Scott Walker had no campaign against teachers. He was against union bosses forcibly taking money from teachers and ripping them off.
Unions are not popular anymore, not even in places like Michigan. Even members are sick of union bosses who take their money and give them nothing in return. Michigan is now a right to work state and the voters are happy about it.
Of course he was.
Unions are not popular anymore, not even in places like Michigan. Even members are sick of union bosses who take their money and give them nothing in return. Michigan is now a right to work state and the voters are happy about it.
In most places I'd agree with you. But they still exert influence in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and especially Michigan. It could make the difference in a close election year.
“Scott Walker had no campaign against teachers. He was against union bosses forcibly taking money from teachers and ripping them off.”
Exactly. If the teachers were so ticked off at Walker, why did so many of them drop their union membership?
>>Scott Walker had no campaign against teachers. He was against union bosses forcibly taking money from teachers and ripping them off.<<
That’s not entirely accurate, and in any case the teachers perceived it as a campaign against them.
That’s because one of the provisions in ACT 10 restored, by law, the requirement that teachers immediately pay 1/2 of the annual pension contribution. Initially, teachers paid half and the school district paid half, an employer match if you will.
But over the years, unions negotiated the teachers half away and school districts agreed to pay the teachers share along with their own. To be fair to the teachers position, they had done so in negotiations agreed to by both sides. In other words, they probably gave up something to get the districts to pay their half.
Well, Act 10, in one fell swoop, restored the teachers’ obligation to pay their half of the pension cost, that year and thereafter, non-negotiable. The effect was a pretty significant pay cut (on the order of 4-5%) in the next school year. And that is why teachers, and many of their extended families, resent Walker so much.
Act 10 accomplished much in getting public-sector unions under control again, but that particular aspect of it generated a lot of ill will and is the main reason for the divisiveness today. That’s also why the protests were so huge at the time. Compare that to the present ones, for example, which are relatively small even though the Right to Work legislation will likely cut private union power significantly.
Now, I would add that I sought to inform many voters about the above facts at the time (just out of a sense of fairness, because so many were misinformed), but my explanation generally fell on deaf ears. That was, I believe, because most voters felt that teachers’ benefits were far too generous. And that was hard to argue with, for they were. It was just a divisive way to get them reduced, but maybe it was also the only way.