Wisconsin's Budget-cutting Bill is about Union-Busting;
It's about blaming workers;
It's about GOP Giveaways to "Special Interests"
It's NOT about a impending Fiscal Doom ... but more about that later ...
First let's hear from some actual Union Leaders:
Teachers: Walker's proposal 'a union-busting bill’
By Jeremiah Tucker, Sauk Prairie Eagle, wiscnews.com, Feb 16, 2011
Ken Ziegler, president of the Sauk Prairie teachers union, said the union held an emergency meeting Feb. 14 in response to Walker's proposal to plug a $3.7 million hole in the current state budget and Sauk Prairie teachers staged a rally on the Highway 12 Bridge in Sauk City on Feb. 15.
"we are stripped of our rights, there's nothing stopping them from changing more and more," Ziegler said. "This is a union-busting bill. It's not a budget-repair bill or budget-fixing bill."
[...]
"If this goes through I think the immediate effects will be the closing of schools, higher class sizes, less aid help in the classrooms and less support in the classrooms," Ziegler said. "Teachers are going to teach no matter what the conditions are, but you have to wonder about the morale."
[...]
"Now it's going to really cut into the guts of basic education," Bender said at the school board meeting.
Sounds like Wisconsin's Budget-cutting Bill, is about to "break" more than it proposes to "fix"
... who needs at good Education anyway?
Next let's hear from some more Union Leaders:
Union leaders, Democrats ready for a fight with Gov. Walker on budget
Jeff Bollier, thenorthwestern.com -- Feb. 11, 2011
State employee union leaders and Democrats are prepared to fight Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to dramatically reshape collective bargaining between unions and cities, counties, school districts and the state.
Walker has proposed to require all state and local government employees, including himself, to pay 12.6 percent of health insurance premiums and 5.8 percent of their salary to the Wisconsin Retirement System pension program. He said the changes will save the state $30 million between April and June and $300 million over the next two-year budget, which begins in July. Walker said the changes would save him from having to lay off 6,000 employees. Also, unions could only negotiate salary raises and those could be no larger than the Consumer Price Index increase without a public referendum.
[...]
Joe Wineke, the chief labor negotiator, [...] said the average state employee makes $42,000 and would have their salaries cut by more than $4,000 to cover health insurance premiums and pension contributions. But just as concerning, Wineke said, are rule changes that threaten to weaken unions such as:
-- Restricting union contracts to no more than one year in duration.
-- Requiring unions to re-certify themselves as a bargaining unit each year.
-- Prohibiting municipalities, schools and the state from deducting union dues from paychecks. And
-- Revoking the right of family child care, home health care workers under Medicaid, University of Wisconsin professors and academic staff and University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics staff to collectively bargain.
Local 579 President Paulette Feld said those changes will make it harder for unions to maintain funding and membership.
"We'll be back to where we were 30 years ago [...]
The Protesters are "pumped" -- who says that "Solidarity" no longer exists in America?
Even the Wisconsin's Fire Fighters joined in the Protest March, EVEN AFTER Gov Walker had promised THEY'D be exempt from his draconian Wage Cuts.
The Fire Fighters were having None of it ... they stood on the side of Labor.
Crowds decry budget bill's handling of workers
Additional rallies are planned for Wednesday
By Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel -- Feb. 15, 2011
"I am here to support my fellow union members," said Oliver, a recently retired employee of Verizon and a member of the Communications Workers of America for 41 years. He was among many union representatives from the private sector who demonstrated Tuesday.
"I am all for the governor balancing the budget, but not on the backs of state workers," Oliver said.
larger
photo by Michael Sears -- "Firefighters march in solidarity with other union members in the rally Tuesday at the state Capitol."
[...]
There, they heard Gerald W. McEntee, national president of the 1.6 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, who reminded demonstrators that the seeds of his union took root in Wisconsin 75 years ago.
"We are strong," he said. "We are united."
Large television screens were erected in the rotunda so the public could watch a public hearing on the bill by the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee. But the roar from the protesters was often so loud that it drowned out the testimony.
Here's a WI Rep -- who is also TAKING A STAND on the side of Labor;
on the side of History ... on the side of Wisconsin Families;
on the side of The People ...
Budget Repair: Representative Frederick Kessler statement
wbay.com -- Feb 16, 2011
Rep. Frederick Kessler: Governor Walker Undermining 50 Years of History
In the 50 years that I have been involved in Wisconsin government, since my first taking office as a legislator in 1961, I have never seen a more radical proposal than Governor Walker's Budget Repair bill. His proposal destroys protections that working families, both public and private employees, have enjoyed for over 50 years.
[...]
Governor Walker's proposal is suspect because not only would it cause irreparable harm to working Wisconsin families, but it was prepared in secret by unknown outside interests. That is not the way legislation is enacted in Wisconsin. The Governor is attempting to force this into becoming law before the people knew what was occurring. He wants to undo 50 years of labor peace in six days.
Don't you wish you were there?
Video: Thousands Rally in Protest of Collective Bargaining Changes
http://www.youtube.com/...
H/T to Ed Schultz, who has been all over this WI story for days now ...
Surprise, surprise the WI Budget Crisis -- is really more a Faux Crisis ... the cost of paying back political favors by Gov Walker to special interests it seems:
Walker gins up ‘crisis’ to reward cronies
Cap Times editorial madison.com -- Feb 16, 2011
In its Jan. 31 memo to legislators on the condition of the state’s budget, the Fiscal Bureau determined that the state will end the year with a balance of $121.4 million.
To the extent that there is an imbalance -- Walker claims there is a $137 million deficit -- it is not because of a drop in revenues or increases in the cost of state employee contracts, benefits or pensions. It is because Walker and his allies pushed through $140 million in new spending for special-interest groups in January. If the Legislature were simply to rescind Walker’s new spending schemes -- or delay their implementation until they are offset by fresh revenues -- the “crisis” would not exist.
[...]
To achieve that end, [Walker] has proposed a $137 million budget “repair” bill that he intends to use as a vehicle to:
1. Undermine the long-established collective bargaining rights of public employee unions, [...]
2. Pay for schemes that redirect state tax dollars to wealthy individuals and corporate interests that have been sources of campaign funding for Walker’s fellow Republicans and special-interest campaigns on their behalf.
[...]
The Fiscal Bureau memo -- which readers can access at legis.wisconsin.gov/lfb/Misc/2011_01_31Vos&Darling.pdf -- makes it clear that Walker did not inherit a budget that required a repair bill.
The facts are not debatable.
Only the intentions Gov. Johnson are -- debatable, that is.
Isn't great to see what American Workers CAN DO -- when we take the time to Organize ...
When WE take the time, to actually give a Damn!
WTG Wisconsin Citizens!