….odds are you are digging it deep with the Nazi stuff
And Joe Klein is singing a similar tune:
An election was held in Wisconsin last November. The Republicans won. In a democracy, there are consequences to elections and no one, not even the public employees unions, are exempt from that. There are no guarantees that labor contracts, including contracts governing the most basic rights of unions, can’t be renegotiated, or terminated for that matter. We hold elections to decide those basic parameters. And it seems to me that Governor Scott Walker’s basic requests are modest ones–asking public employees to contribute more to their pension and health care plans, though still far less than most private sector employees do. He is also trying to limit the unions’ abilities to negotiate work rules–and this is crucial when it comes to the more efficient operation of government in a difficult time. When I covered local government in New York 30 years ago, the school janitors (then paid a robust $60,000 plus per year) had negotiated the “right” to mop the cafeteria floors only once a week. And we all know about the near-impossibility of getting criminal and morally questionable–to say nothing of less than competent–teachers fired. The negotiation of such contracts were acts of collusion rather than of mediation. Government officials were, in effect, bribing their most activist constituents.
Meanwhile John Fund confirms something I talked about a few days ago in his latest:
Labor historian Fred Siegel offers further reasons why unions are manning the barricades. Mr. Walker would require that public-employee unions be recertified annually by a majority vote of all their members, not merely by a majority of those that choose to cast ballots. In addition, he would end the government’s practice of automatically deducting union dues from employee paychecks. For Wisconsin teachers, union dues total between $700 and $1,000 a year.
This is what this is all about, nothing else, that’s why the biggest guns in the democratic party are fighting this fight. They know those dues will end up funding their campaigns, if they lose this fight here it’s all over, the MSM will back them up like the Taylor machine from Mr. Smith goes to Washington, but they can hold it only so long.
Every day this keeps up they are just making the case of the GOP for 2012 nationwide.
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[…] He also has this video interview with Andrew Breitbart:Lots more at The Lonely Conservative and Da Tech Guy points out that the union goons crossed the line with their Nazi analogies.EXPECT UPDATES . . . Category: Andrew Breitbart, Tea Party, Unions, WisconsinCommentsblog comments […]
Andrew Breitbart? Now there’s some ethical journalism. s/
“And it seems to me that Governor Scott Walker’s basic requests are modest”
Asking a union to give up collective bargaining is in no way modest. It’s basically destroying the union, which is what Walker and the rightwing are after. They would see working Americans no better off than the average Chinese labourer, and you apparently agree with them. As for the Hitler connection… Hitler also outlawed unions, so it’s not like they’re pulling this comparison out of their asses here, unlike the rightwing trying to draw a comparison between Obama delivering healthcare to all Americans, and Nazism.
I won’t claim to fully understand this fight, but I do know that the Dems and the unions are willing to negotiate. Walker however refuses to take collective bargaining off the table, and so from the unions perspective, this is a fight to the death. Seeing as many union people have actually died fighting for rights such as benefits in, decent wages, and 40 hour work weeks in the past century, I would expect this generation to go down easily.
If you are comfortable becoming a serf and serving the corporate elite’s interests, so be it. Lucky for suckers like yourself, there are people willing to stand up to corporate interests, and say “hey… we don’t think you deserve to make 1000X that of the average worker.”
This is a fight for the middle-class itself.
As a matter of fact it is.
I would think that after an election when the winning side wins a clear majority and the other side has lost, it is not unreasonable for the winning side to do what it says it is.
When the left wins an election it feels it has a mandate, when the right wins an election the left feels it is incumbant on them to negotiate
Did they run on a ticket to crush unionism? Please show me where they said that they would strike down the ability of unions to collectively bargain.
This fight is bigger than a 4 year term. It represents undoing what took a century to build, and to destroy the working person’s right to fairness.
You like weekends? Thank unions
How’s about the 40 hour work week? Thank unions.
Occupational health and safety? Thank unions.
Mat-leave? Thank unions.
Worker’s compensation? Thank unions.
Pay tied to inflation? Thank unions.
In an age when executive salaries continue to climb, and the average earnings of the middle class continue to decline, you have to be an idiot not to see that the corporate elite doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the middle class, but only about their own fat paychecks.
Walker took a surplus, and turned it into a deficit by giving corporations $140 million in tax cuts. That is what is commonly known as bullshit.
The only people being “crushed” is the democratic money pipeline, the union dues pulled go to the leaders, who pay it to buy democratic pols who keep the taxpayer funds flowing.
That’s why the union and the dems are all out. The taxpayer is a cash cow to them and they don’t want it to stop flowing.
You know absolutely nothing of labour history. You think that all the rights the average working American just happened? That they weren’t fought for tooth and nail? And you’re right… most of the time it was the Democrats fighting along with them, because no Republican ever did anything for the common person. No, their interests lay primarily in protecting the privilege of the wealth power base.
As for the thinking that unions are nothing but cashcows for the Democrats… well, it sounds like you’ve been listening to the rightwing think tanks that have spent considerable ink demonizing union activity.
There is a very strong reason that the middle class is in decline, and you have 8 years of Republican rule to thank for it. But hey… continue to live in lala land. Your country is going down the pooper, and it’s mostly due to the crazy pills that contemporary conservatives are on these days. Enjoy life in your gated community, and never go anywhere without your gun, because you are creating a society that nobody in their right mind would want to live in
Actually I know an awful lot about labor history, the problem is Labor today is not interested in Labor history, nor is it interested in the current situation or the competing in a world wide economy.
From what I’ve seen the leaders are interested in keeping their prerogative, and over and over again they have been willing to sacrifice both the public good and their members jobs to keep their spot at the top.
Pretty sad actually but hey I’ll let my readers decide which of us are right.
“From what I’ve seen the leaders are interested in keeping their prerogative, and over and over again they have been willing to sacrifice both the public good…”
I would say this perfectly describes the Republicans, and the executive class in the Western world. It’s these guys who keep rolling back taxes for the wealthy, forcing harmful deregulation though government.
So you think that if unions are broken, the US will become more competitive? I’ll tell you what will happen. People will work longer for less. They’ll lose benefits, and be forced to compete with the Chinese labour force, all while the executive and shareholder class enjoy unprecedented wealth. This is already happening.
http://www.economist.com/node/17929013?story_id=17929013
Screw that. I hope they call a general strike and tear the state apart if that’s what it comes to. The union is wiling to negotiate, but the governor is not. He simply wants to strip workers of their ability to work together in their own best interests. It’s regrettable, but at this stage, I think the unions have to do whatever it takes to force the governor back to the table, and if that means bringing the entire economy to a standstill, so be it.
The rightwing is completely out of control and it has to stop.
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