uncharted.ca

Step one: Create your own budget crisis by giving out tax cuts to the privileged.

Step two: “Solve” your crisis by attacking teachers and other public servants.

That’s how Republicans do it these days, folks. Certainly, that’s the play being called by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, whose attempts to push forward sweeping anti-union legislation in his state have become infamous in the past week.

The single most important idea to keep in mind about the situation is that this is not about balancing budgets. It is a power grab.

Isn't Local 8 running around flooding the stores with info. regarding this subject ?

Wisconsin was first in the nation to pass collective bargaining rights for state workers. Being a long time union supporter and a taxpayer I can tell you I am sick of seeing public sector workers retire at 40 with 100% benefits and pension.

Why did a state in the democrat column switch over? What are the state residents feeling? It’s safe to say that all their jobs have been moved overseas and the good paying jobs are all but gone. Most of the protesters are state workers, not that many are average citizens.

The reset button has been punched in the private sector and the reset button will be punched in the public sector. More states will follow and those that don’t will go bankrupt. The states in the worst shape financially are the big union states. The ones that managed to restrict the SEIU and AFSME are better off financially.

We live in a new era in more ways than one. The republicans are much better organized and understand what they need to do. The democrats have sold out the unions at every turn. I have more questions than answers and I don’t trust what I hear from the union or the Republicans.

This fight is not about benefits. It is about the right of workers to organize within the workplace. The consequences have nothing to do with state budgets, and everything to do with a state/corporate tyranny over the working class.

From what I understand the unions are willing to gut the workers' money and benefits as long as they can keep mandatory dues collection.

The workers in Wisconsin are not only facing their governor; a more insidious danger lurks. They are faced with two opportunistic opponents; he Labor leadership whose demands are limited to ensuring that they have the legal right to negotiate with employers so they can sit down and offer concessions, and the Democrats who, due to the pressure from the workers and youth, want to perpetuate the diminishing myth that they are the party for the working class. This is what Union tops and their Democratic allies have announced in order to placate employers "Democrats and union leaders said their concerns were focused on losing decades-old bargaining rights, not the financial concessions." Not financial concessions". (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) These are carefully chosen words.

Sarah Palin was a no-show, pleading the need to stand by her man in the Wassilla to Nome, Alaska dog sled race. Pro-union protesters carried signs suggesting that Walker follow Palin’s example and quit as governor; another one read, “Sarah Palin Shot My Dog.” Tea Party supporters chanted feebly “trim the fat,” to which the labor crowd responded, “Don’t drink the tea” (referring to the mass suicide in Jonestown by drinking Kool-Aid)