The Wisconsin legislature cut the public worker's bargaining rights - where do you stand? Tell us in the comments.
The State Assembly voted 53-42 in the State Assembly to disassemble the long-held public sector rights.
Thousands of people protested as this deals a severe blow to the collective bargaining rights.
What are your thoughts? HowToLearn.com wants to know in the comments.
Posted by +Pat Wyman, author and founder of HowToLearn.com
I don’t think it is too much to ask employees, no matter who they are, to contribute towards their health care and retirement benefits, especially when they are currently not contributing a single penny and the state of Wisconsin has a large budget deficit that needs to be addressed.
There was a time and place for unions – before labor laws existed to protect workers. That reason no longer exists. Unions do nothing but set unrealistic expectations and drive up costs for consumers!
I sincerely doubt these workers contribute nothing to their retirement and benefits. As a worker, WE all pay taxes. You are simply spouting what you have been told to believe.
The unions are fighting for their existence. They can’t survive without the money that the workers are required to pay to them for fees. The voters voted for the Republican Governor because they knew that the Democrate that was running wasn’t interested in ‘fixing’ the financial problems the state has. Everyone must hurt a little to enable the state to become financially sound.
Unfortunately Walker and his group have only scratched the surface with changes they contemplate. The travesties already perpetrated on the citizens of WI will be compounded significantly when the State initiates the sale of all public utilities in the state to private parties with no bids and to whomever the administration selects as buyer. The allegiance of Walker with the Koch Brothers and monied entities will privatize more than public utilities in the quest to fulfil the conservative goal of minimal government and monopolistic control by the two percent of the population who control 98% of our country’s wealth!
It sucks.
The governor is doing what he promised when he ran for office. The democrats who ran away abdicated their authority and let their voters down. What if everyone ran away when they couldn’t be the majority?
They should have stood and been counted. As they handled it their constituents had no representation.
If the voters don’t like what the governor is doing they can vote him out….same with their congress.
As for the unions, some of the scenes on tv makes me wonder if their ‘collective bargaining’ is as harsh, frightening and shady as what we are seeing
Remember voters can always change things if they don’t like what they have (with the exception of spending more than the state takes in without consequences). For now let’s see how the elected officials do their job and deal with the problem at hand.
If they do it right this dire situation will be temporary for all of us
Doesn’t anyone remember President Obama saying everyone has to have some “skin in the game”?!
The unions create a ponzi scheme atmosphere that cannot be sustained. Look at what happened with GM. We are still paying for that and have paid for people to sit idle and still get full paychecks!
Is it really fair for people who are not getting benefits through their jobs or workers that pay 25% of their poay for a family insurance plan to pay for Wisconsin workers to have 2 x the benefits?! I am thinking not…
Has anyone seen the movie Waiting for Superman? It shows teachers who have been accused of something in their districts (some may indeed be innocent) including constantly being late for work in the “rubber room” making full pay for reading newspapers, playing cards and surfing the net! I think it said they spent 100 million of taxpayer $$ on that. This insanity needs to end.
If the teachers and public workers don’t like it, there are PLENTY of people waiting to take their jobs. We need a free market economy with no strangleholds on employers to remain a great Country. Unions should become a thing of the past. They are not needed in most cases because the regular state and federal laws are all the protection employees need.
The original purpose of unions was for safety reasons, but they somehow morphed into special interests for obtaining sky high salaries and ridiculous benefits (the airlines are a great example of this!)
It is time for America to balance its checkbook!
I say this respectfully and out of love for this great Nation!
Thanks Gov Walker for standing up for those of us paying so much of our hard-earned money in taxes to provide teachers with retirement benefits and health insurance that we have insufficient funds remaining to purchase our own health insurance, much less having anything to contribute to our own retirement plans. You are my new hero.
Teachers are public servants, or should be. They make adequate salaries for the time they work each year.
This topic poses the question — Are the teachers only in this for the money, or because they really want to teach children and teenagers how to do math, write, read, learn geography, and the like?
I’d love to have a job where I can take the whole summer off, and get paid as if I worked all year long. However, I must perform well at my job to get any kind of vacation at all.
Given the declining test scores for students, on a fixed measurement, the teachers, and their upline have not done a good job. They should consider them quite lucky to have jobs at all, based on their performance.
If they want to make money, then they should quit their jobs, and open up their own businesses, or go into a trade of some kind. If all they care about is money, and not their students, there are people who will care about the students, and they can replace the current teachers we have now.
Let the marketplace decide. Our children come first; not the teachers.
The decline of the American “Middle Class” graphically charts with the decline of organized labor. Ronald Reagan’s “union busting” of PATCO helped to start this downward slide. Ask yourselves the following question: What “employee rights” do you have without a labor contract/agreement. Federal/state laws guarantee you minimum wage. Overtime after Forty hours.(Some industries can be exempt.) That is about the extent of your “Rights.” You may have your wages/salary/or, any other benefit reduced or, in some instances abolished. You can be terminated(Laid off/fired.)with no more justification than the employers statement: ” Your services are no longer required.” Your only recourse will be unemployment and/or, a(You pay for it.)lawsuit.
Each and, every public employee in Wisconsin should resign. Then apply for the position they held at a higher salary. With an increase in benefits. Under a personal services contract. Let the governor and, republican legislature negotiate with each public service employee separately. If the individual requirements are not met? Each person should seek employment in their field in a state, where collective bargaining is respected.
To those who want to “steal” from teachers what their union has fought for. You can keep your children home and, “home school” them. Or, you can pay the cost of ” private day care.” Let’s see how you like bearing those costs?