The union war: What's the next step?

Yesterday, the Wisconsin Senate took the collective bargaining portion of the budget repair bill and passed it. The Assembly passed the same today. 
Last night, Michael Moore appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and said this is war. He certainly was right about that. After the vote, the Capitol was stormed by protesters. They pushed past law enforcement, entered through windows (that democrats opened in some cases) and turned it into a mob scene. Damage was done to doors and windows. 
This morning, protesters blocked access to the Assembly Chamber in an attempt to keep Assembly members from voting. An aide to Speaker Fitzgerald was unable to get to his office which was down this same hall. He found four state troopers to help him get to his office. The troopers had to literally drag the protesters out of the way. Once in his office, the aide spoke to talk radio host Charlie Sykes. He said the protesters were right outside his door banging on the glass and trying to pick the lock. He overheard one protester asking if anyone had something they could use to break the window. 
A bit later, law enforcement again had to drag protesters out of the way so lawmakers could get in the Assembly Chamber to vote. During this session, Representative Jeff Fitzgerald read an email death threat that was directed at Republican lawmakers. It said in part "We have all planned to assult you by arriving at your house and putting a nice little bullet in your head."


There are many more examples of the tactics these people are using in their "war" against elected officials in Wisconsin. They are nothing more than thugs, a term they find offensive, but there really isn't a more accurate word to describe them. They have made it clear what their weapons of choice are. 


Recall petitions are being circulated against eight Republicans and eight Democrats. The reason for the recall against Democrats? Citizens are rightfully angry that Senators that were hired to pass laws but instead fled the state and hid out in Illinois to avoid voting. Against Republicans it's entirely different. It's an organized effort to attempt to overturn a legitimate election. As I stated before, we have seen the weapons of choice the unions have. We also have weapons available to us, and two of the best weapons we have are truth and facts. 


Polls continue to show that a higher percentage in Wisconsin are opposed to union workers losing their collective bargaining "rights." This is where we can begin with truth and facts. 


Fact: Collective bargaining is not a right. This is why the polls say what they say. Americans don't like the idea of anyone losing a right, so when you ask them if they favor public workers losing their "right" to collective bargaining, people bristle and say no. People need to know collective bargaining is a privilege granted around 50 years ago, and like other privileges, it can and should be revoked when it has been abused. 


Fact: With the collective bargaining revisions that have now been passed, public employees will have more freedom available to them. They will no longer be required to join a union in order to get a public sector job. They may join the union if they so choose. Since democrats are all about freedom of choice, this should make everyone happy. 


Fact: Public employees will no longer be forced to pay union dues. Under the old law, union dues are withheld from public employee paychecks whether or not the employee wants it. Now they have the choice to pay dues or not. This is helpful because not only does it give public employees a choice, they can also save money by choosing to not pay dues and can use the savings to help offset the some of the costs of the increased healthcare and pension contributions they claim to have no problem paying. 


Fact: Collective bargaining revisions bring some fairness and cost savings. For example, because of collective bargaining, Correctional Officers have been able to call in sick for their shift, collect sick pay for that shift, then work the next shift and get paid over time. That is incredibly expensive for tax payers and will be done away with. 


Fact: With these revisions, School boards will now have the ability to retain teachers based on merit in the event of layoffs. Under the old law, when layoffs occur, the teachers with seniority keep their jobs, even if they aren't doing a very good job. This brings some much needed fairness into their work environment and encourages all teachers to be the best they can be. 


Fact: Unions don't care about the employees they represent. What do they care about? Money and power. As I said earlier, union dues have been mandatory. A large amount of dues collected get donated to political parties. 95% goes to democrats. So, if you are a Republican and you vote Republican, your tax dollars go to pay government employees who pay dues that get donated to elect politicians you vote against. Will that all change now? No, but it will likely be reduced significantly. When union dues become optional, there are estimates that, after some time, only about 50% will write that check out every month for union dues. 


Fact: State public employees will still have more collective bargaining privileges than federal employees. Under the new law, public employees will still be able to bargain for wages and workplace conditions. They will no longer be able to bargain for benefits. This is still better than what federal employees are able to do. They can't bargain for benefits OR wages. This is also further proof that collective bargaining is not a right. 


There are other examples, but all of the above is proof that reform was definitely needed. The truth is, it was a mistake to ever allow collective bargaining for public employees in the first place. The system is entirely corrupt. You have union leaders sitting down to negotiate a contract with the very people they helped get elected with union dues. It's a HUGE conflict of interest and it's about time it's reformed. 


Going forward we now need a grass roots movement to tell the truth about what has happened in the last month. They aren't getting the truth from the mainstream media. It's time to show the corruption, expose the sweetheart deals and prove exactly why Governor Walker and the Republicans deserve our support as they face these recall elections. It's also time to kick out the democrats that hijacked our democracy for their own political gain.