish in their never-ending quest to take in as much as they can for themselves, at the expense of everyone else who crosses their path.

That’s why today, unions have changed from organizations that “look out for the little guy” into the largest, most rapacious special interest group in the entire country. Where unions go, disaster usually follows. Just to name a few examples:

1) Unions are severely damaging whole industries: How is it that GM and Chrysler got into such lousy shape that they had to be bailed out? There’s a simple answer: The unions. The massive pensions the car companies paid out raised their costs so much that they were limited to building more expensive cars to try to get their money back. They couldn’t even do a great job of building those cars because utterly ridiculous union rules prevented them from using their labor efficiently. America created the automobile industry, but American unions are strangling it to death. Unions also wrecked the steel and textile industries and have helped drive manufacturing jobs overseas. They’re crippling the airline industry and, of course, we can’t forget that…

2) Unions are ruining public education: Every few years, it’s the same old story. The teachers’ unions claim that public education in this country is dramatically underfunded and if they just had more money, they could turn it around. Taxpayer money then pours into our schools like a waterfall and….there’s no improvement. A few years later, when people have forgotten the last spending spree on education, the process is repeated.

However, the real problem with our education system in this country is the teachers’ unions. They do everything possible to prevent schools not only from firing lousy teachers, but also from rewarding talented teachers. Merit pay? The unions hate it. Private schools? Even though everyone knows they deliver a better education than our public schools, unions fight to keep as many kids as possible locked in failing private schools. In Wisconsin, we’ve had whole schools shutting down so that lazy teachers can waste their time protesting on the taxpayers’ dime. Want to improve education in this country? Then you’ve got to take on the teachers’ unions.

3) Unions are costing you billions of tax dollars: Let’s put it plain and simple: Government workers shouldn’t be allowed to unionize. Period.

Why?

Because you elect representatives to look out for your interests.

It’s obviously in your interest to pay as little as possible to government workers, to keep their benefits as low as possible, and to hire as few of them as possible to do the job. However, because the Democratic Party and the unions are in bed with each other, this entire process has been turned on its ear. Instead of looking out for your interests, Democrats try to hire as many government workers as possible, pay them as much as possible, and give them benefits that are as generous as possible, all so that union workers will do more to get them re-elected.

In other words, the Democratic Party and the unions are engaged in an open conspiracy to defraud the American taxpayer. There’s no way that the American people should allow that to continue.

4) Unions are fundamentally anti-democratic : How in the world did we get to the point where people can be forced to join a union just to get a job at certain places? Then, after they’re dragooned into the union, they have no choice other than to pay dues that are used for political activities which the unwilling dues-paying member may oppose.

Add to that the fact that the Democrats and the government unions collaborate to subvert democracy at the expense of the taxpayer and it’s not a pretty picture. Worse yet, unions have gotten so voracious that they even want to do away with the secret ballot, via card check, so they can openly bully people into joining unions. The way unions behave in this country is undemocratic, un-American, and it should trouble anyone who cares about freedom and individual rights.

5) Government unions are bankrupting cities and states: Government unions have bled billions from taxpayers nationally, but the damage they’re doing on the local level is even worse. We have cities and states all across the country that are so behind on their bills that there have been genuine discussions about bankruptcy. There are a lot of irresponsible financial policies that have helped contribute to that sorry state-of-affairs, but unquestionably, the biggest backbreakers can be directly traced back to the unions.

As the Washington Times has noted, union pensions are crushing budgets all across the country.

Yet it comes as little surprise that the same profligacy that pervades the corridors of federal power infects this country’s 87,000 state, county and municipal governments and school districts. By 2013, the amount of retirement money promised to employees of these public entities will exceed cash on hand by more than a trillion dollars.
So, what happens when these pensions can’t be paid? They will come to the taxpayers with their hands out. When they stroll forward with their beggar’s bowl in hand, the American people should keep their wallets in their pockets. That may not seem fair, but the public sector union members have gotten a great deal at everyone else’s expense for a long time and if somebody has to take a haircut, and they do, it should be the union members instead of the taxpayers they’ve been bilking for so long.

[sadaist]

Wisconsin’s Most Outrageous Examples of Union Collective Bargaining

$150,000 Correctional Officers

Correctional Officer collective bargaining agreements allow officers a practice known as “sick leave stacking.” Officers can call in sick for a shift, receiving 8 hours of sick pay, and then are allowed to work the very next shift, earning time-and-a-half for overtime. This results in the officer receiving 2.5 times his or her rate of pay, while still only working 8 hours.

In part because of these practices, 13 correctional officers made more than $100,000 in 2009, despite earning base wages of less than $60,000 per year. The officers received an average of $66,000 in overtime pay for an average annual salary of more than $123,000 with the highest paid receiving $151,181.

Source: Department of Corrections

_____________________________

Paid-Time off for Union Activities
In Milwaukee County alone, because the union collectively bargained for paid time off, fourteen employees receive salary and benefits for doing union business. Of the fourteen, three are on full-time release for union business. Milwaukee County spent over $170,000 in salary alone for these employees to only participate in union activities such as collective bargaining.

_____________________________________

Viagra for Teachers

The Milwaukee Teachers Education Association (MTEA) tried to use a policy established by collective bargaining to obtain health insurance coverage that specifically paid for Viagra. Cost to taxpayers is $786,000 a year.

Reference: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/milwauk...ry?id=11378595

_______________________________________

Unrealistic Overtime Provisions

On a state level, the Department of Corrections allows correctional workers who call in sick to collect overtime if they work a shift on the exact same day. The specific provision that allows this to happen was collectively bargained for in their contract. Cost to taxpayers $4.8 million.

_____________________________________

The $150,000 Bus Driver

In 2009, the City of Madison’s highest paid employee was a bus driver who earned $159,258, including $109,892 in overtime, guaranteed by a collective bargaining agreement. In total, seven City of Madison bus drivers made more than $100,000 per year in 2009.

"That's the (drivers') contract," said Transit and Parking Commission Chairman Gary Poulson.

Source: Wisconsin State Journal, 2/7/10

______________________________

$6,000 Extra for Carrying a Pager

Some state employees, due to the nature of their positions, are required to carry pagers during off-duty hours in order to respond to emergency situations. Due to the collective bargaining agreements, these employees are compensated an extra five hours of pay each week, whether they are paged or not.

For an employee earning an average salary of $50,000 per year, this requirement can cost more than $6,000 in additional compensation.

Source: 2008-09 Agreement between the State of Wisconsin and AFSCME Council 24

__________________________________________

No Volunteer Crossing Guards Allowed

A Wausau public employee union filed a grievance to prohibit a local volunteer from serving as a school crossing guard. The 86-year-old lives just two blocks away and serves everyday free of charge.

Principal Steve Miller says, "He said, you know, this gives me a reason to get up in the morning to come and help these kids in the neighborhood."

But for a local union that represents crossing guards, it isn't that simple. Representatives didn't want to go on camera but say if a crossing guard is needed, then one should be officially hired by the city.

Source: WAOW-TV, 1/27/10

________________________________

And many, many more of union abuse of the taxpayer. Sure, unions have done some great things. But they are far too powerful & greedy today. They got fat.

http://walker.wi.gov/journal_media_detail.asp?prid=5671&locid=177

[the atomic punk]

On the upside, WI will revert to blue in 2012. Keep up the good work teabaggers.

[the atomic punk]

5 Reasons Unions Are Bad For America

You know there is already a whole thread on this BS.