union busting

The ultimate example of conservative heads exploding:

A public employee union representing faculty, counselors and professional staff at the Milwaukee Area Technical College negotiated a one-year agreement with the school, which the MATC board approved. Officials say the deal will save the school $122 million over the next 25 years, due to long-term reductions in early health benefits that will go forward. A one-year deal that saves a nine-figures amount of tax dollars ... Now THAT is good government. Unless, of course, you're a Republican.

Conservative reaction (summarized): This deal is an outrage! Schools can't negotiate with defrocked public employee unions, even if a judge rules they can! The Wisconsin Republican Party made it so!

Conservative action: Sue MATC! That'll make things better, oh yeah.

Old White Republican Judges Uphold Walker's Union Busting

A three judge panel of the 7^th circuit court of appeals upheld Walker's union busting Act 10 thanks to appointments by Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. Old White Republicans 86 year old William J. Bauer (Recommended by Ford) and 77 year old Joel Flaum (Recommended by Reagan) upheald all of Walker's Act 10. They did not deny that the differing treatment of the unions that supported Walker was the result of politics. Rather, they said the following:

“As unfortunate as it may be, political favoritism is a frequent aspect of legislative action. These sorts of decisions are left for the next election.” Oh, and by the way, “You kids get off my sidewalk!”

Still concerned that the Wisconsin Senate recall elections were too expensive and produced too few results? The Rachel Maddow Show last night suggested otherwise, in an unexpected way.

In Ohio, citizens rose up earlier this year and signed over one million names on petitions putting a referendum on that state's fall ballot to rescind Gov. John Kasich's anti-collective bargaining law for public employee unions. Kasich has said all along that he won't even talk to progressives or Democrats, much less bargain with them, but suddenly, this week, he's making a lot of noise about finding "compromise" on the union bill, which won't go into effect until and if the referendum fails to rescind it.

But polling shows the vast majority of Ohio voters do want to rescind it, and backers of the referendum in the Democratic Party quickly turned down Kasich's invitation this week. Kill the bill, they said, and then we'll talk.

OutrageousBuried in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story today on local reaction to Scott Walker's new union-busting law:

Two of 17 other union locals were without contracts as of Wednesday, so those locals have been terminated, City Labor Negotiator Troy Hamblin said. The two unions represent about 375 police support staff and police aides, and would need to hold certification elections to represent those workers in bargaining for wages.

So while City of Milwaukee police officers can still collectively bargain, along with firefighters, because Scott Walker exempted them, the civil servants who dispatch those police to calls are now apparently stripped of their union, according to the city's labor negotiator. But it's even worse than that.

ScratchedPatrick McIlheran, who is departing as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's resident right-wing columnist, said in his final opus today that -- as encapsulated by the column's headline -- "the right's ideas are winning" in Wisconsin.

Not hardly. "The right's ideas are winning elections," maybe. But that's mostly just due to the willingness of Republicans to lie and obfuscate regarding their actual policy positions, masquerading as moderates or oxymoronic "compassionate conservatives" while spending gazillions on attack ads that inflame voters and incinerate the facts. Did Scott Walker really divulge or even just telegraph to voters before last fall's election that he planned to destroy collective bargaining for state public employees? Sorry, Patty. 

I hope that people who are observing what is taking place in Madison understand that this is more than a budget fix. This is a direct assault on the working class and poor of the United States. The media has often been complacent with the objectives of big business because they are big business. This complacency included the practice of constant attack on all unions both subtle and obvious.