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Senate Bill 5 - Thoughts?


Bengals1181

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got this in an email and thought it was telling.


[quote]In Wisconsin there is an interestting twist of which I was not aware:
The teachers' union is being singled out as they supported the Democratic candidate.
The police and fire unions are not being targeted as they supported the Republican candidate.[/quote]
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[quote name='John~Galt' timestamp='1298495081' post='972414']
Making people fund their own retirement and earn their raises through merit based standards is just awful. Capitalist pigs I tell ya.

rabble!
[/quote]

I will give you 15000 dollars for your car. Deal. Ok now that you have given me your car i wish to only pay you 7500

How is labor using there only power against the owners not capatilistic. Is it only capitilism when the owners have the power?
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[quote name='MichaelWeston' timestamp='1298496378' post='972427']
I will give you 15000 dollars for your car. Deal. Ok now that you have given me your car i wish to only pay you 7500

How is labor using there only power against the owners not capatilistic. [color="#FF0000"]Is it only capitilism when the owners have the power?[/color]
[/quote]


His username will give you a clue into his answer.
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[quote name='Jamie_B' timestamp='1298497031' post='972429']
His username will give you a clue into his answer.
[/quote]


"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

~John Rogers
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A victory of sorts in Indiana - http://www.indystar.com/article/20110223/NEWS05/102230396/Holdout-Democrats-want-more-from-Republicans?odyssey=mod|breaking|text|IndyStar.com

Ohio better think twice or Indiana will get an influx of it's best and brightest teachers/ect...
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some steps in the right direction. Props to the republicans for being willing to compromise, unlike in Wisconsin.

Still a few other things to change.

[quote]Senate Republicans now say they will not eliminate collective bargaining for state workers, although state unions would be able to negotiate only for wages.

Senate President Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond, said Senate Bill 5 would still ban unions from bargaining for benefits, including health insurance.

Speaking with reporters on the Senate floor today, Niehaus said changes to Senate Bill 5 also would prohibit all state and local government workers from striking. The bill would continue to eliminate binding arbitration to resolve disputes with police and firefighter unions, which current are barred from striking.[/quote]



http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/02/23/senate-republicans-will-not-eliminate-collective-bargaining.html?sid=101
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[quote name='John~Galt' timestamp='1298495081' post='972414']
Making people fund their own retirement and earn their raises through merit based standards is just awful. Capitalist pigs I tell ya.

rabble!
[/quote]

The funny thing is a lot of politicians receive merit raises whether they fail or not....plus they don't want anything to do with the health care they want us to take even though they are technically public employees as well.

It is amazing how subjective "merit" is....

Wouldn't the bonuses paid to bailed out bank exec's be considered "merit" raises? Do those people "merit" bonuses?

We in the public sector give up salary in exchange for security... now the politicians want both.

From my point of view, being a firefighter requires me to poor a lot of my heart and compassion in to what I do.... How much of my heart should I poor in when the people who pay me don't give a rats ass about me??

Keep taking from the middle class and giving to the upper class and you will eventually have a small select few with targets on their heads from a huge poor majority.... that is what will get you a violent revolution.
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[quote name='Bengals1181' timestamp='1298507288' post='972457']
some steps in the right direction. Props to the republicans for being willing to compromise, unlike in Wisconsin.

Still a few other things to change.





http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/02/23/senate-republicans-will-not-eliminate-collective-bargaining.html?sid=101
[/quote]

Fire and Police can not strike anyways...

The health care thing is complete bullshit...

Since 1983 only 2 to 3 percent of negotiated contracts have went to arbitration and the arbitrator has only sided with a union 50% of the time.... this is about union busting. no more no less....

A few things to consider...

I do pay a premium for my health care.

I do pay 10% of my wages into my pension...BTW that goes to 12% later this year.

I receive longevity raises at 8 14 18 and 22 years of service, all at 4% each, but I took a lower salary at the start than other areas my size so in all actuality the city made out in the long run.

Firefighters work 53 hour work weeks and get paid for 40 if people did not know that.

No. The city does not pay for our food, TV's in the station, Cable, lounge chairs.. any of that....believe it or not some people think that.

We do most of our own remodeling and upkeep ourselves inside the stations... we use outside contractors for very little of it...

BTW my local union hired our own consultant to review our health care and found flaws in the program saving the local citizens 1.2 million a year.... but yeah... Unions are the devil!
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[quote name='Tigers Johnson' timestamp='1298507535' post='972458']
The funny thing is a lot of politicians receive merit raises whether they fail or not....plus they don't want anything to do with the health care they want us to take even though they are technically public employees as well.

It is amazing how subjective "merit" is....

Wouldn't the bonuses paid to bailed out bank exec's be considered "merit" raises? Do those people "merit" bonuses?

We in the public sector give up salary in exchange for security... now the politicians want both.

From my point of view, being a firefighter requires me to poor a lot of my heart and compassion in to what I do.... How much of my heart should I poor in when the people who pay me don't give a rats ass about me??

Keep taking from the middle class and giving to the upper class and you will eventually have a small select few with targets on their heads from a huge poor majority.... that is what will get you a violent revolution.
[/quote]


that's what many teachers had a problem with. Not so much that they wanted it to be merit based, but that they provided no definition of "merit".


They literally could have made up any reason they wanted to fire you. And there's nothing you would have been able to do about it because they just destroyed your union too.
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[quote name='Tigers Johnson' timestamp='1298507644' post='972460']
Fire and Police can not strike anyways...

The health care thing is complete bullshit...

Since 1983 only 2 to 3 percent of negotiated contracts have went to arbitration and the arbitrator has only sided with a union 50% of the time.... this is about union busting. no more no less....
[/quote]


I read an interesting article the other day quoting one of the detracting Republicans saying the other republicans should be careful what they wish for as far as cost cutting goes as it would be much cheaper to let the unions fight for their constituents than all of the money it would cost the state when each public worker (who has a grievance) files a lawsuit to sue the state.
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[quote name='Bengals1181' timestamp='1298507734' post='972461']
that's what many teachers had a problem with. Not so much that they wanted it to be merit based, but that they provided no definition of "merit".


They literally could have made up any reason they wanted to fire you. And there's nothing you would have been able to do about it because they just destroyed your union too.
[/quote]

Sorry... I kept editing my post... I do that a lot when I am mad about something...lol
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So thousands of workers cant get Walker to the table but if you pretend to be a Koch brother, you get him on for 20 minutes.

This is the very definition of an oligarchy.

http://www.buffalobeast.com/?p=5045

[quote]Koch Whore
Posted by Murphy On February - 23 - 2011
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker answers his master’s call

“David Koch”: We’ll back you any way we can. What we were thinking about the crowd was, uh, was planting some troublemakers.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker: You know, well, the only problem with that—because we thought about that…

***



WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO WITNESS IS REAL. NO NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT. THERE ARE NO INNOCENT.
-MURPHY

***

“He’s just hard-lined—will not talk, will not communicate, will not return phone calls.”
-Wisconsin state Sen. Tim Carpenter (D) on Gov. Walker (source)

Carpenter’s quote made me wonder: who could get through to Gov. Walker? Well, what do we know about Walker and his proposed union-busting, no-bid budget? The obvious candidate was David Koch.

I first called at 11:30 am CST, and eventually got through to a young, male receptionist who, upon hearing the magic name Koch, immediately transferred me to Executive Assistant Governor Dorothy Moore.

“We’ve met before, Dorothy,” I nudged. “I really need to talk to Scott—Governor Walker.” She said that, yes, she thought she had met Koch, and that the name was “familiar.” But she insisted that Walker was detained in a meeting and couldn’t get away. She asked about the nature of my call. I balked, “I just needed to speak with the Governor. He knows what this is about,” I said. She told me to call back at noon, and she’d have a better idea of when he would be free.

I called at noon and was quickly transferred to Moore, who then transferred me to Walker’s Chief of Staff Keith Gilkes. He was “expecting my call.”

“David!” he said with an audible smile.

I politely said hello, not knowing how friendly Gilkes and Koch may be. He was eager to help. “I was really hoping to talk directly to Scott,” I said. He said that could be arranged and that I should just leave my number. I explained to Gilkes, “My goddamn maid, Maria, put my phone in the washer. I’d have her deported, but she works for next to nothing.” Gilkes found this amusing. “I’m calling from the VOID—with the VOID, or whatever it’s called. You know, the Snype!”

“Gotcha,” Gilkes said. “Let me check the schedule here…OK, there’s an opening at 2 o’clock Central Standard Time. Just call this same number and we’ll put you through.”

Could it really be that easy? Yes. What follows is a rushed, abridged transcript of my—I mean, David Koch’s conversation with Gov. Walker. Listen to the whole call here:







***




Walker: Hi; this is Scott Walker.

Koch: Scott! David Koch. How are you?

Walker: Hey, David! I’m good. And yourself?

Koch: I’m very well. I’m a little disheartened by the situation there, but, uh, what’s the latest?

Walker: Well, we’re actually hanging pretty tough. I mean—you know, amazingly there’s a much smaller group of protesters—almost all of whom are in from other states today. The State Assembly is taking the bill up—getting it all the way to the last point it can be at where it’s unamendable. But they’re waiting to pass it until the Senate’s—the Senate Democrats, excuse me, the assembly Democrats have about a hundred amendments they’re going through. The state Senate still has the 14 members missing but what they’re doing today is bringing up all sorts of other non-fiscal items, many of which are things members in the Democratic side care about. And each day we’re going to ratchet it up a little bit…. The Senate majority leader had a great plan he told about this morning—he told the Senate Democrats about and he’s going to announce it later today, and that is: The Senate organization committee is going to meet and pass a rule that says if you don’t show up for two consecutive days on a session day—in the state Senate, the Senate chief clerk—it’s a little procedural thing here, but—can actually have your payroll stopped from being automatically deducted—

Koch: Beautiful.

Walker: —into your checking account and instead—you still get a check, but the check has to be personally picked up and he’s instructing them—which we just loved—to lock them in their desk on the floor of the state Senate.

Koch: Now you’re not talking to any of these Democrat bastards, are you?

Walker: Ah, I—there’s one guy that’s actually voted with me on a bunch of things I called on Saturday for about 45 minutes, mainly to tell him that while I appreciate his friendship and he’s worked with us on other things, to tell him I wasn’t going to budge.

Koch: Goddamn right!

Walker: …his name is Tim Cullen—

Koch: All right, I’ll have to give that man a call.

Walker: Well, actually, in his case I wouldn’t call him and I’ll tell you why: he’s pretty reasonable but he’s not one of us…

Koch: Now who can we get to budge on this collective bargaining?

Walker: …I think the paycheck will have an impact…secondly, one of the things we’re looking at next…we’re still waiting on an opinion to see if the unions have been paying to put these guys up out of state. We think there’s at minimum an ethics violation if not an outright felony.

Koch: Well, they’re probably putting hobos in suits.

Walker: Yeah.

Koch: That’s what we do. Sometimes.

Walker: I mean paying for the senators to be put up. I know they’re paying for these guy—I mean, people can pay for protesters to come in and that’s not an ethics code, but, I mean, literally if the unions are paying the 14 senators—their food, their lodging, anything like that…[*** Important regarding his later acceptance of a Koch offer to “show him a good time.” ***]

[I was stunned. I am stunned. In the interest of expediting the release of this story, here are the juiciest bits:]

Walker: …I’ve got layoff notices ready…

Koch: Beautiful; beautiful. Gotta crush that union.

Walker: [bragging about how he doesn't budge]…I would be willing to sit down and talk to him, the assembly Democrat leader, plus the other two Republican leaders—talk, not negotiate and listen to what they have to say if they will in turn—but I’ll only do it if all 14 of them will come back and sit down in the state assembly…legally, we believe, once they’ve gone into session, they don’t physically have to be there. If they’re actually in session for that day, and they take a recess, the 19 Senate Republicans could then go into action and they’d have quorum…so we’re double checking that. If you heard I was going to talk to them that’s the only reason why. We’d only do it if they came back to the capital with all 14 of them…

Koch: Bring a baseball bat. That’s what I’d do.

Walker: I have one in my office; you’d be happy with that. I have a slugger with my name on it.

Koch: Beautiful.

Walker: [union-bashing...]

Koch: Beautiful.

Walker: So this is ground zero, there’s no doubt about it. [Talks about a “great” NYT piece of “objective journalism.” Talks about how most private blue-collar workers have turned against public, unionized workers.]…So I went through and called a handful, a dozen or so lawmakers I worry about each day and said, “Everyone, we should get that story printed out and send it to anyone giving you grief.”

Koch: Goddamn right! We, uh, we sent, uh, Andrew Breitbart down there.

Walker:Yeah.

Koch: Yeah.

Walker: Good stuff.

Koch: He’s our man, you know.

Walker: [blah about his press conferences, attacking Obama, and all the great press he's getting.] Brian [Sadoval], the new Governor of Nevada, called me the last night he said—he was out in the Lincoln Day Circuit in the last two weekends and he was kidding me, he said, “Scott, don’t come to Nevada because I’d be afraid you beat me running for governor.” That’s all they want to talk about is what are you doing to help the governor of Wisconsin. I talk to Kasich every day—John’s gotta stand firm in Ohio. I think we could do the same thing with Vic Scott in Florida. I think, uh, Snyder—if he got a little more support—probably could do that in Michigan. You start going down the list there’s a lot of us new governors that got elected to do something big.

Koch: You’re the first domino.

Walker: Yep. This is our moment.

Koch: Now what else could we do for you down there?

Walker: Well the biggest thing would be—and your guy on the ground [Americans For Prosperity president Tim Phillips] is probably seeing this [stuff about all the people protesting, and some of them flip him off].

[Abrupt end of first recording, and start of second.]

Walker: [Bullshit about doing the right thing and getting flipped off by “union bulls,” and the decreasing number of protesters. Or some such.]

Koch: We’ll back you any way we can. What we were thinking about the crowd was, uh, was planting some troublemakers.

Walker: You know, well, the only problem with that —because we thought about that. The problem—the, my only gut reaction to that is right now the lawmakers I’ve talked to have just completely had it with them, the public is not really fond of this…[explains that planting troublemakers may not work.] My only fear would be if there’s a ruckus caused is that maybe the governor has to settle to solve all these problems…[something about '60s liberals.]…Let ‘em protest all they want…Sooner or later the media stops finding it interesting.

Koch: Well, not the liberal bastards on MSNBC.

Walker: Oh yeah, but who watches that? I went on “Morning Joe” this morning. I like it because I just like being combative with those guys, but, uh. You know they’re off the deep end.

Koch: Joe—Joe’s a good guy. He’s one of us.

Walker: Yeah, he’s all right. He was fair to me…[bashes NY Senator Chuck Schumer, who was also on the program.]

Koch: Beautiful; beautiful. You gotta love that Mika Brzezinski; she’s a real piece of ass.

Walker: Oh yeah. [story about when he hung out with human pig Jim Sensenbrenner at some D.C. function and he was sitting next to Brzezinski and her father, and their guest was David Axelrod. He introduced himself.]

Koch: That son of a bitch!

Walker: Yeah no kidding huh?…

Koch: Well, good; good. Good catching up with ya’.

Walker: This is an exciting time [blah, blah, blah, Super Bowl reference followed by an odd story of pulling out a picture of Ronald Reagan and explaining to his staff the plan to crush the union the same way Reagan fired the air traffic controllers]…that was the first crack in the Berlin Wall because the Communists then knew Reagan wasn’t a pushover. [Blah, blah, blah. He's exactly like Reagan. Won't shut up about how awesome he is.]

Koch: [Laughs] Well, I tell you what, Scott: once you crush these bastards I’ll fly you out to Cali and really show you a good time.

Walker: All right, that would be outstanding. [*** Ethical violation much? ***] Thanks for all the support…it’s all about getting our freedoms back…

Koch: Absolutely. And, you know, we have a little bit of a vested interest as well. [Laughs]

Walker: [Blah] Thanks a million!

Koch: Bye-bye!

Walker: Bye.

***

So there you have it, kids. Government isn’t for the people. It’s for the people with money. You want to be heard? Too fucking bad. You want to collectively bargain? You can’t afford a seat at the table. You may have built that table. But it’s not yours. It belongs to the Kochs and the oligarch class. It’s guarded by Republicans like Walker, and his Democratic counterparts across that ever-narrowing aisle that is corporate rule, so that the ever-widening gap between the haves and the have-nots can swallow all the power in the world. These are known knowns, and now we just know them a little more.

But money isn’t always power. The protesters in Cairo and Madison have taught us this—reminded us of this. They can’t buy a muzzle big enough to silence us all. Share the news. Do not retreat; ReTweet.

The revolution keeps spinning. Try not to get too dizzy.

***[/quote]


[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBnSv3a6Nh4&feature=player_embedded[/media]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3a2pYGr7-k&feature=player_embedded[/media]
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I live in Wisconsin, and let me tell you, there is some bullshit going down.
Hell, over half the State's schools were shut down because of this bullshit.

That Scott Walker is a grade A asshole. Dude refused to take something like
$800- 900 million for a railway that would connect to Chicago and Minnesota.
And it would have created jobs, brought tourists and income to the State.


I am glad I didn't vote for the d-bag. But yeah, there are some pissed off people
here that did vote for him.
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[quote name='oldschooler' timestamp='1298510789' post='972488']
I live in Wisconsin, and let me tell you, there is some bullshit going down.
Hell, over half the State's schools were shut down because of this bullshit.

That Scott Walker is a grade A asshole. Dude refused to take something like
$800- 900 million for a railway that would connect to Chicago and Minnesota.
And it would have created jobs, brought tourists and income to the State.


I am glad I didn't vote for the d-bag. But yeah, there are some pissed off people
here that did vote for him.
[/quote]


Holy crap we agree on something. :lol:

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[quote name='oldschooler' timestamp='1298510789' post='972488']
I live in Wisconsin, and let me tell you, there is some bullshit going down.
Hell, over half the State's schools were shut down because of this bullshit.

That Scott Walker is a grade A asshole. Dude refused to take something like
$800- 900 million for a railway that would connect to Chicago and Minnesota.
And it would have created jobs, brought tourists and income to the State.


I am glad I didn't vote for the d-bag. But yeah, there are some pissed off people
here that did vote for him.
[/quote]

I smell a recall!

Or I just farted, not sure.

But seriously you should recall that fucker and throw him out of office...
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How cute.


[quote name='Elflocko' timestamp='1298497595' post='972432']
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

~John Rogers
[/quote]
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[quote name='MichaelWeston' timestamp='1298496378' post='972427']
I will give you 15000 dollars for your car. Deal. Ok now that you have given me your car i wish to only pay you 7500

How is labor using there only power against the owners not capatilistic. Is it only capitilism when the owners have the power?
[/quote]

Employees are entitled to competitive wages. If they are worth more than they are getting it is their responsibility to go out and get it somewhere else. It is not their job to game the system and bilk the rest of us by creating an artificial and ultimately destructive labor bubble. These thugs are doing the same thing that the UAW did to GM and Chrysler but this time the tax payer is footing the bill. As a matter of fact the tax payer had to foot the bill for the larceny with GM and Chrysler as well.
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[quote name='John~Galt' timestamp='1298524636' post='972523']
Employees are entitled to competitive wages. If they are worth more than they are getting it is their responsibility to go out and get it somewhere else. It is not their job to game the system and bilk the rest of us by creating an artificial and ultimately destructive labor bubble. These thugs are doing the same thing that the UAW did to GM and Chrysler but this time the tax payer is footing the bill. As a matter of fact the tax payer had to foot the bill for the larceny with GM and Chrysler as well.
[/quote]

This will be in contrast to what I posted in this thread earlier - but the more I read about this, the more unsure I feel.

On one hand, yes, the bill is going to hurt a lot of people financially who support our way of life. The reason they were chosen, I really don't know. But what you said here resonates with me; I read a piece in Time today about how those unions really function and the deals they cut. I wouldn't go so far as to call them thugs, but they certainly don't bargain in good faith.

The major sticking point in any union negotiation is that at some point, the union can take so much that the business just fails and everybody is shit out of luck (see Motors, General, had the federal government not stepped in). Public unions, on the other hand, don't have to worry about that disaster scenario because the government is not going to allow the schools, police departments, fire departments, etc. to just shut down. Hell, if the UAW had known the fed was going to bail out GM and Chrysler, they probably would have pushed for $100 an hour!

This allows the unions to take concessions they rightfully shouldn't have. One of the biggest sticking points from the gov's point of view is that the unions will not accept merit-based pay increases. Isn't that how the entire private sector is supposed to function? Why should they be any different just because they're public employees? Merit-based pay and promotions can only make our education system better.
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