Posted on 03/09/2011 4:23:24 AM PST by Scanian
Demonstrators at the Wisconsin capitol, union representatives and absent Democratic state senators concede in interviews that they don't object to a bill requiring teachers and other public employees to pay 12.5 percent of their health insurance (up from five percent), or up to half of their pension deposits. It is the curbing of collective bargaining that has brought on near hysteria and a fierce campaign to discredit Governor Scott Walker's legislation.
For the union leaders the consequences of passage of the legislation could be devastating to their sinecures. Amid all the shouting, placards and banging on pots and pans in the capitol, two elements of the bill have received only passing attention. One would stop state collection of union dues. The other would require the unions to be recertified, by vote of all members, every year.
Currently, the State of Wisconsin automatically deducts union dues from public employee paychecks and it goes to the unions. The unions then use as much of the money as the leaders wish to give to candidates who will look favorably on their demands (almost always Democrats). Thus, the taxpayers are subsidizing partisan election donations.
This "closed shop" arrangement would change under the new law. Once it passed the state would no longer deduct union dues from paychecks. Employees would only pay dues voluntarily by signing a union card. The unions would have to go through the process of collecting the dues.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
Oh, those pesky details.
The lady talking is a State Senator; the man is our US Congressman.
Well, I wouldn’t get your hopes up for WI. I just spent a half hour listening to Walker on the radio. He is perfectly happy to sit there and let the Democrats recall Republican senators. He will do nothing except compromise and play Charlie Brown to the Democrats’ Lucy. He will continue to play the fool, refusing to take the initiative or to play hard ball. His idea of “action” is for us to contact the Repub senators to tell them we appreciate that they have stood firm thus far.
I am so disappointed in this man. He is a nerd. A pencil neck geek. He is no match for the Obama machine. And he never stops talking. Always a bad sign.
The MOST important thing is that the automatic collection of union dues stops. No more tax money going into democrat coffers from union dues. Let the union fatcats go to war with the democrat party over the paltry amount of voluntary dues they will still receive. The union toughs will want to keep it for their pay and the dems will demand it for politickin. :-)
This has been the number-one issue in all union fiascos over the years.
Steady and huge cash flow to union orgs, and the steady and huge cash flow to Democrat politicians.
If you are right about Walker, then we would have been far better off had he never picked this fight at all, rather to pick it and then lose it. This is just going to embolden the Alinskyite Left beyond the pale. Not just in Wisconsin, but all over.
I have come to learn that it is foolish to pin your hopes on Republicans. They have a special gift for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Bump.
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