Posted on 3/7/2011, 5:08:39 PM by rightwingintelligentsia
When the skyrocketing cost of public employees’ salaries and benefits helped push New York City to the brink of bankruptcy in the mid-1970s, state and local officials put together a bailout that reduced pension and benefits packages for Gotham’s workers. But by 1987, with the city out of the crisis, New York’s unions were again demanding better pensions and benefits. When Mayor Ed Koch balked, the union simply abandoned the bargaining process and went to Albany, where it offered state legislators its political backing in exchange for enacting generous new benefits. “It’s the same old story,” said a frustrated Koch. “Giving in to the unions will help Assembly members and senators stay in office.” The mayor decided to go to Albany too and dissuade the legislators from granting the new benefits—but they told him to stay home. “They sent [labor leader] Barry Feinstein to see me,” Koch told me several years ago, recalling the incident. “He told me that there was nothing I could do to stop the bill.” The cost to the city’s taxpayers: $101 million annually.
The situation that Koch faced back then is familiar to many mayors, city council members, and even governors today. This year’s face-off in Wisconsin between Governor Scott Walker and unions has generated an unusual, and long overdue, debate over collective bargaining rights in the public sector. But few seem to realize that when public-sector unions can’t win at the bargaining table, they have other ways of getting what they want—above all, exerting their muscle on legislators.
(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...
VIDEO: Plot Uncovered! Dems Fled Wisconsin to Buy Time to Pass New Union Contracts
Government e-mails reveal plot to stall budget repair bill
Madison mayor tried to get bill stalled while he signed new contracts
http://www.fox6now.com/news/witi-20110302-madison-contracts,0,3750568.story
Before protesters stormed the capitol, the mayor of the city of Madison tried to pull a fast one. The governor’s budget repair bill was on the fast track, and Madison Mayor Dave Ciesliewicz was racing against the clock to pass new union contracts first.
E-mails obtained by the FOX6 Investigators show that the mayor enlisted the help of State Senator Mark Miller. They both tried to convince the Secretary of State to hold up the bill by taking the maximum 10 days allowed by law before publishing the bill.
They were trying to buy some time so they could ratify new contracts to protect workers from benefit cuts. Citizens for Responsible Government Rep. Chris Kliesmet says, “This suggests, and this is a harsh word, collusion. There is collusion between some politicians and public sector employee unions. Period.”
Kliesmet says collective bargaining require that there be two sides. It is impossible to have collective bargaining with only one side.”
Mayor Ciesliewicz says, “We ARE on the same side.” The mayor admits they rushed contracts, but says the city negotiated in good faith. “That’s the way collective bargaining works. It ought to be a negotiation, but at the end of the day we want to have good working relationships between labor and management here in Madison.”
According to the e-mails, Secretary of State Doug La Follette declined to delay publication of the law, but it all became a moot point when Senator Democrats fled the state to block the bill
Read the e-mails between Senate Minority Leader Mike Miller and Madison Mayor Dave Ciesliewicz.
Chris Kleismet from CRG said it appears the 14 Senators orchestrated their trip to Illinois to buy time for unions all over the state to work out new deals.
State Senator Mark Miller has yet to comment on this story.
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Democrats to End Union Standoff
Wall St. J ^ | March 07, 2011 | KRIS MAHER And AMY MERRICK
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703362804576184892548853056.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories
Government Unions (public sector unions) have to go. It is unconstitutional that these unions have been given the right to by-pass our elected legislatures and organize against the taxpayers (their bosses who have to foot the bill for their wages and benefits)
Wisconsin is standing in the gap!
Make this audio go VIRAL. Get the word out! Send it to your email lists and ask them to forward it, post it on your facebook page, post it on twitter, post it is all over the internet NOW !!!!!
Trying to avoid a Constitutional crisis in Wisconsin. What’s going on is much more than what you think. It’s no more just about “the budget”.
MUST LISTEN ALL THE WAY TO THE END to this attorney (Troupis) working with Scott Walker:
Be patient - it may take a few seconds to load and start playing automatically.
If the above link doesn’t work for you, you may access Attorney Troupis’ VITALLY important comments here:
http://www.newstalk1130.com/pages/mckenna_blog.html
Well, what can we do about it?
Only if that was true..........
Exactly. Lacking talent, skills, or abilities? Join a union!
BTTT!
Thanks for the info. I think the states need to go bankrupt to break all these contracts.
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