Teachers’ unions and representatives of every liberal interest group in the country may have taken over the streets of Madison for demonstrations, marches and speeches, but inside the Wisconsin governor’s mansion its chief tenant remains calm and resolute.
Tennessee loses to Florida and Vandy beats Miss St. Kentucky slips by Ole Miss and Alabama beats Georgia. What do I care? The hogs are out already!!!
Max Brantley (Arkansas Times Blog, March 8, 2011) asserted:
Town hall meetings in Wisconsin suddenly aren’t so comfortable for Republican politicians. They’re having to explain the police state underway at the Capitol. Congressman James Sensenbrenner shut down his meeting prematurely rather than letting the people speak.
Dump him in the harbor.
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That is strange talk coming from a liberal like Max since all the liberals were critical of Palin for all this mean spirited rhetoric.
Chris Edwards wrote an excellent article “Madison Protest: Unions are Angry– but Wisconsin Should Go Even Further,” Feb 18, 2011, Cato Institute and I will posted portions of that article the next few days.
In 2010, 36 percent of state and local workers were members of unions, which is five times the union share in the US private sector. Yet prior to the 1960s, unions represented less than 15 percent of the state and local workforce. At the time, courts generally held that public-sector workers did not have the same union privileges that private workers had under the 1935 Wagner Act, such as collective bargaining.
The rise of public-sector unions
That changed during the 1960s and 1970s, as a flood of pro-union laws in dozens of states triggered a dramatic rise in public-sector unionism. Many states passed laws that encouraged collective bargaining in the public sector, as well as laws that imposed compulsory union dues.
Today, the union shares in government workforces vary widely by state. About 26 states have collective bargaining for essentially all state and local workers. A further 12 or so states have collective bargaining for a portion of their state and local workers, and the remaining 12 states do not have public sector collective bargaining. At the same time, 22 states have “right-to-work” laws, which free workers from being forced to join a union or pay union dues.
These differences in unionization between the states affect fiscal policy. Statistical studies find that unionized public sector workers earn a wage premium of about 10 percent over non-unionized public sector workers. This is important because employee compensation represents half of all state and local government spending.
Aside from inflated wages, public sector unions have pushed for excessive pension benefit levels, which are creating a fiscal crisis for many governments. That’s another reason unions are so angry in Wisconsin: Governor Walker is demanding that state workers carry more of the burden for their health and pension plans.
The Daily Hatch 