Unions Strike Back at Anti-Labor Legislation

Education Week ^ | March 28, 2011 | Stephen Sawchuk

[Sopater]

Besieged by state proposals to eviscerate collective bargaining, eliminate teacher tenure, and make it harder to collect dues, teachers’ unions are fighting back.

Lawsuits supported by local union affiliates have for now blocked anti-union legislation in Alabama and Wisconsin. Unions are drawing on membership networks, e-mail “blasts,” and phone banks to mobilize teachers and connect them to local politicians. Rallies and demonstrations, meanwhile, have kept the issue in the minds of the public.

Most of the action is occurring at the state level, but by providing state and local affiliates with specialized aid, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers are playing an important role in supporting the efforts. Both unions have raised or plan to raise dues to help pay for efforts to delay, block, or mitigate the impact of such legislation.

Observers note that the unions’ longer-term strategy, though, hinges on winning in the court of public opinion and being able to capitalize on such sympathy in the 2012 elections.

[Sopater]

The taxpayers won the battle in 2010 elections, but the war is not over. A sleeping giant was awoken in 2010 but cannot afford to go back to sleep. The noisy, cranky little imps are now rallying and spending a lot of money, hoping that the giant has gone back to sleep.

[K-Stater]

Well you didn’t expect the unions to go down without a fight, did you?

[Sopater]

Well you didn’t expect the unions to go down without a fight, did you?

Certainly not, and I'm quite ready for a fight. I just hope that the large number of Americans that changed the political landscape in 2010 understand that we need to continue with the same intensity through the 2012 elections and the less popular Spring elections and even recall elections.

[pacpam]

Once again the ‘rice bowl’ syndrome is in full play. There is no way to sustain the wages and pensions, but don’t you dare cut me. Private pensions and wages took and are taking their hit, time for the rest to face up to facts.

[lormand]

Unions - Slacker's Paradise!

-- Proud ex-Union member

[chickadee]

Lawsuits supported by local union affiliates have for now blocked anti-union legislation in Alabama and Wisconsin.

[PapaBear3625]

The big war will be fought over the next 18 months. It will involve gutting the union money machine which finances the Dem party.

The 2012 election will depend on which side wins the union dues war. If the unions are unable to finance the Dem 2012 campaigns, if union "volunteers" are not available for get-out-the-vote efforts (and vote fraud and ballot stuffing), then the Dems will go down in flames in 2012.

Expect them to fight like cornered rats, because that's what they truly are right now.

[Sopater]

I understand that the bill was published by another organization besides the sec. of state, but is it now considered settled? I thought that there was still a lot of bickering going on as to whether or not the law would be enforced. Where can I get the latest on WI?

[chickadee]

Tommy Thompson had the same problem with Doug La Follette that Walker has (yes, La Follette has been in office too long), so he devised the Legislative Reference Bureau publication of bills to circumvent the obstreperous Secretary of State. There is precedent and Walker is implementing the bill as of the April 1 paychecks.

Walker team says it's implementing union legislation

[Bernard Marx]

Expect them to fight like cornered rats, because that's what they truly are right now.

They'll use all possible tactics to protect their gravy train.

I remember a local school bond proposal that had been rejected by the voters 3 times. It was put on the ballot a 4th time in a low-turnout off-year election. The polling place just "happened" to be at the school district office and all teachers were required to appear in-person at the district office that day. The bond issue passed.

[pfflier]

Lawsuits of this nature are the refuge of cowards.

California has experienced may cases where the electorate mandates one thing while courts are used to disrupt the mandates.

This terrible precidence is permeating the country. It is time for legislation that limits judicial activism both at the state and national level.

[FrankR]

[FrankR]

[Sopater]

It is time for legislation that limits judicial activism both at the state and national level.

I thought that legislation was already in place, it's called the Constitution. What is needed is enforcement of existing legislation.

[GraceG]

How many “Purple People Beaters” I mean SEIU members showed up?

[April Lexington]

At the end of the day... public school teachers and public workers make up less than 10% of the voting population. They will not be able to convince the 90% of people who make up the productive class to sacrifice so that they can make higher salaries and benefits. The 90% are greedy too. So, for all the bluster and howling, the union peckerheads are destined to fail. Greed is greed and they simply don;t have the numbers. Rioting and property damage is just turning off the 90% and hurting their cause.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Well you didn’t expect the unions to go down without a fight, did you?

I certainly didn't. They are part of the Left, as are the media, useful idiots, special interest NGO's, and the Democrat Party, but their day in the sun is nearly over. They have finally gone a bridge too far. After years of stealth, the radicals of the sixties have lost patience. They want it all now.

They underestimated the opposition. That would be us. Now, in order to stop them, we must mobilize. That is what the Tea Party Movement is about. We will win.

[Tzimisce]

[mia]

Fire all the teachers and administrators. Hire a private company to fill the vacancies. Privatization works every time it's tried.

Is there a law against this?

[Sopater]

They underestimated the opposition.

I think that they misread the results of the 2008 election. 2008 was not a mandate for left-wing policies, it was a rebuke of the so-called conservatives of the Republican party. The liberals, having misread the election as their "mandate" went a bridge too far (as you so elequently put it) in pushing their agenda. I just hope that the public stays awake and doesn't let Spring elections go by without going to the polls.