First, I must apologize for not having audio. I thought I was recording, but I somehow lost it. In any case, after the counter-rally, I ran into state Sen. Frank Lasee (R-De Pere), and did a quick interview with him. What follows is a short summary as the audio disappeared:
What the budget repair bill means for unions: They’ll have to kick in some of their take-home pay for pensions, roughly 5.8%, and pay 12% of their health-insurance premiums. They’ll also lose the right to collectively negotiate for anything other than base bay. The generous sick-day provisions won’t change one iota, and except for some less-than-full-time employees, who will gain some civil service protection, the civil service protection will remain fully in place.
Why the reduction in collective bargaining abilities is necessary: The unions, once governmental leadership changes, will simply bring back no employee payments toward pensions, very-limited payments toward health insurance. Indeed, unions that have contracts coming up are renewing them now so that the provisions of the budget repair bill won’t kick in until later.
What can be done to bring back the missing Democrat State Senators: As long as they’re out of the state, pretty much nothing.
What can be done by the Senate as long as the Democrats are out: Depending on how long they’re out, the Republicans may well move on other issues. They might also split the limits on collective bargaining out of the budget repair bill, deem it as not fiscal in nature, and move on that. Lasee hopes they’ll return soon.
In closing, Lasee said that the budget repair bill will be passed in full.
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Stand tall, union members! Don’t let fringe right-wingers take away your collective bargaining RIGHTS!
Welcome to the party. I do hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there’s just two problems with that:
– We’re not exactly the fringe.
– The slapdown is necessary because the unions overreached big-time.
Nope. The GOP is overreaching. Workers should NOT be forced to give up their RIGHT to collective bargaining. Teabaggers–most of whom are middle class, even though their little clubs are funded by billionaires, are–as usual–fighting against their own and doing Big Business’ bidding. Teabaggers are being duped, they are fighting the Koch Bros, etc. fights for ’em! If teabaggers have such a hard-on for their government, why don’t they support their neighbors who WORK for the government, and those neighbors’ RIGHT to engage in collective bargaining with the very government of which teabaggers are so distrustful? Pretty poor logic, and pretty funny to see a bunch of teabaggers ironically on the government’s side! Of course, it’s questionable whether most teabaggers are bright enough to see irony…
The reason Tea Party people could counter protests over the weekend is that UNIONS negotiated WEEKENDS OFF!
Union made! Stand strong, union members! THIS IS YOUR COUNTRY!