I think there are a few very large misconceptions about the protests underway in Wisconsin against Governor Walker's "Budget Repair Bill."
Leaving aside that Wisconsin's budget was in pretty good shape when Walker took office, before he started throwing money at programs that already had plenty of money and creating expensive tax breaks that will, at best, be ineffectual in creating any new jobs, the media reporting on the protests is largely focusing on Walker's statements that all he's doing is asking state and municipal employees to contribute toward their pensions and health benefits.
This is not true, and is not the source of the immense anger motivating thousands of people to descend upon Madison.
While Walker is asking for public employees to contribute to their benefits (which, by the by, the majority of public employees ALREADY DO do some degree or another), he is also proposing to END COLLECTIVE BARGAINING by public employee unions over ANYTHING except wages directly.
What this means is not only that public employees would no longer have a voice in their benefits, but also that they would have no say over their working conditions.
Teachers would no longer be able to bargain for reasonable class sizes in their contracts. You think a classroom with 31 first-graders in it is a travesty? Wait until you see what a classroom of 50 first-graders, one teacher and no aides looks like. Teachers would no longer be able to put provisions for preparation time into their contracts.
Nurses at public health facilities would lose the right to bargain over staffing and overtime. You think VA hospitals and nursing homes are understaffed now? Wait until you see what it looks like when contract provisions about how many patients each nurse can handle are a thing of the past.
Just as a bit of labor history: do you enjoy things like the 8 hour work day? How about the concept of the weekend? How about a REGULAR PAYDAY, instead of being paid whenever your employer feels like it? How about child labor laws? These things we take for granted now are all the direct result of labor organization and collective bargaining over things that are not directly related to the hourly wage workers are paid.
The labor movement in the United States has suffered a long slow slide into oblivion, and that is a tragedy. People want to point to public employees as the source of budget problems at every level of government, and to their unions. But perhaps what should be taken away from the success of public employee unions is not that civil servants are leeches on society, but rather that UNIONS WORK. Public employees are unionized at rate that is roughly five times that of private sector employees (36.2% versus 6.9%), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This means the public-employee unions represent more workers and subsequently have more power at the bargaining table.
If you're angry about cuts to your benefits as a private sector worker, why are you trying to drag others down into the morass that is sliding into poverty with you? Don't blame public employees. Unionize yourselves. If you had, perhaps you'd still be enjoying the benefits that all workers took for granted 50 years ago, which (coincidentally) was the height of labor power in the United States. Public employees will stand in solidarity with you. They understand the power and the good of labor organization, and they will fully support you in your efforts to organize yourselves.
But do not let vitriolic rhetoric from people who don't care about any working or middle class people divide us. Solidarity was the battle cry of the labor movement for a reason: because all working people must stand together to effect change. As Mr. Feingold has said, ""Surely, there is enormous reason for people in the private sector to be frustrated -- and particularly working people who have had their jobs shipped overseas. . . . But the idea here on the right and the corporate side is to divide working people against each other, to turn private employees against public employees out of some kind of resentment."
Public employees are not the enemy. They are, and have been, perfectly willing to make concessions to the economic realities of today. Most public employees have not had a significant pay increase in 10 years. Most public employees ALREADY contribute to their healthcare costs. They do not want to "live large" while their neighbors suffer.
But taking away collective bargaining rights is not about any budget. It is simply, solely and purely about union-busting. It is is simply, solely and purely about taking away the right of workers to have a say in their workplace, in how it's run and the conditions they work under.
These protests are not about being unwillilng to contribute to the public good. These protests are an expression of the rage people feel at being told that they will be legally prohibited, forevermore, from having that say.
So stop quoting Walker's soundbites to me about "modest" payments towards benefits and start focusing on the real issue here: Union busting. Nothing more, but certainly nothing less. This is a big fucking deal, but no one seems to be paying attention to the one thing that is the biggest fucking deal, except the unionized workers that understand what the power of a union and a collective bargain is.
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