The events taking place in Madison should be disturbing to us all. Like many states, Wisconsin faces a budget shortfall and some tough choices on targeted cuts and/or new revenue generation to close the budget gap. Wisconsin’s public sector unions came to the table, conceding a 7% cutback on health care and pension contributions, a proposal that would have put the state well on the way to balancing its budget. Yet Governor Scott Walker and the Republican legislative leadership were not satisfied and put forth their own proposal. Their plan is to kill public sector unions, and the voice they provide to their workers in the state, by ending collective bargaining altogether. This is an unnecessary politically-motivated overreach of the worst kind. This motive was made clear when Governor Walker admitted as much last week in a phone conversation (with a local blogger posing as one of the wealthy Koch brothers, those billionaire Republican financiers who, despite not being Wisconsin residents, donated large sums to Walker’s campaign last year).
Why does this matter for us? When adjusted for education levels, the Economic Policy Institute found that public-sector workers (teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other state workers) make less than their private sector counterparts across the nation. While they tend to pay less for health insurance and pension plans in most states, these items have been properly bargained for through years of organizing efforts and have maintained a middle-class standard of living. Governor Walker’s plan would not only end these rights for Wisconsin teachers and public workers, but also force them to recertify their unions on an annual basis, as well as take away the rights of these employees to use payroll deduction in order to deduct their own dues. The latter is a right that even our public employees in non-collective bargaining Texas enjoy.
We can be inspired, however, by the efforts of public employees of all professions in Wisconsin (including some police unions who originally backed Governor Walker) who continue to flood their capitol to voice opposition to Walker’s anti-democratic efforts. These residents are standing up for their First Amendment right of association and a voice for all employees in the state and have been backed by labor unions and public workers all across the nation via several protests and vigils, including several that took place last Saturday in our great state. Governor Walker and Wisconsin Republicans stand on the side of stripping away any voice employees have left and in effect, stand on the side of effectively wiping out a large potion of the middle class. The unions and workers of the nation, including our local Democrats (as well as many Independents, and Republicans right here in Nacogdoches who serve in the public sector) proudly stand with the teachers, firefighters, police officers, nurses, and public employees in Wisconsin and thus, on the side of a democratic voice for American workers.
Stephen Wright, Chairman
Nacogdoches County Democratic Party
