Extended Commentary on Wisconsin

Protesters crowd the capitol rotunda in Madison, WI

I've made a few short comments on the ongoing state employee protests in Wisconsin (here and here).  However, now having had a few days to really study the situation, I feel more prepared to make an extended commentary on the situation. 

In case you have not heard, they are quite ornery in Wisconsin right now over a bill currently under consideration that would eliminate collective bargaining rights for public service unions.  Hey Nick, you're a teacher.  How can you support a bill that will annihilate teachers' benefits and rights?  The short, snarky answer to that is because if a bill forces a Senate full of Democratic senators to run away to Illinois of all places, it can't be all too bad.  They're watching in Ohio too as the governor there has now introduced a similar bill in the Ohio senate...that was met with a similar response. 

The more exact answer to the question posed in the first paragraph is a little more complicated than that, and I must preface this by saying that I am NOT a union member, nor do I have any desire to be.  I remember when I was student teaching at Montgomery Blair, George Bush made an appearance there to promote No Child Left Behind.  It was on a Saturday so there were no kids in session, but the teachers "protested" outside because they did not support Bush's position on No Child Left Behind or something like that.  What a croc.  They protested because George Bush was George Bush, and the union powers that be hate George Bush.  This situation is no different.

Here's the big issue that most naive onlookers seem to overlook.  Taking away collective bargaining doesn't take away benefits, as most protesters would have you believe.  In collective bargaining, the union powers that be negotiate with management on behalf of the workers themselves.  By taking that away, what the governor is doing is weakening the authority of the union itself, not the workers.  However, the union protests would make you believe that the workers are the ones directly affected by collective bargaining.  Yet, if the bill does not pass, the state is going to have to lay off at least 1,500 state employees.  I highly doubt that many of those will be teachers, but the point is that this cowardly behavior on the part of Democrats is leading to dire consequences for state employees.  Ordinary workers will be the ones affected if the bill is not past.  If the union truly represented the state employees of Wisconsin, they would fight tooth and nail to make sure the bill gets passed, not killed!  After all, a union can't survive if it has no people paying their dues, right?   

So who benefits from the bill being passed?  The entire state of Wisconsin, to start.  The governor has inherited a $3.6 billion dollar deficit, due in no small part to excessive union payments.  By eliminating collective bargaining, he lowers the power the union itself has in state politics, which in the long run will save the state money.  That's what people I don't think understand.  It's the UNION ITSELF, not the individual worker, who is driving this train here.  In the past, with Democratic governors and legislatures, the unions had huge power (mostly because they are HUGE Democratic donors).  So once Democrats get power, they repay their friends in the unions with chic perqs.  Kind of a buddy-buddy system if you will.  However, the people of Wisconsin (and other states) have decided this time that the financial mismanagement under Democrats has gone too far.  A MAJORITY of Wisconsinians (is that how you say it?) voted for Republicans and Scott Walker this time around, to DO EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE DOING RIGHT NOW.  The people protesting lost the election.  Elections matter.  They were not in the majority.  So instead of letting Democracy work, they whine about it.

I support teachers of all kinds.  However, unions are an entirely different animal.  Unions are supposed to be apolitical, but in practice, they always support Democrats.  So when Republicans take over for a change, and try to clean house, this is the thanks they get.  For all the teachers out there, check this out.  I think you'll like it.  It's a piece by slam poet Taylor Mali entitled "What Teachers Make."  I think some of the union powers that be might want to listen to his message. 

Kent, your response?