Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his crew of country club conservatives this week brutalized the nation's democratic traditions to secure legislation demanded by big corporations and billionaire conservative financiers like the Koch brothers -- legislation stripping workers of collective bargaining rights.
Walker & Crew succeeded in terminating workers' rights -- but they achieved that only by violating traditional American democratic values. They positioned themselves with dictators who act against the will of the people, deny free speech rights and suppress protests.
They violated the state's open meetings law, breached the right of Wisconsin residents to rally in their own state capitol building, and contravened conventional standards of fairness by voting to deny workers their rights without assembling a quorum of senators.
Free speech and free access to government protect America's democracy. Walker & Crew disregarded First Amendment rights repeatedly.
Just this week, Walker & Crew locked protesters out of their own capitol building in Madison. They locked the few protesters already in the building out of the meeting rooms where senate and house members voted. They denied access even to progressive Wisconsin Assembly members, one of whom climbed through a colleague's window to gain access to his workplace.
In the weeks since Wisconsin's 14 progressive senators fled to Illinois to prevent the chamber from achieving the quorum needed to vote on a measure spending the people's money, Walker & Crew also shut down access from the capitol to a web site posted by protesters. And they severely restricted protesters' access to the capitol where a sit-in and sleep-in began in mid-February.
Protesters, who peacefully gathered in Madison in the tens of thousands, began chanting, "Whose house is it?" referring to the capitol. "It's our house," they responded.
That's not the way Walker & Crew saw it. They said voters gave them control of the people's house in last fall's elections. That, apparently, means to them that they don't have to listen to the will of the people anymore. Polls show a large majority -- more than 60 percent -- of Wisconsinites oppose stripping workers of collective bargaining rights.
Walker & Crew didn't listen to the people. And they repeatedly attempted to shut the people up. The First Amendment was written and adopted to protect the people from that kind of oppression by political leaders.
In addition to shutting the people up, Walker & Crew attempted to shut them out. On Wednesday, without providing proper notice, the state's conservative senators conducted a meeting to consider a newly-written measure to strip workers of their collective bargaining rights. Notice is required by states' open meetings laws, sometimes called sunshine acts. These guarantee citizens access to government meetings and documents. They're intended to prevent governments from conducting the people's business in secret. These laws also require notice of meetings so that citizens can exercise their access rights.
Walker & Crew ignored the notice requirements so that they could ram through their legislation terminating workers' rights before citizens could comment on or protest the new measure. The conservatives deliberately disregarded citizens' right in a democracy to participate in the political process that directly affects their lives.
In addition, by clandestinely arranging the vote to be conducted without a quorum of senators, Walker & Crew asserted that although state law prohibits spending the people's money without a quorum, they feel it is fine to strip citizens of their rights without a quorum. This is the stuff of oligarchy.
Throughout the first two years of the Obama administration, conservatives in the U.S. Senate repeatedly used the filibuster maneuver to prevent votes on legislation that would otherwise have been approved by a majority. The progressives in Wisconsin essentially performed a filibuster with their feet - by going to another state to prevent a vote. What Walker & Co. did this week was exploit a loophole to circumvent the filibuster-by-foot. They damaged the democratic process in a way the progressives in the U.S. Senate never even considered when thwarted repeatedly by filibusters.
Walker & Crew got what they wanted. They commandeered from workers the right to collectively bargain for a better life. They did it with nefarious methods that disrespect the Constitution, disrespect democracy and disrespect workers. They did it in a way that heaps dishonor on them.
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The union will soon be something kids learn about only in history books.
What if you were required to shop at your local store regardless the amount they charged? So, a 20oz pepsi costs you 25-bucks - but down the road you could buy it for 3-bucks... but since that store refuses to sell you anything - your stuck with paying their prices. That's collective barganing or do you suggest Walker purchase a printing press to print money that way he can make everyone earn a million dollars per year and won't matter what anything costs...
Why should the non-collective Wis-citizen be forced to pay 20-26 thousand dollars for health ins when those families can't even afford health ins...? What's so collective about that...? Maybe Walker should build gov-condos beside every school so teachers don't need to earn as much. They could walk to work to be "green" and live in small apartment/condos without yards using the school play-grounds. He could also remove health ins and hire a state-doctors to care for teachers family's health issues... that's collective isn't it..?
Then he could the police and firemen the RAISES the deserve... :-)
The FIGHT was about taking away the right to collective bargaining with a union.
This was NOT about union concessions and everything about union busting.
Collective Bargaining Rights = Extortion - give me or else... that's what they did for 50+yrs. So, taking 50-bucks and giving back a nickel or dime doesn't quite equate a consession...
A whole-lot of whining over nothing...
The TAX PAYERS already GAVE up wages & benefits too... Why should they be forced to subsidize the unions? Removing the collection extortion rights simply put the unions on the same playing fields as everyone else... Its a bunch on non-sense...
not a brilliant move, econ1
As far as exploiting the loophole is concerned, I believe that the flight of the fourteen was just as destructive a measure for the democratic process as stripping budget items from the law and thus dispensing with a quorum. Tit for tat as far as the two parties are concerned. It doesn't matter what law is being discussed, refusing to provide a quorum is just as defeating for democracy as using the loophole, which is legal.
Unions had their place and like all the other institutions in this country they screwed themselves by their-own arrogance. One only needs to look at Detroit - Steel Industry - Airlines - US Postal Service - AmTrack - etc...
What's so sad is - we honestly do NEED unions and collective bargaining to help keep the scales balanced but the conquor & divide is growing thin - REAL THING... Unions are as much to blame for the demise of this country as are arrogant greedy CORPORATE leaders. Moral of the story - ARROGANT GREED - is the ENEMY of us ALL - regardless of political view. I wonder how many of the big-dog union leaders earn 7-digit figures while their members earn a whimpering hourly wage...? They are all the same GREEDY mind-twisting sobs that abuse the little guy. If I'm wrong, then why is always about "us" vs "them" and why do unions have to PAY and Transport their protesters from place to place?
just thoughts...
GM was not a paperpushing job, but repetitive movements that wear on joints and break down health. They earned their pensions, since they paid into them themselves, as well as bargained for benefits instead of higher wages.