Wisconsin protests not about budget? In a way, yes
It didn’t take long for the meme that the government-versus-unions showdown in Wisconsin isn’t about the budget to make it from Ezra Klein’s blog to the rest of the liberal blogosphere. Maybe the JournoList lives after all.
But in a sense, our friends on the left may be correct. For people outside Wisconsin, this story is not about whether Gov. Scott Walker has to make public employees contribute X dollars more to their pensions or Y percent of their health insurance in order to close a deficit of Z dollars in 2012-13.
It’s about whether public-sector labor unions — and the disproportionate power they wield over the elected officials who are supposed to be their bosses — are an antidemocratic anachronism.
Actually, “anachronism” implies that they were appropriate at one time. No less of a progressive icon than Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared it “unthinkable and intolerable” to have government-worker unions which could strike against the taxpayers who fund their livelihoods — and whom the public employees are supposed to serve. It’s not clear to me that the case was ever really different after FDR’s time.
It’s one thing if auto workers go on strike and the assembly line shuts down for a time. It’s quite another when tenured teachers go on strike and the schools have to shut down for days at a time to accommodate them.
As James Sherk of the Heritage Foundation put it in a commentary on the New York Times’ website, “The founders of the labor movement viewed unions as a vehicle to get workers more of the profits they help create. Government workers, however, don’t generate profits. They merely negotiate for more tax money.”
Among many of the Americans who work in the private sector, the specter of teachers and other public workers going on strike only reinforces the idea that they fit squarely in a “ruling class” that includes politicians, lobbyists and other rent-seekers but excludes the average American.
This is why those who speak about an American plutocracy, essentially a combination of elected officials and the special interests who buy them off to get what they want outside what we consider the democratic process, are looking at the problem too narrowly. Most people probably wouldn’t label school teachers and bureaucrats as “plutocrats.” But what else can we say about those public employees who are refusing to perform essential services — on which government has a monopoly or near-monopoly in most cases — in order to subvert the mandate of the electorate, if not that they are undermining the democratic process?
They, and their Democratic allies in Wisconsin’s Senate, are using leverage that no other group of citizens has in pushing elected officials to bend to their wishes. That’s why all their talk about standing up for democracy rings so hollow.
And that’s why the left is partially correct: This is not only about Wisconsin’s budget.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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116 comments Add your comment
true public service employee
February 21st, 2011
11:52 pm
“Public service employee’s treated like dogs???” Try waitressing for $2.33 an hour with NO benefits! I am sick, to hear that these “public service employee’s” think they have it so hard. It makes me want wonder where their true intent lies. What about the children standing on the side of the road, in the middle of winter, waiting for a bus that never came? Who’s really selfish??? Or the parents that had to call into work, to stay home with their unschooling children? Or the people who had to work harder to compensate for their missing co-workers absense???
Chris
February 22nd, 2011
12:54 am
I have two daughters…both elementary school teachers. One works in Illinois, is in a union and makes about 55,000 a year . She has a masters degree and has worked in the field about 10 years. She is very good at her job, with her students scoring well on national tests.
The other works in S Carolina, no union, and makes about 28,000 a year, She has Masters degree and has worked in the field for 8 years. She too is good at her job, but needs to work as a bartender on weekends during the school year to make ends meet. By the way she makes more per hour as a bartender then as a teacher. You can see where the states priority is.
ND
February 22nd, 2011
2:22 am
I am not some super smart economic theorist, so I will not bore anyone with some half baked analysis of whether or not teachers unions are necessary. I can speak about my own experiences, though. I used to work as a substitute teacher and loved it, and the ONLY reason I did not become a full time teacher is because the pay was too low. I don’t know what teachers get paid in Wisconsin, but I can’t imagine they get paid a whole lot more than what they get paid here in Georgia. So the idea of teachers being “plutocrats” rings a little hollow to me.
Chris Matthews
February 22nd, 2011
6:45 am
There should be no government-unions nor baseball and football! These people are no better than the taxpayers in this country whose backs they ride! No one is making you be anything. You are making choices and the taxpayers must do the same. Crybabies…….!!!!!
Light on Policy
February 22nd, 2011
6:58 am
Kyle this is a very feeble attempt to label these civil union employees as plutocrats when they make approx 25% less than their private counterparts.
Since we are talking numbers and patriotic duty, 2/3s of the corporations in Wisconsin pay no income taxes and state revenue from corporations has declined by 50% since 1981. Dare we ask that they be a part of the budget solution?
lynnie gal
February 22nd, 2011
7:53 am
Pitting middle class workers against each other, and demonizing them as the cause for economic suffering is what republicans do best. Kuddos! It’s the same strategy slave owners used to keep the slaves in line…pit them against each other so they will come to depend more the slave owner. That’s what’s happening in Wisconsin, TN, Ohio–wherever republicans rule the legislature. They divert attention from the Bankers, Wall Street Traders, Hedge Fund Managers–the rich who depended on taxpayer bailouts to keep their jobs, then are raking in billions in bonuses. These guys fund the republicans and many democrats, as well as the tea party. Turn them against each other so they won’t pay attention to what the other side is doing. It’s an old method, used to create an Oligarchy.
Stephanie
February 22nd, 2011
8:03 am
Has anyone explained yet that teachers are not allowed to strike in Wisconsin? It is illegal. Teachers cannot form a picket line. Also, this issue is not about teachers. It is about street workers, bus drivers, janitors, cafeteria workers, classroom aides, child care providers, civil employees, state department employees, safety officers, and corrections officials. Wisconsin Senate Bill 11 will impact all unions of all state employees. You are right in thinking this isn’t just about who pays what to whom. You’re also right in thinking that in a perfect world, unions shouldn’t exist. The last time I checked, however, this isn’t a perfect world.
metoo
February 22nd, 2011
8:09 am
Wall Street bankrupts the country and the little people pay for it.
Fix-It
February 22nd, 2011
8:28 am
Kyle, Stop confusing them with facts, that is downright racist of you, you birther…
Fix-It
February 22nd, 2011
8:58 am
lynnie gal,
“Pitting middle class workers against each other, and demonizing them as the cause for economic suffering is what republicans do best”
Are you on drugs, I did not think we had medical marijuana in Georgia?
Even private sector unions pay into their retirement and medical and so does EVERYBODY ELSE, why should I fund the retirement of a union person? By the way we are have some hard times here in the US or did you forget lynnie? Why did the unions’ get a raise and the rest of us get pay cuts or get laid off?
“They divert attention from the Bankers, Wall Street Traders, Hedge Fund Managers–the rich who depended on taxpayer bailouts to keep their jobs, then are raking in billions in bonuses”
The GOP does not need to divert attention from all these institutions, wasn’t it the Obozo administration that gave the bonuses to the rich and padded their salaries? Obozo gave 47 billion dollars of tax monies to the unions that they DO NOT have to repay, why? Why am I paying for some one else’s retirement?
Committee of Public Safety
February 22nd, 2011
9:14 am
Fix-it: Why did the unions’ get a raise and the rest of us get pay cuts or get laid off?
If you’ll use your scroll bar and look at my post from last night you’ll see that I already addressed this lie you’re repeating that “we’re having hard times”. We don’t have a budget crisis, we have an ideological class war being waged by the super-wealthy on everybody else and enabled by the Republican party (and even parts of the Democratic party).
Let me repeat. The top 13 hedge fund managers posted yearly earnings of $1 billion. That’s not a typo. That’s billion with a b. If we were to simply reform our capital gains tax loopholes which allows these earnings to be taxed at a rate of 15% and which Republicans fiercely protect, that alone would generate enough revenue to pay salaries and benefits for 300,000 teachers. Did you catch that, Fix-It? That’s three-hundred thousand with a t.
Now I don’t know about where you’re from, Fix-It, but in my world that’s just a bit outrageous. Don’t you agree, Fix-It, if you really let yourself think about it for just a second? C’mon, be honest.
John Ellison
February 22nd, 2011
9:17 am
It’s time for the government to get out of the education business. They charge twice as much and produce a lesser quality product as private business.
Committee of Public Safety
February 22nd, 2011
9:24 am
John Ellison: “It’s time for the government to get out of the education business. They charge twice as much and produce a lesser quality product as private business.”
Oh B-S. Save us the claptrap about education as a ‘business’. Where’d you learn your political lexicon?
Education is a necessity of civilization: way too important to be left to mere profiteers. Education is not Fruit Loops.
Holytape
February 22nd, 2011
9:25 am
Kyle Wingfield,
As a public employee, I need a union to protect me from people such as yourself. You receive the services you pay for through your tax dollars. If fact, you pay less than the cost and the value for these services. My take home pay is less that 80% of what an equivalent private sector job pays. I make up for some of it with the benefits. You claim that we are making too much and that we have too much influence, however from your article it is clear that you don’t have a clue of what state workers do nor do you have a clue about the benefits that you received.
Government employees are not just tax sinks. They produce service that you consume and benefit from directly. You know that hamburger you probably ate within the last week or so. Do you know why it isn’t filled with rat feces? Government employees on the state and federal level inspect the producers of that food. State and local officials inspect the restaurants that prepared the hamburger. So while none of this employees actually produced a profit, they all helped you from getting explosive diarrhea, and well possibly dying from a major E. coli infection. If you don’t thin that is true that look at the historic records about food safety. Food poisoning was actually a fairly high factor in population morality. What do you think society would look like without public education? Even if you never had or never will have children in the system, you gain a dramatic benefit from having a higher trained overall work force and having a much lower crime rate. There are just a couple of the hundreds ways that public employees save you money. So to say that public employees are less valuable than private employees because we do not make a profit in the literal sense, is absurd and quiet frankly shows a lack of vision.
You complain that teachers are making more that the average worker. Well, their job has higher requirements more than the average worker. Do you complain that doctors at state run hospitals make more than the average worker? Teachers are not only required to know their subject, but they have to act like social workers as well. Does the average worker you mentioned have to have at least a four year degree to enter his or her field? Compare a teacher to an engineer. The both require about the same amount of training, and in my opinion they have about the same, though in a complete different context, leves of responsibility.
So making $50,000 a year after having a BS and mostly likely having a MS as well, makes you a “ruling class?” Teachers in Wisconsin make 25,000 a year to begin with, and you are saying that they are not the average American? Do you think teachers are driving around in there Bentleys smoking cuban cigars and drink fine French wine out of diamond encrusted goblets? Lat time I checked, I have never heard anyone say, “I’m going to be rich. I’m a public school teacher.”
(I noticed there is the mistaken belief that the Wisconsin would still allow public employees to bargain for pay increases. They could, but they could only match the CPI for that year (which is always trails true inflation.) So if they they don’t get the raise one year, they can’t ask for a raise that takes into the accumulative inflation for the two years. Thus, they have to bargain aggressively every year to stay even. If they do manage to negotiate a raise higher than the CPI from the state bargaining table, that raise would have to go in front of the entire state for approval. )
Rockerbabe
February 22nd, 2011
10:50 am
Companies get the union they deserve and most Americans know this. When employees are not paid well, benefits are stingy, promotions and recognition for good work are not acknowledged and rewarded and the work environment is toxic, employees need a voice against bad management practices.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/21-6
jm
February 22nd, 2011
1:40 pm
Well said Kyle. Power to the people, not the unions!