The governor has called for public sector union members (excluding policeman, fireman and the state police) to contribute approximately 5% of their pension costs and 12% of their health care costs for the next two years. The unions have agreed to this. While this may seem like a lot, remember, most of us have no pension plan and we typically pay 20% of the health care insurance costs, if not 100% or we have no coverage at all. These issues are small potatoes and the union knows it. The major issue as reported by the media is the governor wants to end collective bargaining on everything except wages. The union leadership call this an attack on human rights. This is bullshit. Why? First of all collective bargaining is not a human right. As the media has not bothered to point out the collective bargaining issue is an issue of money and political power. The governors plan include the following changes:
1) The Gov. wants to end the ability of the unions to charge MANDATORY dues to it union members. If the union is so great, why are the dues mandatory? Because the unions need this money to contribute to Democratic legislators who they hope to elect. They hope to get them elected so the Democrats can then repay the union with more and more benefits and protections. This makes the mobsters actions of the 1920's and 30' s look like childs play. Come to think of it isn't this essentially paying a bribe for future considerations. "Hey you rub my back I'll rub yours". The process has essentially become a rigged system of vote buying through continued lavish benefits.
2) He wants the unions to have to recertify every year, i.e., have the union members vote for whether they want the union anymore. In addition, this would change the way the union counts votes, requiring the majority of union members to vote for recertification, not simply the majority of voting members as is currently the practice.
3) He wants to end the practice of the unions forcing the state to buy union members health insurance through the union health insurance company, which allows the union to skim 20% off the top of the premium the state pays.
4) He wants to let the local school committees have the flexibility to determine which teachers are the best and worst respectively for their school systems, and be able to reward/terminate them respectively, regardless of tenure or seniority. This is called bringing performance based criteria to bear on the teachers (something that is sorely needed in every school system in this country!)
These are the main points behind the governors collective bargaining changes. The Democrats and unions, as they are tied at the hip, fear the loss of money and with it the loss of political power. This is not an issue of the Koch brothers or big bad corporations. The unions are public sector employee unions, being paid and receiving benefits at the expense of the taxpayer. The governor and the Republican legislators were voted into office after running on a platform of change and reduced spending. The union protesters, and even moreso, the Democratic legislators who have fled, are the ones who should be ashamed of their actions. To repeat a phrase from our illustrious President, the Republicans should simply say "We won" and ram the legislative actions through, just like the US Senate and House did with Obamacare. Difference is, the US people support the Wisconsin governor and they do not support Obamacare. If the Democrats and the unions do not like the legislative changes, then they should run the next time on a platform of more benefits from the taxpayer.
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