Posted on 02/19/2011 4:09:28 AM PST by kevkrom
The union-led school closures and demonstrations in Madison have left most ordinary Americans shaking their heads in disbelief. Months ago, I penned a message to my fellow union brothers and sisters when I found myself on the receiving end of union boss Richard Trumka’s wrath. Yesterday’s demonstrations reminded me of the full-page ads taken out against me when I put my foot down in dealing with union demands while I served as governor. My message then and now to good union brothers and sisters is that you have another option. You don’t have to kowtow to the union bosses who are not looking out for you, but instead are using you. You can join millions of other union members in a commonsense movement to help fight for the right causes in our great country – for budgets that share the burden in a truly fair way and for commonsense reforms that take power away from vested interests like union bosses and big business lobby groups, and put it back where it belongs – with “We the People.”
Here we are still struggling to get out of a deep recession and coping with high unemployment, record deficits, rapidly rising food prices, and a host of other economic problems; and Wisconsin union bosses want union members out in the streets demanding that taxpayers foot the bill for unsustainable benefits packages. I am a friend to hard working union members and to teachers. I come from a family of teachers; my grandparents, parents, brother, sister, aunt, and other relatives worked, or still work, in education. My own children attend public schools. I greatly admire good teachers and will always speak up in defense of the teaching profession. But Wisconsin teacher unions do themselves no favor by closing down classrooms and abandoning children’s needs in protest against the sort of belt-tightening that people everywhere are going through. Union brothers and sisters: this is the wrong fight at the wrong time. Solidarity doesn’t mean making Wisconsin taxpayers pay for benefits that are not sustainable and affordable at a time when many of these taxpayers struggle to hold on to their own jobs and homes. Real solidarity means everyone being willing to sacrifice and carry our share of the burden. It does no one any favors to dismiss the sacrifices others have already had to make—in wage cuts, unpaid vacations, and even job losses—to weather our economic storm.
Hard working, patriotic, and selfless union brothers and sisters: please don’t be taken in by the union bosses. At the end of day, they’re not fighting for your pension or health care plan or even for the sustainability of Wisconsin’s education budget. They’re fighting to protect their own powerful privileges and their own political clout. The agenda for too many union bosses is a big government agenda that only serves the union bosses themselves – not union members, not union families, and certainly not the larger community. Everybody else is just there to foot the bill; and if that bill eventually takes the form of thousands of teachers and other public sectors workers losing their jobs because the state of Wisconsin can no longer afford to keep them on the payroll, that’s a risk the union bosses are willing to take as long as their positions are secure. Union brothers and sisters: you are better than this and you deserve better. Don’t be led astray.
One final word of warning to my fellow Americans: back in 2009, I warned about what would happen if states accepted short-term unsustainable debt-ridden “Stimulus Package” funds. Accepting those funds allowed states to grow government, increase already unsustainable levels of spending, kick the can down the road on reforming entitlements, and create public expectations that they would continue financing these new mandates once the federal funds ran out. States were not in a position to grow government and take on new financial commitments then, and now the chickens have come home to roost. As goes Wisconsin today, so goes the country tomorrow.
- Sarah Palin
I strongly disagree with you. She is stating the other side without alienating or being obnoxius. Surley you don't think Chris Christie has a foot in both camps because he compliments good teachers. Taking an Ed Shultz or Michael Savage approach is not going to get anybody to the table. We need the extreme, intolerant comments, but not from the leaders who are going to have the responsibility to solve the problem.
What, by calling those on the other side "brothers and sisters"?
Calling someone your “brother and sister” is a bit stronger than a “compliment,” wouldn’t you say?
Palin was a member of the IBEW union. the international brothers of electrical workers when she was a sportscaster. her husband is a member of the USW union.
More damage has been done to the conservative movement by a desire for a "seat at the table" than you can possibly imagine.
I am a former union member and I approve of this message.
That may be, but sometimes you need to talk the language. Most people know where she stands. There is nothing wrong with attempting to relate. In that article she was trying to reach the union, not her base. The base gets it for the most part.
Well, if you’re right, “the base” is really screwed up.
It reminds me of the Scottish lords in “Braveheart.” “The base” leaves their blood on the battlefield while the bigshots make sure they have a “seat at the table.”
Seat at the table? You don't get it. Walker (a governor who understands the immediacy and severity of the problem) doesn't want to give them a seat - hell, he doesn't even want them to have a table. He is, quite simply, trying to undo the collective bargaining process BECAUSE IT IS BANKRUPTING THE STATE. No public service unions, or at least, no collective bargaining for those unions.
To everyone but Palin (apparently), this isn't a negotiating. It's a dissolution. To quote Nick Nolte from "48 Hrs"...
"Now, get this! We ain't partners. We ain't brothers. And we ain't friends.
" THAT'S the message conservative leaders should be sending. Nothing more, nothing less - especially when not even a majority of DEMOCRATS believe there should be public service unions.
10:31 AM looks up to me
/yeah because Reagan didn’t play nice with his brothers in the union. You ever hear of reagan democrates? Most of them were union members......how do you think Reagan won such landslides by calling people toddlers?
I like the more generic message..."government unions" should be an oxymoron. You're either government (with us) or union (by definition bargaining 'against us' taxpayers). You can't be on both sides of the table! Until government union becomes ILLEGAL, this country will remain a bankruptcy waiting to happen. Just because Soros likes something doesn't mean it 's good! /s
That is a fair observation. But.....damage has not been done by the desire to get a seat at the table. The damage has been done by turning into a wimp when you get your seat.
A distinction without a difference, as we’re seeing in Washington once again. The debt is increasing by almost $5 billion per hour and the best they can do is to cut back less than goes out in the time it took for them to debate it.
Really, Reagan FIRED the air traffic controllers. Remember that?
We are talking about PUBLIC SERVICE UNIONS. What part of "64% of the voters don't believe in public unions don't you understand?
This is a WINNING policy position for Republicans. It's that simple.
New tagline.
Nice tagline. I suppose I should not get a tagline indicating it’s ok to say anything as long as you can get to the table.
And Reagan when running for office did not call union rank and file “toddlers”. He rightly placed the blame where it belonged. The union leadership. Just has Palin has done here in this op-ed.
He fired the air traffic controllers when they refused to go back to work putting the lives of citizens in harms way.
February 16, 2011
Man Who Shot TV Over Bristol Palin’s Dancing Preps A Mental Defect Defense
The Wisconsin man (20 miles west of Madison), who was so upset by Bristol Palin’s success on “Dancing with the Stars” that he blasted his TV set with a shotgun yesterday pleaded not guilty to criminal charges and indicated that he will mount a defense based on the claim that he has a mental disease or defect....
Read more at:
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