Recently Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin has promoted a bill that would limit what labor unions can negotiate for. The bill would limit everything except for negotiations for wages.

Jason Stein in his February 10 article for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal says: Gov. Scott Walker wants to help fix state finances by cutting benefits for union workers and wiping away their ability to negotiate over anything but their wages, setting up a potentially explosive battle in the Capitol.

That would mean public worker unions would not have any say on benefits and work rules and would face a new restriction on salary increases as well.

Walker's bill also would allow public employees to avoid making payments to unions if they don't join those unions. Now, workers can choose not to join unions, but they must make "fair share" payments similar to dues - a requirement that unions say is needed because all workers benefit from their work at the bargaining table.~

The bill also would:

• Limit the total wage increases for union public employees to the rate of inflation, unless voters approve the increase by referendum. The proposal requires unions to take a yearly vote to maintain their status as a union and prohibits public employers from collecting union dues for unions. During his campaign, Walker received endorsements from the Wisconsin Troopers' Association and the unions representing Milwaukee cops and firefighters, which would be exempted from those changes, as well.

• Require state employees to contribute 5.8% of their pay to their pensions. The proposal also requires state workers to pick up at least 12.6% of the cost of their health care premiums and trims overall benefits in health plans.

• Refinance state debt to push principal payments into the future and save $165 million in this fiscal year. That money would be used to help cover two looming bills for the state - $58.7 million owed to Minnesota following the breakdown of an income tax agreement covering citizens who work across state lines and $200 million owed to a medical malpractice fund that was illegally raided by Gov. Jim Doyle and lawmakers in 2007.

• Give the state Department of Health Service sweeping powers to change the state's Medicaid health programs for the poor such as BadgerCare Plus to address sharply rising costs for those programs. Members of the Legislature's budget committee would have a chance to object to those provisions and force a vote by the committee on the changes.

• Allow for the sale of state heating plants, with the net gains from any sale to be put in a budget reserve fund.

• Make civil service positions such as chief legal counsel, public information officer and legislative liaison into political appointments. This could potentially allow Walker to fill positions held by holdovers from the Doyle administration with Walker's own picks."

 

While this may help in the budgetary deficit short term, it will damage worker relations, and potentially harm unions and the people they represent. The bill hardly addresses the short comings of other places and is a direct attack on worker unions which prevent state agencies and local employers from taking advantage of their employees. And in a sector which is lagging in pay in comparison to the private sector, putting more of the burden on the employees for health care costs is in some cases a death sentence.

(http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/115726754.html)

 

What is worse, according to a February 11th article from the Associated press (http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20110211/GPG0101/110211052/Public-workers-in-Wisconsin-reeling-from-anti-union-bill) Gov. Walker is ready to deploy the National Guard to "handle" protestors and unrest.

So basically Gov. Walker is willing to spend thousands of tax dollars to deploy the Wisconsin National Guard to stop people from protesting an unfair bill which he is trying to claim saves money.

 

Tell the Governer that this is unacceptable.