Wisconsin has been on the front lines of the battles around
organized labor for the past 4 1/2 years. In this span Wisconsin has transformed from a relatively
peaceful state to one of animosity and conflict. While there are a host of
issues that have divided our state, the conflicts about the rights of public
employees to organize have been at the center of the struggles since Governor
Walker and the Wisconsin Legislature introduced the controversial legislation
that drastically altered the climate that public employees had worked in for 50
+ years and undid a legacy of Progressivism around labor rights going back over
a century.
In this day and age where
news stories come and go quickly and our attention spans for issues seem to
shorten daily, the staying power of this issue has been impressive. Whether
during Walker's
short lived presidential bid, in ongoing debates around public education, or
recent efforts to change Civil Service protections, public employees rights to
organize and advocate for themselves and their professions have been on the
radar of many Wisconsinites on a regular basis. Passions still run high, and it
doesn't take much to get a storm started when these issues arise.
One of the reasons for
this intensity of emotion is the divisive way that the so called reforms were
advanced and implemented. This wasn't your typical exercise in democracy that
plodded forward through a series of hoops and that involved significant
build-up. These changes were proposed suddenly, pushed forward with little real
substantive debate and passed in the middle of the night during a storm of
controversy and protest. Because of the way this progressed the best way for
supporters of the "reforms" to build their case was to create a
scapegoat, in this case public employees. Suddenly, teachers and other public
servants were vilified and demonized in an effort to cement political and
economic power for a small number of individuals.
This was a power grab and
one that has left us divided and weakened. Those who have lost their collective
bargaining rights mourn the loss. However, it has become clear that the political
climate has changed and that public employees, especially educators need to
move forward from where we are now. We can look back with fondness at the
"good old days" of pre-February 2011, but the reality that we have is
the one that we must deal with. Yet at the same time, we can't simply accept
this new reality as fixed in stone because it is one that isn't good for the
majority of the people in this state, or good for any democratic society where
the good of the many should be the primary focus.
The current reality is one
where unions, public or private sector, need to take a look at the past to
understand how we got to where we are, and then look towards the future. One
where they will either evolve (through a process hereby know as evolunion) or
become obsolete and go extinct due to member attrition, loss of political power
and a loss of financial capital. This occurs as unions are demonized, their
power is curtailed through legislation/policy and members are convinced that
their unions are either not necessary or actually harmful to their interests.
It seems almost ridiculous
to suggest that unions are obsolete, especially given the fact that our
economic disparities are at some of the highest levels in our nation's history.
Unions are the result of the simple reality that employees need to have a voice
in their wages, benefits and working conditions. Without a collective voice
each individual worker is left at the mercy of their employer with those who
either have a needed skill, connections, or luck rising to the top.
It is no surprise that we
are seeing the idea of unions and collective action under attack at the same
time we are told that we no longer need protections like Affirmative Action,
Voting Rights Laws or other similar defenses against the abuses of the
powerful. The idea that individuals will rise through a system to achieve the
status that their ability allows is one that sounds reasonable, just as long as
the system is fair, and there are equitable ways to determine an individual's
worth. Given the fact that our society is a long way from this reality, unions
clearly are still a necessary part of our labor landscape.
Given the long history of
organized labor protecting and advancing the rights of workers one is left to
wonder how we reached the point where a small number of individuals could so
effectively undermine some of the most powerful labor organizations in the
nation. Wisconsin's
public workers have a long history of organizing and have been an active voice
in the state for decades. Public educators in Wisconsin, and around the nation, are still
the largest of unions. In general public employees have been considered an
asset to our state and were respected as important parts of the communities
they served.
The simple answer to this
is that a budget crisis was created to justify the destruction of collective
bargaining for public employees in Wisconsin.
We know that times of crisis are times when the climate is ripe for drastic
action to be taken. Some of these actions have a positive effect such as FDR's
leadership during the Great Depression. Unfortunately, many times crisis brings
out the worst in us. The same administration that brought us the New Deal also
interned over 100,000 citizens of Japanese descent. Too often we are willing to
sacrifice our greater values for short term gains or feelings of safety or
vengeance and this was clearly the case in Wisconsin where economic strife and inequity
was turned against a small group of people.
Why attack public
employees in Wisconsin?
The rhetoric from those who supported these "reforms" centered around
a need to fix the state's budget crisis. When union leaders agreed to make
changes in the ways that pensions were funded and other economic concessions
the rhetoric changed to one of ending the power of union bosses and to attacks
on the long standing abuses of power by unions in their work with local and
state governments. The reasoning given was that these government entities
needed legislative support in order to change a system that was supposedly
harming our economies and imbalanced in favor of public sector unions.
Additional arguments invoked quotes from FDR and essentially stated that the
public sector was no place for unions, and that Civil Service laws protected
public employees quite well without additional union advocacy.
There is significant
evidence that the real reason behind these attacks on collective bargaining had
little to do with balancing budgets or strengthening local governmental
control. In fact, Governor Walker himself when testifying before Congress
admitted that the "reforms" implemented didn't have an economic
basis. In reality, Act 10 and the effort to dismantle public sector unions was
part of an ongoing effort to eliminate political rivals and to wage a divisive
struggle that cemented power in the hands of a single party. Weakening public
educator unions allowed for a more intensive assault on public education in an
effort to privatize education and reap the profits that entails. It was also a
moment created so that Governor Walker could launch himself on to the national
scene and begin his run for President.
Some Republican leaders in Wisconsin are disputing Gov. Scott Walker’s
latest account of how he took on the GOP establishment during his battle...
m.jsonline.com|By Mary Spicuzza
One might argue that some
of my retelling and analysis of these events is biased by the fact that my wife
and I are public educators and that my family has been negatively impacted by
the changes that have occurred since 2011. There is no doubt that the loss of
tens of thousands of dollars from our take home pay has affected my family.
There is also no doubt that the changes have resulted in more challenging conditions
for us to work in, and for our own children to learn in. But, my displeasure
with the actions of the Republican dominated Wisconsin
government are not purely personal. The "reforms" implemented in 2011
and expanded over the following years have clearly not achieved what was
promised.
The economic recovery since the recession has…
wisconsingazette.com
When Scott Walker was elected Wisconsin governor in 2010, he
came into office with a playbook he’d followed as the Milwaukee County
executive: he declared...
talkingpointsmemo.com
UW-Oshkosh economist M. Kevin McGee says Wisconsin's inability to hang onto its
workforce is causing the jobs slump.
host.madison.com|By Steven Elbow |
The Capital Times
Minnesota
is the first union-friendly state with high wages and high taxes to reach the
top of CNBC's annual ranking. The North Star state ranks so well in areas...
csmonitor.com|By The Christian
Science Monitor
There's Republican economics for ya!
crooksandliars.com|By Susie Madrak
Few details have emerged about the city of Green Bay’s budget plan for next year, but
spending has been steadily rising since Act 10 forced cuts.
greenbaypressgazette.com|By Adam Rodewald
Not only have the
"reforms" been ineffective, the very way that they were enacted was
questionable.
DIGGING DEEPER: Emails show strong coordination between Walker
officials and lobbyists during Act 10
MADISON (WKOW) -- Personal email records received by 27 News
from the office of Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin) show a high level of
coordination between…
www.wkow.com|By Greg Neumann
The public has been
mislead about a number of issues and this has resulted in continuing challenges
to public employees including potential raiding of our pensions (supposedly to
protect the public interest).
As state officials eye ways to improve the pension system
serving hundreds of thousands of public employees and retirees in Wisconsin, a national…
jsonline.com|By Jason Stein
2015 SB 312 and 2015 AB 394 require the Group Insurance
Board, in consultation with the Division of Personnel Management in the
Department of Administration, to submit all proposed changes to public employee
group health insurance programs to the Joint Committee on Finance (JCF). Under
the bill, the…
etf.wi.gov
The Civil Service laws
that were supposedly more than enough protection for public employees are being
challenged as well.
The public needs to keep a close eye and make sure that
these legislators don’t return the state to the bad old days when political loyalty
mattered more than...
jsonline.com
MADISON,
Wis. (AP) -- Gov. Scott Walker
told Republicans who control the state Assembly...
hosted.ap.org
The Republican proposal would make sweeping changes to the
century-old system.
host.madison.com|By Jessie Opoien |
The Capital Times
All of the history and the
review of current events won't change the fact that Act 10 is the law of the
land and that other states have similar laws/policies that have changed the
reality that public employees work in. However the law was passed, whatever the
impact it has had and whatever the motive was for passing it is in many ways
irrelevant. What matters most now is what happens next, and what happens next
is in the hands of union leaders, union members and workers across Wisconsin and around the
nation.
Central to this is the
fact that our public employees are vital to our communities and that they fill
roles that must be maintained for our society to function. Public roadways,
schools, police, fire and countless other services have been central to our
nation's political, social and economic health. Public employees may be
portrayed as "enemies of the state" but the fact is that they are not
the problem, but rather the solution to the challenges that we face.
This importance of public
employees and the services they provide still doesn't answer the questions
around their ability to unionize and to bargain collectively with their
employers. Some might argue that public employees are important, but that
doesn't mean that they should be allowed to form unions. This argument fails to
recognize some important realities about what public employees do. I can't
speak for all public employees, but can articulate the need for contractual
protections for educators.
The best reasons for
public educator unions are two fold. First, public educators work in jobs that
require us to fill many roles in the lives of our students and their families.
We administer medications, keep our students safe, help them access needed
services, provide emotional support through trauma, and don't forget, teach them
skills and concepts they need to become positive, productive members of
society. We know that our diverse student population requires diversity in
teaching methods, we know that there are many competing ideas for teaching
students, we also know that measuring student progress isn't as simple as many
would have us believe. Our students face purchased curricula that may not be
the best fit for them, they are overtested and then tested some more, they are
subjected to policies that fail to meet their needs or that are not responsive
to their culture or community. Given this, it is no wonder that educators are
in a position to be strong advocates for their students, families and
community. Without protections provided by unions and contracts any educator
speaking out for students and against the system faces the consequences of
losing their job or more.
The second reason is
simple, our teaching conditions are our students learning conditions.
As time has gone by we
have started to see a shift and some pushing back against the anti-union
rhetoric.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from…
wisconsingazette.com
Scott Walker ran a bizarrely off-key campaign for the
Republican presidential nomination. So it made sense that he would end that
campaign on a bizarre...
thenation.com
Opposition to unions is a thin agenda for a presidential
bid.
thehill.com
Unions might never recover the strength they had decades
ago, but recent signs suggest renewed support for labor, or at least an end to
its run as a Republican...
bloomberg.com
Unions are, at their
heart, the most democratic of structures and ones that have deep roots in our
national ideology.
Scott Walker's evangelical faith and union-busting do not go
hand in hand.
newrepublic.com
We
know that unions are crucial to the success of our nation's middle class.
One thing we can learn from history is that there are patterns and cycles to human behavior. This
means that unions will arise again in some form and that we will see the people
unite to advance the needs of the collective whole. What we can't afford to do
is wait for this to happen. We know that the income gaps in our society are
widening, more families are living in poverty, tensions caused by economic
stresses increase divisions in society and other problems multiply when the
voices of the people are silenced. Eliminating union rights silences people's
voices. It is up to all of us to make sure that the needs of the people are
heard loudly and clearly.
It may sound like an
immense challenge, but we've seen it done many times before. The fact that so
many of our public and private unions are continuing their struggle gives us a
framework to use in our efforts. What it takes is an active and engaged
population that is informed about the issues of importance to them. Unions can
provide this information and organizing strength. In fact, it is vital to the
long term health of our nation that unions find a way to regain their status in
the political, social and economic realms of our society.
Public educator unions are
providing some of the blueprints for successful evolunionizing. We have to
remember that unions arose when workers united and actively engaged in tactics
that forced employers to take notice. Unions were not some vague concept, but
rather a real entity made up of colleagues who wanted the respect and dignity they
deserved. They had their roots in a sense of social justice and forged links
that went beyond economic causes and spoke to a deeper set of values. Today's
unions can return to this and provide opportunities for members to connect more
deeply with their communities and forge stronger links within our society.
Guaranteed recess for all elementary school students is one
of them. Here are the others.
washingtonpost.com
Seattle High School teacher Jesse Hagopian came straight from
the picket lines in Seattle to speak to the
crowd at Fighting Bob Fest 2015 in Madison,...
progressive.org
