"We gotta crush that union." Pretty great video, showing how deep in the butt the Tea Party officials are to the Koch Brothers polluters. So go ahead: bust those overpaid teachers. "Bring a baseball bat." They're the root of evil. Teachers unions are the reason our states are bankrupt. "This is ground zero." Part 2, "We sent Andrew Breitbart down there. He's our man." "We do the same thing with Rick Scott in Florida." "What else could we do for you down there?" "In the months and days and weeks ahead, particularly in swing areas, they are going to need a message why this is a good thing to do for the economy." "We'll back you any way you can." "We were thinking about planting some trouble makers in the crowd." "We thought about that. My gut reaction: the public is not fond of this. The guys we got left are largely from out of state. My only fear is that if there was a ruckus caused, maybe the governor would have to settle with them. ... sooner or later the media gets tired." "Not the bastards at MSNBC." "No one watches them." "Axelrod, that son of a bitch." "No kidding." "This is an exciting time." "I pulled up a picture of Ronald Reagan. 30 years Ronald Reagan had a defining moment when he fired the air traffic controllers. That was the first crack in the fall of the Berlin Wall. What we are doing in Wisconsin, this is our moment, this is our time to change the course of history." "Well I tell you what, once you crush these bastards I'll fly you out to Cali and show you a good time." "That would be outstanding. Thanks for your support. Thanks a million."
17 comments:
All what I can say after lestining to the conversation is WOW.
excuse me for not pulling out my hankie for public employee unions, maybe not solely responsible for our fiscal fiasco in this and other states but a significant part of the problem.
Who represents the taxpayer in negotiations with public employee unions apparently no one. YOU HERE ON EOM broke the story of our millionaire firemen in the City of Miami don't let partisanship blind you.
Good post. As I see it, however, what’s going on in Wisconson (and probably Ohio) is all about politics, not state deficiets. From The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein:
WI Gov. Walker proposes that the right to collectively bargain be taken away from most — but not all — state and local workers. Who’s left out? “Local law enforcement and fire employees, and state troopers and inspectors would be exempt from these changes.” As Harold Meyersonnotes, these are also the unions that happened to be more supportive of Walker in the last election. Funny, that.
Walker tries to sell the change in collective bargaining as modest. “State and local employees could continue to bargain for base pay, they would not be able to bargain over other compensation measures.” But that’s not really true. Read down a bit further and you’ll find that “total wage increases could not exceed a cap based on the consumer price index (CPI) unless approved by referendum.” In other words, they couldn’t bargain for wages to rise faster than inflation. So, in reality, they can’t bargain for wages and they can’t bargain over other forms of compensation. They just can’t bargain.
The proposal doesn’t stop there, though. “Contracts would be limited to one year and wages would be frozen until the new contract is settled. Collective bargaining units are required to take annual votes to maintain certification as a union. Employers would be prohibited from collecting union dues and members of collective bargaining units would not be required to pay dues.” These rules have nothing to do with pension costs or even bargaining. They’re just about weakening unions: They make it harder for unions to collect dues from members, to negotiate stable contracts or to survive a bad year.
The best way to understand Walker’s proposal is as a multi-part attack on the state’s labor unions. In part one, their ability to bargain benefits for their members is reduced. In part two, their ability to collect dues, and thus spend money organizing members or lobbying the legislature, is undercut. And in part three, workers have to vote the union back into existence every single year. Put it all together and it looks like this: Wisconsin’s unions can’t deliver value to their members, they’re deprived of the resources to change the rules so they can start delivering value to their members again, and because of that, their members eventually give in to employer pressure and shut the union down in one of the annual certification elections.
Please don't paint unions with a broad brush. Could you imagine having to work in a city like Hialeah and not be protected by a bargaining unit? What is unfortunate is how unions have to side with individuals they normally would not out of fear of the politician.
Not all unions are supporting Natasha. The unions didn't support Linda Bell. It's not fair to put the blame on the unions when the administration is responsible for representing the taxpayer at the bargaining table.
It is easy to knock salaries, but they do correspond with service. Everybody is on a hiring freeze. At the same time many people are leaving service or retiring from service. The end result are vacancies needing to be filled to maintain services. So, who fills it? Employees on overtime until the decision is made to hire or eliminate the service.
Remember, it was the unions who kept Miami from going under and being a part of unincorporated Dade back in the 90s. I am a proud union member, that doesn't agree with the positions of the majority, but respect the protection I am still afforded from repercussions because I am in the minority.
Unions are angering us by supporting bad candidates. They are shooting themselves in the foot trying to get lucrative contracts. It is hard to sympathize with unions when they pour money into Natacha's PAC.
I'm looking at our local Unions, like I look at our County Commission. The members of the various unions may have different opinions than their leadership (like the voters here who don't like their commissioner), but it's those at the top who have tilted the wheel so far above an beyond with these unsustainable benefit packages.
When Union dues are being spent to fund candidates/PAC's/GOTV, and then I see their members proudly display their Union Logo's as they bus voters to the polls - it's gone way too far and way beyond their purpose.
No one is going to convince me that Union members SHOULD NOT pay in to their retirement & health care. It's not fair nor is is "equal" to the Private Sector.
If the argument is being used that there was some type of salary freeze or 5% decrease in their pay, I have to ask, from what to where, and during the time of employment, how much did the taxpayer's pick up to cover the cost of the benefits. It will tip in favor of the public worker every time when all is added up.
When I think of Union leaders, think of the Head of the Dade County Teacher's Union being dragged away in handcuff's, but, everyone gets mad because a lot of parents are sending their kids to non union Charter Schools. Teachers should be rewarded for excellence and fired for incompetence, like the private sector, but oh no, not our teachers. I see a lot wrong with that and the corruption within is probably more wide spread.
Now, look at Jackson and the Nurses I(SEIU). Jackson is bleeding cash, and the bosses at the SEIU won't budge, when their Nurses are paid salary's and benefits far beyond what the same position is at let's say Baptist.
In my own small business, I've seen Union bosses literally target my worker's because they didn't want to become "Members". It's gotten so bad with the local "thugs" of the Unions. They've made it so difficult bidding jobs, and even if I prevail, and there is more than one company on any certain project, they make it as uncomfortable as possible. Is it right for a private small business to be shut out - locally, because of the Unions, claiming to "protect worker's".
To me, they Union bosses protect themselves, they are starting to remind me of VNS - the entire lot of then. And please, I'm not referring to the Membership, but I do suggest you clean house within. This negative PR isn't going to help.
Walker is correct, as much as you may hate his idiotic logic: Wisconsin is part of a strategic battle to consolidate power by the radical right. They have absolute faith that what is good for business is good for America, and don't see in the least that they and their policies caused the worst economic crisis since the Depression. The unions have been decimated over the past twenty five years (they are a fraction of their former power). While union leadership has itself to blame for failing to adapt, I'm not comfortable at all though with american workers being left unprotected and the mercy of Koch and Karl Rove and Clarence Thomas or the Chamber of Commerce. We are in a race to the bottom, and their version of the US won.
I don't think anyone is arguing for or actually can abolish PRIVATE sector unions, its the public sector unions that muscle in (Or Fat in in VNS case) politically and cost taxpayers a bundle. Who are the majority of those taxpayers who are being squeezed in order to feed the public sector unions greed? Private sector workers and small business owners AKA the Middle Class.
Cities, states and counties are feeling the pressure now and have taxing the economic life out of the middle class, throw in TARP and Stimulus, and the private sector middle class doesn't stand a chance, its being wiped out.
Too many folks here blinded by partisanship or maybe work for a public sector union, regardless you can't hide the facts.
The Recall on Alvarez and VNS can't come fast enough for me, should've happened a lot earlier.
It is not worth the taxpayers money to recall Alvarez at this point in his term.
Leave it be and let's get this county back on regular election cycles and back to focusing on providing services.
After listening, it creeps me out that:
1. the governor is such a creep
2. that people are running around saying they are other people and taping it. Isn't it illegal to do that?
Next to last Anon
If you leave Carlos Alvarez in office the next budget will break the backs of Miami Dade County taxpayers.
At this point its on the ballot and if the voters don't show some self respect and boot VNS and Alvarez heaven help us.
One of the most under-reported stories over the past decade is the ferocious, often illegal, corporate resistance workers have come to experience when attempting to organize their workplace. Studies have shown that if workers’ preferences were realized, close of half of the workforce would have union representation. Here in Florida, private sector unionization rate is an anemic 3%. The reason is that now it is all too often the common practice for workers to be subjected to threats, interrogation, harassment, surveillance, and retaliation for supporting a union.
An analysis by Cornell University’s Kate Bronfenbrenner of 1999-2003 data on union elections found that:
• 63%of employers interrogate workers in mandatory one-on-one meetings with their supervisors about support for the union;
• 54% of employers threaten workers in such meetings;
• 57% of employers threaten to close the worksite;
• 47% of employers threaten to cut wages and benefits; and
• 34% of employers fire workers.
Even when workers elect to form a union, over half of those workers have no collective bargaining agreement a year after the election. Congress and President Obama could deliver no better gift to working America than passing the Employee Free Choice Act that would give workers a fair and direct path to form unions through majority sign-up, help employees secure a contract with their employer in a reasonable period of time, and toughen penalties against employers who violate their workers' rights.
To the poster using the Cornell study, those figures are really old and there are very strict laws both in Florida and Federally protecting worker's.
Private corporations are just that. There should be no "Federal" mandate regarding the Union issue, to me, it's just more bullying. The worker's are free to stay or go on their own. They're free to blow the whistle and file complaints on several different levels. I don't like any legislation which makes peoples vote public, instead of by sealed ballot, to everyone which the legislation you want past does.
I certainly think it's in very bad taste, if not totally illegal (at least in Florida) to do what these pranksters did.
While some good discussion is going on, the original story hits me to the core, in a very bad way. There are serious problems in our Country right now, and I guess this is all a very good deflection away from a crippling National deficit and runaway spending!
I love it when Gonzo journalist do this kind of stuff! There is a guy out there named Andrew Breitbart and he does the same thing. It is too bad he only gets real exposure on just Fox News. I am glad to see ALL the news networks picked up on this last night.
"Private corporations are just that. There should be no "Federal" mandate regarding the Union issue, to me, it's just more bullying."
There should be no outside interference on how the business operates or what it does either, right? Hence, the need for FDA, EPA or any other regulatory agency. I'm sure the banks feel the same way up until they asked for a massive federal bail-out.
I don't see why lefties are going after the Koch Brothers. They support drug legalization, gay marriage and reduction in defense spending.
They also fund NOVA on PBS!
AFL-CIO Leader Trumpka visits the White House frequently is in contact with someone inside the White House on a daily basis.
Who really has the influence of the powerful?
Walker is a cowardly and sniveling weasel who is out to settle a personal score. He could not care less about the budget. This entire fiasco is intended to crush Union support for the Democratic Party.....period.
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