First and foremost, Teachers’ Unions and Collective Bargaining are not responsible for Wisconsin’s budget deficit because neither unions nor collective bargaining are a cost to the State; eliminating Teachers Unions and collective bargaining will not bring any additional money into the State’s coffers.
The State or local school district providing health benefits for teachers and contributing to Teachers’ Pensions are not gifts to teachers, those costs are part of the teachers’ salaries and competent employers prefer providing untaxed benefits to giving employees higher raises. Providing benefits are to the employers’ advantage because it saves them money; if the employees were required to pay for these benefits out of pocket, employees would require much higher salaries to provide the same benefits because the employees would have to pay Federal Income Tax on the money spent on benefits. If the Republican bill was passed, it would increase the cost of education in Wisconsin. All other employers are aware that paying for benefits lowers the cost of labor; the statute proposed by the Wisconsin Republican Governor and legislature goes contrary to intelligent economic labor relations practice.
If teachers are denied the right to unionize and bargain collectively by statute, it would deny teachers, as a class or workers, rights that all other workers are allowed; to deny rights to teachers without justification would be a violation of teachers’ equal rights and protection under the law and would be a violation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
Based on the facts, the statute proposed by the Wisconsin Republicans cannot be justified. To deprive teachers the right to unionize and bargain collectively would appear to be only punitive and make teachers, as a class of worker, appear to be greedy, unpatriotic, and corrupt. Wisconsin Republicans are guilty of demeaning public school teachers. In counter-protests, the opposition to the teacher protesters jeered and defamed the teacher protesters based on accusations made by the Republican Governor and Legislature.
In this case, the teachers are absolutely justified in mounting protests against the proposed statute of the Republicans; teacher have a right to protect teachers’ Civil Rights, their very honor, and the honor of the teaching profession.
What in the world is the purpose of the Wisconsin Republican Party in this fiasco; what are the Wisconsin Republicans trying to do?
