On Wisconsin's War on Unions: Coming Soon to a Town Near You
Here's a pretty full investigation on that quote:
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/feb/16/progressive-change-campaign-committee/group-says-gov-scott-walker-threatened-send-out-na/
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On Wisconsin's War on Unions: Coming Soon to a Town Near You
Can you supply a direct quote? I can't find one that says exactly that, or for that matter a direct quote at all. Here's what I get from the AP:
"Gov. Scott Walker says the Wisconsin National Guard is prepared to respond wherever is necessary in the wake of his announcement that he wants to take away nearly all collective bargaining rights from state employees.
Walker said Friday that he hasn't called the Guard into action, but he has briefed them and other state agencies in preparation of any problems that could result in a disruption of state services, like staffing at prisons.
Walker says he has every confidence that state employees will continue to show up for work and do their jobs and he's not anticipating any problems. "
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-wi-budgetwoes-nation,0,771747.story
There may be many on the Right calling for use of the National Guard in the fashion you suggest, but there's just as many on the other side swearing that Walker has threatened to use the Guard against striking workers.
It could very well be a subtle threat. It might just as well be that he knew these moves would be incredibly unpopular (with the public union members anyway) and expected some sort of violence or confrontation that could escalate quickly.
Deep down inside, he's probably looking for a clash. It would prove his point. Unfortunately, it would also prove the point of his opponents. This assumption that he actually said he would mobilize the Guard against striking workers is making the rounds with union supporters as though he actually said those exact words, which he didn't.
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On Wisconsin's War on Unions: Coming Soon to a Town Near You
Just came across this today:
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/02/14/6052161-in-wisconsin-ad-wars-and-national-guard-vs-unions
If you take a look at the last paragraph, it says that Walker's mention of the National Guard "was specifically in reference to state prisons. He said he would call out the Guard to take control of prisons if Corrections Officers went on strike or took any other sort of job action."
I think this kind of changes the tone from directly confrontational with a hint of government-backed violence against its own constituents and instead hints towards contingency plans.
Maybe some sort of correction could be run at the top of this post?
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On Wisconsin's War on Unions: Coming Soon to a Town Near You
Sharing a common viewpoint with a political group doesn't put me in bed with them any more than saying I enjoy painting would make me a Nazi sympathizer. Contributing to their campaigns, voting for them or proselytizing their cause would put me in bed with them.
I don't disagree that there are still good unions out there. UPS springs to mind. I'm sure there are others but we'll never hear about them because they're functioning as smoothly running businesses where neither the corporation nor the employees are playing chicken with their livelihoods in (often) a very public fashion.
While someone might be able to find a correlation between wage disparity and the decline of unions, I doubt that it's the only cause or even a major cause. That kind of disconnect between hourly workers and CEOs is present in unions as well.
I don't agree with Walker's methodology or his instant seclusion. I'm not even sure if this situation is actually something he truly has the power to do. But once again, private sector unions are being dragged into an argument about the dismantling of a public union. (Granted, I did do a lot of the dragging myself.)
I would, however, argue that if the wealthy do "put their foot down," it won't be because of the disappearance of unions. Unions have been on a steep decline for several decades now and the worst excesses of wealth disparity are happening in areas where unions were never really a factor (banking and other financial institutions).
In other areas where unions were major players (manufacturing, retail), there has not been a mass return to 14-hour days and 7-day work weeks. The labor unions did establish these vital footholds that allowed the more balanced labor v. management climate we enjoy today, but a majority of remaining unions are more interested in collecting dues than actually improving the work atmosphere for their members.
The only reason it's nearly impossible to fire union members has less to do with "fairness" than a protection of continuing union dues. The only reason unions go on and on about Wal-Mart is because they want a slice of the 2nd largest workforce in the nation and nothing to do with perceived "unfairness" in their policies. Low wages? Entry level jobs that don't even require a high school diploma pay low wages. That's a fact of life. It's not limited to Wal-Mart but they're the company that always comes up first.
The rest of the benefits (extensive and usually free healthcare, robust severance packages) that the unions won for their members are quickly turning out to be as unsustainable as our Social Security plan. They need more members in order to maintain what has inadvertently become a pyramid scheme.
Cities and states are realizing this as well as they run out of money and have guaranteed public sector workers far more than they can actually pay out. But they don't have the option of co-opting private businesses or expanding their workforce, so they're looking for concessions. It's always going to be unpleasant when it happens because years and years of it never changing have turned it into an entitlement, which is exactly when no politician is willing to alter Social Security, no matter what its impact on the national deficit. Those who are on it now and those rolling into it shortly are avid voters and have deep pockets.
This situation is particularly ugly but the rationale behind it isn't extreme. It's an unpleasant fact that the time has come to pay the piper. And the piper is usually off filing for bankruptcy protection.
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On Wisconsin's War on Unions: Coming Soon to a Town Near You
I kind of feel that since I'm not a writer for the Awl that I don't necessarily need to toss my real name out there. But here it is anyway:
Tim Cushing
http://www.facebook.com/tim.cushing1
Now you can find me on Facebook as well. Isn't the internet great? Do you want me to fax over a copy of my voter registration card as well or can we get back to actually discussing why altering the terms of union contracts makes someone anti-all jobs?
Speaking of which, what's your position on Right-to-Work? More specifically, I'd like to see this written into all union contracts as I feel it actually would protect the workers more by not making them subject to every action their union representatives feel should be taken.
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On Wisconsin's War on Unions: Coming Soon to a Town Near You
So, you've got nothing to say about the whole teacher-administration thing?
Alright. I guess I'll try to squeeze this in before the ink goes dry on your ideological rubber stamp.
I'm pro choice.
I'm pro immigration or whatever the hell you call it when you think AZ's (and the US in general) policies are backward thinking and clearly hypocritical considering our country's history.
I'm pro death penalty.
I'm pro drug legalization and find the drug war to be an incredible waste of resources, not to mention a piss-poor excuse to trample on people's civil liberties.
I also am in complete disagreement with nearly everything the DHS does, including their relentless kowtowing to the music and movie industries and the entirety of the laughably titled Patriot Act.
Just because I'm anti-union doesn't automatically make me a neo-con. It does seem to make it easier for others to make that assumption for some reason.
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On Wisconsin Demonstrates Against Scott Walker's War on Unions
Not necessarily. Many unions are also big corporations. And certainly this specific case isn't.
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On Wisconsin's War on Unions: Coming Soon to a Town Near You
It's not just public service workers. It's union members from private sector businesses as well, like GM, who also received a big payout from the government.
I wouldn't be so quick to lump me in with the tea partiers. I'm more of a political atheist. Generally speaking, the Republicans piss me off as much as the Democrats. But the fact remains that while the unions were instrumental in making today's workforce a better place, they've become symbolic of graft and greed.
Even more unfortunately, the public sector unions have built up an even larger sense of entitlement than the private sector. If you really want to give teachers a raise, the first thing to do is trim away the layers and layers of useless, bureaucratic administration. People argue that teachers are underpaid and yet record amounts of money flow into the school system. It may well be that the teachers are underpaid but nobody seems interested in trimming back the administrative deadwood that ultimately adds very little to a child's education.
Very honestly, I'd like to see all unions busted. I don't much wish to have my personal issues with an employer become everyone else's problems through collective action, much as I'd hate to see theirs become mine. I think the workplace has advanced enough in the last 100 years that a collective bargaining force is no longer needed.
The only time I worked for a union was pretty much inadvertent. I took a job at Fred Meyer Grocery in Portland, OR. It wasn't until nearly a week after I started that I was informed that I was now a union member and would need to pay dues. There was no mention of it during the training or the face-to-face with the general manager. If it's such a good deal for all the employees, why hide it away in fine print and leave it unmentioned until it's time to start collecting dues? Tell me that's not shady. Especially when the collective power had managed to net me 12-15 hours a week at the state minimum wage. Powerful.
Every other job I've had has been non-union. If I didn't like where I was working, I spoke to someone who could change it. If they didn't or couldn't, I found other employment. What I didn't do was turn the situation into a mass movement with the power to cripple the company I worked for and an inconvenience for others (including customers).
What's the plan if this all goes thru? If they don't all get fired as you tend to believe will happen, will they just stop showing up for work? Slow things dowm? Strike for a bit? Or will they decide they still have a job to do that they are being paid for? Will they look somewhere else for another job? Or will they decide that public sector employment just has too many fringe benefits to pass up despite routine hassles by pols making power plays?
My guess is that when all this blows over, things will still be pretty much the same as they were before it began. Unions are powerful players and most politicians are pretty weak-willed when it comes to standing by their convictions. All in all, a lot of noise will be made before the status returns to quo. It happens all too often already. (For instance, banks and Wall Street companies are right back to handing out excessive bonuses, apparently having felt that a couple years of penance was enough.)
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On Wisconsin's War on Unions: Coming Soon to a Town Near You
By the way, nice work with the tag. Attention grabbing and completely misleading at the same time.
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On Wisconsin's War on Unions: Coming Soon to a Town Near You
As well as a statement from the Guard themselves:
http://dma.wi.gov/dma/news/2011News/11021.asp