Union busting: the old sport is back

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

If you have been following the news the rethug governor of Wisconsin has decided that he will take away the ability of the union to do collective bargaining. He isn't alone, similar news now ring from Indiana, Oklahoma, Ohio and more states seem to follow.

It's quite curious how all of them (with repug governors and legislators in charge) have decided to "tackle" the issue so frontally.

I'm aware that unions on occasion have abused their power, but it's perfectly clear to me that without them workers would be way worse (in fact if the opera company I used to sing for had a union I might still be singing there).

Am I the only one worried about this?

[Aggie]

Apparently not - I ran into a bit of discussion about this on the radio last week.  The reasons given (to save money) are bogus and it's blatant union-busting, from what I've heard.

It's been said that under his plans, new teachers at the start of their career should qualify for food stamps, based on their income.

[Swatopluk]

It's especially bogus since the unions have agreed to all financial demands of the governor but he simply refuses to accept the offer.
A prankster called the governor pretending to be one of the Koch brothers. His reaction makes (as far as I have heard) pretty clear that he is indeed a paid tool.

[Aggie]

If I heard correctly, he's not actually restricting collective bargaining on pay, just everything else.   

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

According to wiki: His plan would "require higher pension and health insurance contributions and remove bargaining rights except for wages, which would be limited to be not greater than the Consumer Price Index." (my emphasis). IOW, the maximum they can aspire is to have their salary on par with inflation, foregoing any past weakening.

And the guy is a charmer, his solution to the impasse is to start laying off thousands of public workers.

Frankly I don't see a happy ending on this one (unless one has the psychopathic heart of the Kochs and their ilk).

[Swatopluk]

And the consumer price index excludes food and fuel, i.e. the main cost drivers.
Originally the governor tried to simply decertify the unions but got informed that he had not the authority to do so. Only after that he tried the way of legislation. That means this bill is from his point of view just the first step.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Somehow those people haven't figured out that the less money people earn the less they spend. They want to pay Chinese wages and somehow retain the same consumer demand.

[pieces o nine]

Wisconsin is my old state -- I've been following this avidly.

A friend who still lives there quipped that she was going to get her daisies* down from the attic to tuck into the rifle barrels of any "peacekeepers" called in to control crush the people.



As soon as I heard the election results that Russ Feingold had lost his seat (!) I knew that ugly things were coming. "The Wisconsin Idea" and the beloved-by-both-parties memory of Progressive  Republican Governor Bob La Follette is as much a part of Wisconsin as breathing is to mammals.

The prank phone call in which Scott Walker was only too eager to talk with someone he thought was a Koch, the attempt to enlist the Tea Party Nation to sabotage the people's protest, tweets by just-fired Indiana Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Cox for repeatedly suggesting using live ammunition against the peacefully protesting citizens, and the spread of this blatant union-busting tactic to states with other new repub governors paints a very clear and disturbing picture of the rapid, ongoing erosion of civil rights. Sadly, very little national media attention until quite recently, with massive Faux News propaganda and the specter of Rush Limbaugh et al yet again repeatedly casting fire fighters (so politically handy in the heady days of 9/11) as freeloading, avaricious, traitorous thugs. It is disgusting. I've been reading a collection of Thomas Paine's works and reflecting -- yet again -- how very, very far these flag-draped, money-worshiping rethuglicans are from the true founding fathers and their vision of a republic.

I brought this up to housemates ("strong" republicans and strongly pro-big business/anti-union despite being nowhere near management and having been repeatedly mistreated by their own overlords) the day after the news first broke, and got no response. Evidently it's something else we won't talk about. Ever.




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* This is a reference to the 1970 Kent State shootings.

[Aggie]

Somehow those people haven't figured out that the less money people earn the less they spend. They want to pay Chinese wages and somehow retain the same consumer demand.

The Chinese labour force is starting to figure out collective action (which is permitted if the owners are Japanese).  Consumer demand is rising there, it's a promising export market.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Actually I have been predicting that behavior for a while now, corporate owners don't care if the developed markets shrink because they see emerging markets as a better alternative. Obviously potential growth is limited so at some point those markets will stop growing and in the mean time poverty will creep up in the "developed" world. Given that the scenario is 20 to 40 years into the future, corporate honchos will ignore it (what matters is the next quarter, right?), besides who the frak cares about workers beyond low, low wages and high productivity?

Things will be far more "interesting" in 80-100 years as technification will replace most manual labor. That's the stuff of which revolutions and genocides are made...

[Aggie]

Probably by the robots.  Human life won't be profitable, since we won't have any wages to spend.

[Griffin NoName]

Robots revolting? Scary!

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

Yep, been watching this. My mom's a teacher and part of a union after all, and this makes me a little antsy. California's liberal enough that I don't see it happening here, but damn, this is distressing! And yep, good ole union busting.