cawacko
Well-known member
In your second sentence are you saying Governor Walker signed the current union contracts or the previous Governor?
Former Wisconsin Attorney Gen: Gov. Walker Violated Ethics, Election and Labor Laws
- Thread starter Bfgrn
- Start date
In your second sentence are you saying Governor Walker signed the current union contracts or the previous Governor?
zappasguitar
Well-known member
Whichever Governor was in office when the current contracts were agreed upon.
cawacko
Well-known member
Isn't the whole point of this that due to the budget deficit a lot of teachers/other state workers will lose their jobs? Otherwise why would the unions be offering concessions?
I heard he made Jimmy Hoffa's cement shoes and stole the contents of Al Capone's vault.
Bfgrn
New member
FALSE
Are Public Employees Overpaid?
Walker has said that the labor changes are necessary because Wisconsin’s local and state employees haven’t made the same sacrifices during the Great Recession as private sector workers.
Walker glossed over the fact that state employees had eight unpaid furlough days in 2009 and 2010, which saved the state $121 million, and their wages have been flat for years.
He also forgot to mention that when he was Milwaukee County executive, members of the largest county employee union took 26 unpaid furlough days in 2010, or one unpaid day off for every two-week pay period—a 10% pay cut. They’ll have 26 unpaid days off this year, too, as a result of Walker’s final county budget. (The employees at the Shepherd Express, a private sector company, did not have any wage decreases or forced furlough days.)
So is Walker correct when he says that public employees are making more than their counterparts in the private sector?
The short answer is no, according to a new study by the national nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which found that Wisconsin’s state and local employees earn 4.8% less per hour in total compensation than their peers in the private sector. That number jumps to 25% for college-educated employees. EPI found that, on average, Wisconsin’s public employees with a bachelor’s degree earn $61,668 in total compensation; their peers working for private employers earn $82,134 in wages and benefits.
And although Gov. Scott Walker is earning $144,423 as a public sector employee with “some college” education, his pay package is not typical. Public sector employees who attended college but did not earn a diploma earn an average $46,707 in wages and benefits, while those in the private sector earn 7% more, or $50,324, EPI found.
zappasguitar
Well-known member
So because there's a budget deficit, that gives the Governor the right to arbitrarily break a legal and binging contract negotiated in good faith and to instead impose an entirely new set of stipulations and mandates?
cawacko
Well-known member
It is interesting when the author makes the claim that EPI is a non-partisan when in reality it is a liberal think tank. Is she hiding that fact because she doesn't trust the numbers EPI put out?
If I tried to claim AEI was a non-partisan think tank someone would rightly call me out and say no, it's conservative. Because a think tank leans left or right doesn't necessarily mean its information is wrong but when the author tries to do what this lady does it definitely puts doubt in your mind.
cawacko
Well-known member
The workers themselves are claiming they want to break a legal and binding contract negotiated in good faith by offering concessions.
But yes what you say is what this debate is all about. There is a large projected budget deficit in Wisconsin. To balance the budget cuts are going to have to be made and that includes many jobs. To reduced the potential job losses the union says they will offer concessions on their legal and binding contract negotiated in good faith. Gov. Walker is now attempting to make structural changes in the way the state negotiates with the union by eliminating collective bargaining for benefits and work conditions. The unions obviously don't want that. And that's the story in a nut shell.
zappasguitar
Well-known member
The unions made an offer to engage in negotiations over possible consessions and the Governor outright ignored it.
Instead, he expects the unions to just sit by and do nothing while he shreds the contract currently in place.
Tell me, how many concessions is the Governor PERSONALLY GIVING UP to help balance the budget?
Surely he wouldn't ask the middle class to take some medicine he himself isn't willing to swallow, now is he?
cawacko
Well-known member
To be able to do this he had to have the votes which he does.
As far as what he's doing personally I have no idea. The budget deficit is projected at something like $3.6 billion. I believe the article states he makes $144K. Would you really feel any different about the situation if he took half his salary?
zappasguitar
Well-known member
Yes, I would.
Show those whose lives he's about to destroy that at least symbolically he's going to suffer with them.
As it is though, it's the same old thing...the middle class has to make all the concessions and the rich just get to sit back and collect their fat salaries and luxurious benefits.
No, those contracts were negotiated with the full cooperation of wholly owned politicians who had their own interest at heart rather than those of "the people". Incestuous politics is not a sign of "good faith".
cawacko
Well-known member
Are these people lives really being destroyed? They'll have to pay a little more into their retirement fund and health care which is never fun but they'll still be working.
In 2009 my boss called me into his office, after he had previously told me I was doing a good job, and said 'sorry the economy sucks you're fired'. That sucked. That didn't destroy my life but it sure seems to me getting fired is a hell of a lot worse than taking some cuts and still having a job.
And making $144K/yr in Wisconsin is nothing to sneeze at but that is hardly rich.
zappasguitar
Well-known member
You think that is all that's going to happen if the Wisconsin Dems return? That some people will "take some cuts and still have a job"?
What about being forced to arbitrarily give up legally negotiated collective bargaining rights, won over 50 years ago?
No discussion...no bargaining...just being TAKEN away by a Governor who isn't willing to himself make any consessions for the budget's sake.
He expects others to do so, but curiously, not himself.
Ask some teachers if they would consider themselves "rich" if they made $144K a year.
Bfgrn
New member
Public unions have been negotiating contracts with government in Wisconsin since 1959. For your premise to be true, then the wages of public employees should blatantly expose your premise of incestuous politics...They DON'T.
Wisconsin’s state and local employees earn 4.8% less per hour in total compensation than their peers in the private sector. That number jumps to 25% for college-educated employees. EPI found that, on average, Wisconsin’s public employees with a bachelor’s degree earn $61,668 in total compensation; their peers working for private employers earn $82,134 in wages and benefits.
cawacko
Well-known member
My comment about the $144K was a relative one. To someone who is unemployed someone else making $40k/yr seems rich.
I'm an idiot and I was able to negotiate for myself when I was hired. Teachers aren't dumb they'll be able to negotiate benefits on their own behalf.
Like you said its all relative right? To an unemployed person these people are living the dream with all they get.
Really, where do you get these insider factoids of yours? Incestuous politics, such colorful language!
So is what Walker doing child abuse?
zappasguitar
Well-known member
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight...next you'll try and tell me the current Governor is some island of virtue, all alone fighting the good fight in an ocean of "incestuous politicians", and only doing this because he CARES for the union members.
Man, you sure can shovel the horseshit when you try.