I've long suspected that rtsy actually IS a communist. His tactic is to make free-marketism look so ridiculous that people will feel compelled to disagree with the ideals of free-marketism.
Bust the union skulls. Our Tax Dollars Through Collective Bargaining By Randy Hollenbeck March 10, 2011 Madison—Today Governor Walker’s office released more specific examples to show how collective bargaining fiscally impacts government and how reforming collective bargaining can improve government. No Volunteer Crossing Guards Allowed A Wausau public employee union filed a grievance to prohibit a local volunteer from serving as a school crossing guard. The 86-year-old lives just two blocks away and serves everyday free of charge. Principal Steve Miller says, "He said, you know, this gives me a reason to get up in the morning to come and help these kids in the neighborhood." But for a local union that represents crossing guards, it isn't that simple. Representatives didn't want to go on camera but say if a crossing guard is needed, then one should be officially hired by the city. Source: WAOW-TV, 1/27/10 http://www.waow.com/Global/story.asp?S=11891208 $6,000 Extra for Carrying a Pager Some state employees, due to the nature of their positions, are required to carry pagers during off-duty hours in order to respond to emergency situations. Due to the collective bargaining agreements, these employees are compensated an extra five hours of pay each week, whether they are paged or not. For an employee earning an average salary of $50,000 per year, this requirement can cost more than $6,000 in additional compensation. Source: 2008-09 Agreement between the State of Wisconsin and AFSCME Council 24 http://www.jsonline.com/news/32598479.html Arbitrator Reinstates p*rn-Watching Teacher A Cedarburg school teacher was reinstated by an arbitrator after being fired for viewing p*rnography on a school computer. The school district ultimately succeeded in terminating the teacher only after taking the case to the Wisconsin Supreme Court at great cost to the taxpayers. Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8/23/08 ‘Outstanding First Year Teacher’ Laid Off Milwaukee Public Schools teacher Megan Sampson was laid off less than one week after being named Outstanding First Year Teacher by the Wisconsin Council of English Teachers. She lost her job because the collective bargaining agreement requires layoffs to be made based on seniority rather than merit. Informed that her union had rejected a lower-cost health care plan, that still would have required zero contribution from teachers, Sampson said, “Given the opportunity, of course I would switch to a different plan to save my job, or the jobs of 10 other teachers. Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 6/14/10 http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/96349689.html Union Opposes Cost-Saving Lawn Mowing Program As a cost cutting measure, RacineCounty began using county inmates to cut the grass in medians and right-of-ways at no cost to the taxpayers. A county employee union filed a grievance indicating it was the right of government workers to cut the grass, even though it would cost the taxpayers dramatically more. Source: Racine Journal Times, 5/12/10 http://www.journaltimes.com/news/local/article_6a940044-5e23-11df-91a0-001cc4c03286.html A Year’s Worth of Pay for 30 Days of Work Under the Green Bay School District’s collectively bargained Emeritus Program, teachers can retire and receive a year’s worth of salary for working only 30 days over a three year period. This is paid in addition to their already guaranteed pension and health care payouts. Source: WLUK-TV, 3/3/11 http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/news/140-green-bay-teachers-looking-to-retire The $150,000 Bus Driver In 2009, the City of Madison’s highest paid employee was a bus driver who earned $159,258, including $109,892 in overtime, guaranteed by a collective bargaining agreement. In total, seven City of Madison bus drivers made more than $100,000 per year in 2009. "That's the (drivers') contract," said Transit and Parking Commission Chairman Gary Poulson. Source: Wisconsin State Journal, 2/7/10 http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/lo...cle_24af32d4-13f4-11df-86b2-001cc4c002e0.html $150,000 Correctional Officers Correctional Officer collective bargaining agreements allow officers a practice known as “sick leave stacking.” Officers can call in sick for a shift, receiving 8 hours of sick pay, and then are allowed to work the very next shift, earning time-and-a-half for overtime. This results in the officer receiving 2.5 times his or her rate of pay, while still only working 8 hours. In part because of these practices, 13 correctional officers made more than $100,000 in 2009, despite earning base wages of less than $60,000 per year. The officers received an average of $66,000 in overtime pay for an average annual salary of more than $123,000 with the highest paid receiving $151,181. Source: Department of Corrections
On the other side of this coin are abuses by businesses which are too numerous to list, and which dwarf your listed abuses in both size and scope. IOW, unions are not perfect and, as with just about anything else, there is room for improvement. However, your ideology doesn't allow you to consider improvements because your betters have told you that busting the union is the only way to go, so you post silly s*** like the quote.
Those businesses shouldn't be funded by money stolen from the public either. My problem is with public sector unions who are funded by TAX DOLLARS and who monopolize/bastardize the system.
First off, taxes are the price we pay to live in American society. Taxation <> "stealing". Any worker, no matter their employer, should be able to collectively band together to correct abuses or improve their bargaining position. It doesn't matter who the employee works for. The only exception AFAIC is striking, which the government should be able to limit for essential personnel (air traffic controllers, firefighters, police officers, etc.).
America couldn't afford its government even if the rich were taxed at 100% <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="853" height="510" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/661pi6K-8WQ?hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Is America really broke? Michael Moore (and others) tells us that there are oceans of cash being hoarded by the wealthy. But Iowahawk (iowahawk.typepad.com) did a little addition, and armed with these statistics Bill and the 'Hawk blow a hole in the "hoarding" lie big enough to fit a documentary filmmaker through.
The list of logical errors in that video are so numerous that they strengthen my resolve to not use anything in a random YouTube video as evidence of anything at all.
Criticism of Gov. Walker coming out about what looks like a patronage appointment. In the article it points out that one of the changes regarding collective bargaining is that it gives the governor more power to make appointments in for several top agency positions. This is just more evidence that Walker is less interested in what is good for the state and more about building up his own political machine. http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/119159584.html No degree, little experience pay off big Just in his mid-20s, Brian Deschane has no college degree, very little management experience and two drunken-driving convictions. Yet he has landed an $81,500-per-year job in Gov. Scott Walker's administration overseeing environmental and regulatory matters and dozens of employees at the Department of Commerce. Even though Walker says the state is broke and public employees are overpaid, Deschane already has earned a promotion and a 26% pay raise in just two months with the state. How did Deschane score his plum assignment with the Walker team? It's all in the family. His father is Jerry Deschane, executive vice president and longtime lobbyist for the Madison-based Wisconsin Builders Association, which bet big on Walker during last year's governor's race. The group's political action committee gave $29,000 to Walker and his running mate, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, last year, making it one of the top five PAC donors to the governor's successful campaign. Even more impressive, members of the trade group funneled more than $92,000 through its conduit to Walker's campaign over the past two years. Total donations: $121,652. That's big-time backing from the homebuilders. The younger Deschane didn't respond to questions about his job. But his father said he doesn't think his group's financial support of the first-term Republican helped his son in his job search. "He got the position himself," said Jerry Deschane, who returned to the trade group in September after a hiatus during which he worked as an independent lobbyist for many groups, including the builders association. "I didn't get it for him." One Walker critic isn't buying it. State Rep. Brett Hulsey called Deschane's appointment another case of the new administration using state jobs to repay various industries. Hulsey said he was unimpressed with the younger Deschane's résumé, including his lack of environmental or management experience. "It doesn't look like he's ever had a real job," the Madison Democrat said. Hulsey noted that the recently approved law that made collective bargaining changes converts 37 top agency attorneys, communications officials and legislative liaisons from civil service positions to jobs appointed by the governor. "This is an example of the quality of candidates you're going to get," said Hulsey, owner of the consulting firm Better Environmental Services. According to his résumé, Deschane, 27, attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison for two years, worked for two Republican lawmakers - then-Sens. David Zien and Cathy Stepp, now the natural resources secretary - and helped run a legislative and a losing congressional campaign. He held part-time posts with the Wisconsin Builders Association and the Wisconsin Business Council until being named to his first state gig earlier this year. Deschane's father said that during the gubernatorial contest he might have reminded Keith Gilkes, Walker's campaign manager and now chief of staff, that his son "was out there and available." "I put in good words for every one of my children in their jobs," said the elder Deschane. "But that would be the extent of it." David Carlson, spokesman for the Department of Regulation and Licensing, confirmed that Gilkes recommended Deschane for an interview with the agency. Deschane's name does not appear on a list of job applicants with Walker's transition team, but the governor's office confirmed that Gilkes interviewed Deschane for a state job in December. A month later, Secretary David Ross, a Walker cabinet member, named Deschane the bureau director of board services, a job that paid $64,728 a year. Not long after, lawmakers approved the governor's plan to convert the Department of Commerce to a public-private hybrid in charge of attracting and retaining businesses, with its regulatory and environmental functions being moved to other agencies. Commerce Secretary Paul Jadin then appointed Deschane to his new post there to oversee the changes. "It was felt that he would be helpful in working through the transition issues," said Commerce Department spokesman Tony Hozeny. The move meant a pay raise of more than $16,500 a year for Deschane, even though he had put in only a couple of months with the state. Deschane's father said his group doesn't lobby or work with his son's division, which deals primarily with regulating underground storage tanks and petroleum tanks and products. Hozeny said the younger Deschane will be expected to abide by state ethics rules in dealing with family members. A spokesman for the governor said Walker's team was aware of Deschane's two drunken-driving convictions, the most recent of which occurred in 2008. "We . . . felt he had changed his habits and that these past incidents would in no way affect his performance at this job," said Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie. Deschane's father acknowledged that his son had made "foolish" decisions in the past, but he argued that the Walker administration was influenced by the younger Deschane's strong résumé. "He's a bright young man," the father said. Michael McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and a regular critic of Walker, said he's not surprised officials claim the builders association's contributions had no impact on the hiring. No politician concedes being influenced by campaign donations, McCabe said. But he said it's hard to reach any other conclusion in this case. "It has all the markings of political patronage," McCabe said.
Did George Bush change his name to Scott Walker in the last couple years? This all seems so....vaguely familiar...
More socialist stupidity. <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="853" height="510" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4rHDTONGt70?hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
^^^ *snicker* There was an election yesterday in WI. A democrat won Walker's old job by a 60% to 40% margin and a republican state supreme court judge is about to lose to an unknown democrat. Throwing the state supreme court majority back to democrats. Just in time for Walker's law to reach the court. Oops!
The lead is narrow, about 200 votes. I think there may be absentee ballots that need to be counted and the military votes only had to be post marked by yesterday so some of those could trickle in. So nothing is final yet and there almost certainly be a recount. But good news for the Dems anyway.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court race is headed towards a recount but even there that is a sign of where things are at for the Republicans in Wisconsin. Prosser is a 12 year court veteran and former Wisconsin Speaker of the House while Kloppenburg is a virtual unknown. To both Prosser and Kloppenburg's credit they have tried to distance themselves from the collective bargaining legislation but they have become proxies to the the larger issue. Also outside groups have poured in about $3 million into this race making this possibly the most expensive State court race ever.
Prosser could be up by 1000 votes and it wouldn't matter. Kop would still win. Republicans don't gain votes in recounts. The Democrats would just magically find 1000 votes for Kop in the trunk of a car. The general rule of thumb is that if you are Republican you need to win by more than 1% to actually win. Since when is it a victory for Democrats when they barely win an election in Wisconsin (a liberal state) and had every union across the nation trying to get out the vote for Dems?
When it swings the state supreme court to a democratic majority! BBBWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, but this election pretty much confirms that Wisconsin is a leaning Republican state. The predictions were that Klop would win by more. On another note I think this lady should recuse herself from any trial involving the unions (obviously she won't). How can she claim to have an unbiased opinion any of the cases when she put up signs like this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/althouse/5592956454/ This lady makes a strong case against voting for judges.
Are you high? No one knew who Kloppenburg was six weeks ago. And republican interests (Kochsuckers) pumped money 2 to 1 into the state for a 30 year office holder.
