Something rotten in the state of Wisconsin

[Dante]

Excuse me, Americans, if I'm not entirely savvy with the ins and outs of your political system. That being said, it seems to me that one of your states is trying to annihilate workers' unions.

Now I've been following this story for a while, at first with only passing interest and a sense that someone was employing gratuitous hyperbole. That changed when I saw this:

All of a sudden there was a connection. Not only that, but the traditionally patronising attitude of many in the west towards the protests in Africa and the Middle East ("Oh look at those backwards little countries, such a shame they don't have our god-given democracy, we should support them against those nasty dictators") was turned completely on its head. Now someone in Egypt, a country with no small degree of problems, sees fit to offer a sign of support to an American state.

Since then I've been following the matter much more closely. I watched the democrats quit the state in an effort to delay voting, I watched the republicans threaten them with bounty hunters to bring them back (not to generalise needlessly, but it does seem that this issue is divided along party lines in the state government). I watched large protests against the legislation from members of the public, and this is not a small thing in a country with massive voter apathy. I watched the republicans insist that this was a financial measure, not a deliberate attack on unions (which would lose the rights to jointly negotiate for anything except salary, if I understand correctly). And then today, prompting me to make this thread, the republicans changed their mind, decided that it was not a financial measure, promptly voted on it without the democrats and passed it over the frustrated shouts of the democrat minority leader, who insisted that in doing so the republicans were not only breaking convention but also the law.

It's all here:

Finished watching that? It's ok, I'll wait. It's worth watching to see government in action, to see politicians override and ignore their opposition, who was in the room to protest, to pass a vastly unpopular and now borderline-illegal piece of legislation.

This now, this is interesting. This is dictatorial behaviour. This is "We don't care what you want or what the public wants, we're going to break the rules and do it anyway." I haven't yet found any sources for anyone attempting to justify this, but they'll have to do some spine-bending mental gymnastics to make that work. And furthermore, how are the voters going to react? It's one thing when a government passes unpopular legislation, it's quite another when it passes legislation so unpopular that they had to break the rules to do so. There have been protests. Perhaps strikes are the next step? Violence on the streets?

Egypt had much greater problems than workers' rights. But someone there still took the time to consider the problems of Wisconsin. I can't help but feel that if the voters of Wisconsin just roll over and take this, they will be failing to live up to expectations. Someone needs to remind the people in charge that they play by the same rules as everyone else, or not at all. And if they choose not to play by the rules, well, perhaps nobody else will either.

(Arguably, this could have been posted in the "Exposed" thread of ath's, but frankly I'd prefer a little less sensationalism in the discussion, and in any case feel that the topic merits a different thread simply because of its specificity.)

In closing, this.

Discuss.

[Lord J]

Yeah, it's a pretty disgusting situation. My wife has been angry about it for the last couple of weeks, and although I haven't followed it as closely as I should, it is pretty horrible. I think you're absolutely correct that this is dictatorial behavior. What we are seeing in Wisconsin (and more recently in Rhode Island, where all of the nearly 2000 Providence elementary teachers were sacked) is the rise of the corporate dictators whose interests are not those of the people.

[ErasOmnius]

Well, first off, there's not enough money to pay them the wage and benefit packages that they currently have, and unlike Congress and Obama, the state of Wisconsin cannot simply print worthless money. The new Wisconsin law simply limits collective bargaining to the rate of inflation, and not higher. The State Senate of Wisconsin stripped the bill of all monetary expenditures, thus allowing the Republicans in the State Senate to pass the bill without the presence of the 14 Democrats. Now they can change the state employees salaries and benefit packages (including pensions). In Michigan, it was much easier, since the Republicans in the State Senate control so many seats that they don't need the Democrats for a quorum. The State Senate approved and expanded the role of Emergency Financial Managers over financially failing cities and school districts (which are up to 30% in the state). These Emergency Administrators can go in and cancel contracts, employee benefit packages and salaries, at will; without any input. What is ironic is that the Michigan measures were MUCH harsher than our neighbor Wisconsin's measures, yet Wisconsin had the big rallies. The states of the MidWest USA are having to adjust to the real world of Chrysler and General Motors declaring bankruptcy. When they declared bankruptcy; all Income, Property, and Equipment taxes they owed were declared null and void. That was the first blow to many of those states, since the 2 companies were both headquartered, and had up to 20 manufacturing plants, in the region. But the new companies were still allowed to keep all of the sweetheart property tax deals they had negotiated with the states and municiplaities, over the last 2 decades. So in a nutshell. Chrysler, GM, and Ford (since they got the same deal as the other 2); barely pay Income, Property, or Equipment Tax in the MidWest USA anymore. So the decline in revenue ot the states' has been astounding, and the state's budgets must be cut. Illinois passed the burden onto its' citizens, soaking the average person. No one wants to see anyone get a pay cut, or lose benefits -- but why do politicians negotiate 'sweeheart' deals with large multi-national corporations, simply to keep them from re-locating to China or the Far East?