Posted on 02/19/2011 7:37:26 PM PST by Libloather
State budget fights fire up unions; Obama involved
AP, Feb 20, 2011, 06.53am IST
WASHINGTON: Organized labor is trying to re-energize in the United States and take advantage of the growing backlash from the anti-union sentiment in Wisconsin and more than a dozen other states.
And President Barack Obama and his political machine are offering tactical support, eager to repair strained relations with some union leaders upset over his recent overtures to business.
The potent combination has helped fan the huge protests in Wisconsin against a measure that would strip collective bargaining rights from state workers. The alliance also is sending a warning to other states that are considering the same tactic.
"I think it's a clear message," said AFL-CIO political director Karen Ackerman. "If you take on middle-class people and try to solve the budget crises on their backs, there's a price to pay. Many thousands of people will be energized to fight back."
For Obama, stepping into a confrontation with a governor has its risks. The president is in a struggle of his own to tame spending, and siding with unions may cast him as a partisan even as he talks about setting a new tone in Washington.
For the labor movement, which suffered a bitter split in 2005, the brash moves by Republicans such as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker have brought unions together in a way unthinkable a few years ago.
Nearly every major union leader, both public and private sector, has united behind an ambitious $30 million plan to stop anti-labor measures in Wisconsin and 10 other states.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesofindia.indiatimes.com ...
Exactly. This guy is a jackass and a jerk. Openly undermining a sitting governor. Nothing but a lowlife gutter thug.
Reg?
Must be short for Regal...
Bit by bit, the greedy government unions at the state and federal level are finding out what the rest of the populations who pays their bloated salaries and perks are feeling. IMO, a 30% rollback of their salaries and benefits would be a start.
The joy ride is over for now,folks. You’ll have to get out and push if you want to keep the ship of state moving.
the $100K is “total compensation” but your basic point
holds.
“Start with the union leaders.”
Yes, and everyone who shows up with one of those phony doctor slips gets handed a pink slip.
Then put high res photos of each weekday’s crowd onto the Guv’s website. On the leftist-hand side of each photo will be a long, scrolling list of those who’ve called in sick that day. Then, by executive decree, any student who is out of school because of AWOL faculty can log-in to the site and play “Wheres Waldo’s ‘Sick’ Teacher?”. Puzzle solvers get a “A” in civics for the quarter.
The “new normal” in attrition.
Effective immediately, The Governor shall order that all Republican Representatives and Senators will be provided WI State Police bodyguards. All funds used to pay these police officers standard and overtime pay will be paid from the salaries of the AWOL Senators and their office budgets. Any and all transportation, fuel, food, beverages or lodging purchased using WI state-issued credit cards will not be reimbursed to the AWOL Senators or their staffs for the period of this illegal attempt to hamstring and delay necessary budget reforms.
You’re off to a good start. Unfortunately, as we know, some liberal judge will declare all of this to be unconstitutional and strike it all down.
After all, it doesn’t matter what the people who are PAYING for all of this want, it’s just what the left wants . . . . . . and we KNOW what the left wants.
Many, if not most of the actual state workers know this and are at work.
Teachers are all employees of local districts, which are facing terrible budget problems due to the failure of the democrats to take any action to solve the fundamental problems of school funding and teacher compensation in the state.
For example, I looked up the wife of a friend on a teacher salary database. She has been getting 12% raises each of the past two years. $6500 raise from 09 to 10 and a similar raise from 08 to 09. During that time, I had my pay cut, then was laid off and spent months looking for a new job.
Her husband is on facebook complaining about all the sacrifices teachers like his wife have had to make. It’s all I can do to not tell him to ESAD.
The the Gov and WI government can ignore the judge.
That NEEDS to start happening. Leftist judges make decisions that have nothing to do with the Constitution or state Constitutions but in fact subvert them. Leftists judges’ illegal decisions should be ignored. Who died and appointed them God and King and Emperor?
Better, the legislature could impeach and remove this scum sucker for trying to usurp his authority.
I would.
Can you tell the details about the judge?? I hope Walker has the guts to stand up to the scum sucker!
Idealism is great, I like to indulge in it myself. But, the conept of subverting the Constitution and corrupting the law began occurring in Congress long before leftist judges.
Of course, it’s a disease that’s been going on for decades and decades. But the patient is now on the death bed practically.
The death of liberalism has been proclaimed many times, and yet . . . . the patient still LIVES!!!
Liberalism will still be with us as long as there is one person who believes that all wealth is controlled by the government, that rights flow from the government, that we are our brother's keeper and "it takes a village". Eliminate those concepts and you begin to eliminate liberalism. Then you have to start on the flawed philosophy of Marx, Trotsky, Lenin, Mao . . . . . . .
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