The Great Union-Busting Thread

[sbr]

Actually Cuomo is at least talking tough on Unions.

Of course, his predecessor saw what happens when a Dem crosses the union bosses.

I suspect his predecessor did not see that, or much of anything else.

[Strix]

I sort of feel for you Strix.  You do a crappy job that not many other people would want to do, you slog in the right to work hellhole of North Carolina for years and years, then just when you reach the promised land of union-delivered largesse, the political tide shifts on you.

Thanks for the thought but no worries. Cuomo knows what he can and cannot screw with. Cuomo will announce a pay increase freeze and new contracts with 0% raises over the length of the contracts (4-5 years). He'll also roll out a new retirement Tier plan that will only apply to new hires. He'll get a lot of praise and the Union leaders will take lots of photos with him.

I get the frozen pay back (in a lump sum) once the budget issues die down in a few years or so. So, no biggy there. It will make a nice down payment on some lakefront property. My bigger concern is being forced to stay in my current crappy Union (PEF) when my division gets merged with the Department of Corrections (NYSCOPBA). The DOC has a much nicer benefit package but they hate Parole because we allow prisons to be closed.

[KRonn]

Now Maryland and union protests, against a Dem Governor.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/15/AR2011031500097.html?wprss=rss_metro/md

Md. teachers, state employees protest budget cuts, pension changes

Protestors gather in Annapolis for a rally against Governor Martin O'Malley's (D-Md.) proposed changes to state workers' pensions. (Getty Images)

Protestors gather in Annapolis for a rally against Governor Martin O'Malley's (D-Md.) proposed changes to state workers' pensions. (Getty Images)
Chanting "keep the promise" and "hands off our pensions," thousands of Maryland teachers and public employees descended on the State House in Annapolis on Monday night to protest budget cuts and higher employee pension costs proposed by Gov. Martin O'Malley (D).

Teachers charged that the governor's budget, which would close a $1.6 billion gap partly by freezing education funding, abandons a hard-fought law mandating annual increases to improve the state's classrooms.
State workers, railing against O'Malley's pension proposal, turned the governor's winning re-election slogan from last fall back at him: "Forward, not back," they yelled.

"I hate to do this to the governor, he's one of us, he's a union guy," said Bob Dickerson, a University of Maryland employee, as he jostled for a view two blocks deep in a section of the crowd clad in green emblazoned with logos of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, Maryland's largest public employees union.

"But I make $35,000 after working the same job for 35 years and you're telling me I'm the problem with the budget?" Dickerson said. "You're going to cut my pension? That's wrong."

Against the advice of some staffers and event organizers, O'Malley took the protest head-on.
Near the end of the rally, he emerged from the State House and took the stage immediately after a fist-pumping address by AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka, who had been a fixture in recent weeks at union protests outside the Wisconsin state house as the Republican governor there sought to eliminate public employees' collective bargaining rights.

"Good evening, Maryland," O'Malley said, first to a smattering of boos and then a swelling chant of "keep the promise."
But O'Malley quickly disarmed much of the crowd, saying he didn't want to hurt public employees and was not at all like his Republican counterparts in the Midwest.

"I don't like this budget either," he said, "but I wanted to come here and say this: Our state is not like other states.
"We are a great state ... because our public employees do a good job every single day," he said to hearty applause. "You will not find in Maryland the sort of Midwestern repression that goes on in places like Wisconsin . . . Ohio, that are doing away with collective bargaining."

O'Malley then offered the near exact words Maryland State Education Association President Clara B. Floyd said earlier in the evening that she wanted to hear.

"Look we have tough decisions ahead of us," O'Malley said. "But we are committed to staying at the table, and figuring this out together" with the unions, he said.
After O'Malley got off stage, he saw Trumka waiting to speak and embraced him. O'Malley then posed for pictures with union members and others.

In an interview, Trumka said the protest by unions and cooperative spirit displayed by O'Malley is "the way it's supposed to work."
"Now," Trumka said, "we negotiate.''

[Savonarola]

We've got protests in Michigan as well:

Michigan Dems to seek constitutional amendment to ensure union rights
12:12 PM, Mar. 16, 2011  |  15Comments
DETROIT FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU

LANSING -- House and Senate Democratic leaders today will call for a state constitutional amendment to guarantee the right to collective bargaining for all employees, either in the public or private sectors.

Senate Majority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, said the proposal is modeled after similar constitutional guarantees for collective bargaining in other states.

The proposal will be announced shortly at a union-led rally at the Capitol, where demonstrators are protesting Gov. Rick Snyder's budget and tax plan.

The rally, like previous ones, also is targeting a new law – soon to be signed by Snyder – that will give state-appointed emergency financial managers such sweeping powers as the ability to nullify city and school district employee union contracts.

A Republican-led effort in Wisconsin to eliminate most collective bargaining rights for state employees has outraged unionists and Democrats around the U.S.

Whitmer said Snyder and Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, have said they do not favor blocking bargaining rights.

"Let's really get it off the table and give it constitutional protection," Whitmer said.

She will jointly sponsor the measure with House Minority Leader Richard Hammel, D-Flushing. Whitmer said they will introduce the resolutions this week.

The proposal would require a two-thirds vote of approval by both the House and Senate for a spot on the 2012 fall election ballot.

If that fails, a petition drive would be required to put the issue before voters.

Whitmer said no arrangements have been made to lead a petition drive if the measure is not approved by the Legislature.

Michigan is a union heavy state; the Democrat candidate for governor is always the one whom the UAW endorsed in the primaries.  There are no right to work laws and union shops abound.  Our state has major financial problems as people leave taxes are down and as the housing market continues to decline property taxes are way down.  Given these circumstances Governor Snyder's budget is quite generous to the state unions, there are no layoffs, wages remain the same though union members will have to contribute more to their health care plan.  Even so we've had demonstrations in the state capital and Union members occupied the rotunda in the State Capitol building during votes on the bill about emergency financial managers.

To the best of my knowledge only Detroit Public Schools and the City of Highland Park have emergency financial managers.  The many unions that serve the Detroit Public Schools (not just teachers, but cooks, cleaners, maintenance and bus drivers are all unionized) have fought the DPS emergency financial manager over everything (as have the school board and community activists as well.)  I think Snyder is trying to help with that situation but he's also trying to avoid a similar situation in the worst case scenario, if the City of Detroit requires an emergency financial manager.

This amendment is largely political theater; it probably won't pass a Republican controlled state house and state senate.  You can petition to have amendments put on the ballot; given the power of the unions they would have a much easier time getting it that way.

[MadImmortalMan]

Scott Walker trying to defend himself.

Striking the right bargain in Wisconsin
By Scott Walker, Wednesday, March 16, 8:11 PM

Imagine the outrage if government workers did not have collective bargaining for wages and benefits. Consider the massive protests that would be staged by labor leaders all across the country.

Think I'm talking about Wisconsin? No, I'm talking about the federal government.

Contrary to what the Obama administration would lead you to believe, most employees of the federal government do not have collective bargaining for wages and benefits. That means the budget reform plan we signed into law in Wisconsin on Friday is more generous than what President Obama offers federal employees.

Our reform plan calls for a 5.8 percent pension contribution from government workers, including myself, and a 12.6 percent health insurance premium payment. Both are well below what middle-class, private-sector workers pay. Federal workers, however, pay an average of 28 percent of health insurance costs.

It's enough to make you wonder why there are no protesters circling the White House.

My brother is a banquet manager and occasional bartender at a hotel. He pays nearly $800 a month for his family's health insurance and can put away only a little bit toward his 401(k). He would love the plan I'm offering to public employees.

As my brother recognizes, our plan is a good deal for government workers when compared with what other middle-class workers are paying for benefits. It would be a great deal for federal workers.

Nearly every state in the country is facing a large budget deficit, just like the federal government. Many states are cutting billions of dollars in funding for schools and local governments, resulting in massive layoffs or massive property tax increases — or both.

In Wisconsin, we are choosing a different way. The Wisconsin way allows local governments to balance the budget through reasonable benefit contributions. These reasonable contributions will save local governments almost $1.5 billion.

The financial savings in our budget reforms will protect 1,500 jobs this fiscal year and 10,000 jobs over the next two years. The savings come from giving state and local governments the tools to manage benefit costs through collective bargaining reform.

Some have questioned the need to reform collective bargaining. After all, they say, the union bosses in Washington said publicly that their workers were ready to pay a little bit more for their benefits. But the truth is that as the national union bosses were saying one thing, their locals were doing something entirely different. Over the past several weeks, local unions across Wisconsin have pursued contracts without new pension or health insurance contributions. Some have even pushed through pay increases.

Their actions leave one wondering how tone-deaf and out of touch union bosses are with what's happening in the private sector. Even the president instituted a pay freeze on government workers this year, something he was able to do only because federal employees enjoy fewer collective bargaining rights than do Wisconsin workers — even with our recent reforms.

Beyond balancing budgets, our reforms give schools — as well as state and local governments — the tools to improve their operations. We allow them to reward merit and performance instead of facing the barriers of collective bargaining that all too often block innovation and reform. Because of our reforms, government will become more efficient and effective for the people.

Ultimately, our budget repair bill is about the next generation. We are making the difficult decisions now so that our children don't have to make even more difficult choices to balance the budget we left them.

A lot of people have made their voices heard during this debate, including the president and the union bosses. But middle-class taxpayers who want a government that works for them also deserve a voice. Now they have one.

The writer, a Republican, is governor of Wisconsin.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/striking-the-right-bargain-in-wisconsin-/2011/03/14/ABL7cAh_story.html

[grumbler]

Walker needs to learn to STFU.  President Obama doesn't offer jobs with any conditions to "federal employees" except political appointees, and Walker's a moron to try to draw this comparison.

I also note that walker continues to pretend that we won't notice that he is lying when he says what he believes about the necessity to get rid of the police and firefighters' unions.

[Razgovory]

No, I would prefer he keeps talking.

[sbr]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12791155

US judge blocks Wisconsin union bargaining law

A US judge in Wisconsin has issued a temporary restraining order blocking the state's new collective bargaining law from taking effect.

Public-sector unions' bargaining rights would be affected by the law, if it is published later this month.

Judge Maryann Sumi issued the order, which is being seen as a setback to Republican Governor Scott Walker.

Tens of thousands of people rallied at the state capitol in recent weeks in protest against the anti-union measure.

Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne filed a lawsuit contending that a legislative committee which broke a stalemate that had kept the bill in limbo for weeks met without the 24-hour notice required by Wisconsin's open meetings law.

Last month, US state's 14 Democratic senators had sought to prevent the bill moving forward by fleeing the state, leaving the chamber short of the number needed for a vote.

But Republicans used a procedural move last week to allow them to pass the measure in committee instead. Mr Walker signed it into law shortly afterwards.

The state's justice department argued that it had given enough notice of the committee meeting when it posted a memo on a bulletin board two hours beforehand.

The law was to be published on 25 March, but the new restraining order will now prevent that from happening.
Remaining 'confident'

Cullen Werwie, a spokesman for Mr Walker, said he was confident the law would still be published in the near future.

"This legislation is still working through the legal process," Mr Werwie said.

But Democrats were hopeful Republicans in the state would come back to the negotiating table.

"I would hope the Republicans would take this as an opportunity to sit down with Democrats and negotiate a proposal we could all get behind," said Democratic Senator Jon Erpenbach.

The state faces a $3.6bn (£2.23bn) budget deficit in the coming two-year period. Mr Walker and Republicans say the law on labour unions is needed to help the state balance that deficit.

If implemented, the legislation would affect rubbish collectors, teachers, nurses, prison guards and other public workers.

[Admiral Yi]

Why is a US judge ruling on whether the Wisconsin legislature followed its own rules?

[sbr]

Why is a US judge ruling on whether the Wisconsin legislature followed its own rules?

Stupid Brits, I got that from the BBC.  Here is an American source that know what they are talking about.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/judge_blocks_wisconsin_law_curbing_labor_rights/2011/03/18/ABDDjjq_story.html?wprss=rss_business

[Neil]

Is Wisconsin not in the US anymore?

[dps]

Is Wisconsin not in the US anymore?

Federal judges have no jurisdiction on whether or not actions violate state laws.  They only have jurisdiction on issues involving federal laws, or questions arising under the US Constitution.

[Razgovory]

I think it's a county judge.

[Hansmeister]

Walker needs to learn to STFU.  President Obama doesn't offer jobs with any conditions to "federal employees" except political appointees, and Walker's a moron to try to draw this comparison.

I also note that walker continues to pretend that we won't notice that he is lying when he says what he believes about the necessity to get rid of the police and firefighters' unions.

This is not even a coherent statement. 

[sbr]

I think it's a county judge.

Yep.  It is a county judge in Wisconsin, which is in the US.  So the BBC report of a US judge is right, but that usually implies a federal judge, which this was not.