Basically, Wisconsin Republicans redefined the union-busting portions of the budget bill as non-budgetary, so they could vote on it without the Democrats being there.
But then Governor Scott Walker contradicted the whole process by saying, "In order to move the state forward, I applaud the legislature's action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform government." So was it a budget bill or not? Sounds shady either way.
But here's a Wisconsin Senator confirming that union busting isn't about, never was about, balancing the budget:
It's about winning elections by yanking support away from Democrats. But if they have to resort to such guileless, underhanded moves, are they going to win much of anything? It's quite obvious they hate democracy and ignore the law.
And you know, none of this fixes the economy one iota. It's Gov. Walker dicking around with people's lives while pretending he's the new Reagan.
4 comments:
i just read on democracy now! that republican senators "took a surprise vote to strip most public employee workers of their right to collectively bargain." a lot of people are going to the capitol to protest this surprising move. chomsky wrote an great op-ed about the labor struggle there. he mentioned how rather than focusing on the real criminals, i.e. the ceos of the financial companies, politicians are shifting the attack towards union workers such as teachers. the link to the op-ed is on blog entry i wrote yesterday. i urge you to give it a read.
Umm I know they "took a surprise vote to strip most public employee workers of their right to collectively bargain" because that's what I just blogged about. Pay attention Trung.
Similar crap going on here in Ohio. After much wrangling, some bargaining rights were placed back into the Ohio bill, but employees may be fired if they strike and final arbitration of disputes lies with the government. Not much of a bargain, if you ask me.
I saw that YouTube video where Ohio Governor John Kasich said cops are idiots. The weird thing is, up until recently at least, I always thought Republicans were the strict law and order types. But now I realize they only want OTHER people to respect the law.
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