Two sides of a corrupt coin: Unions struggling with the blame game

Left side
The Truth Behind The Anti-Union Assault

Two months after taking office, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has launched one of the most aggressive attacks on union rights since the 1960s. Purporting to rein in the state's budget deficit, Walker is pushing legislation that marks "a lethal threat to public-sector labor" by threatening "to strip state employees of the right to bargain collectively for anything besides their pay." Walker's radical policy has sparked eight days of protests in Wisconsin from a range of parties, including firefighters, teachers, the Green Bay Packers, and even Egyptian unions. President Obama recently called Walker's policy "an assault" on workers' rights.

Despite the unpopularity of his position, Walker has refused any compromises offered by the unions and members of his own party unless collective bargaining rights are eliminated. To prevent such a calamity, 14 state Democratic lawmakers took a page out of President Abraham Lincoln's playbook and fled the state last week to prevent the bill from moving forward. Rather than following any fiscal principle, Walker's crusade against workers betrays a political calculation to gut the rights and organizing capabilities of his political opposition. Rather than shy away from such blatant anti-democratic policies, Republican governors are following suit and threatening to derail and destroy the few remaining political voices for the middle and working class.

THE BUDGET BUSTER:
The stated motivation behind Walker's union-busting ambitions is Wisconsin's looming deficit: "We're broke and it's about time somebody stood up and told the truth," he said. The state budget has a $137 million shortfall in the current fiscal year and faces a $3.6 billion projected shortfall in the upcoming 2011-13 biennium. Citing this projected $3.6 billion deficit, Walker insists "we've got to balance the budget and fix it once and for all" which requires public employees "to help us out" and make "shared sacrifice" by paying a greater percentage of pensions and health care premiums.

While unions offered to make those concessions, Walker still demands eliminating collective bargaining rights because it "costs local governments money." But a closer look at Wisconsin's deficit reveals Walker's budget woes don't stem from workers' collective bargaining rights. The claim that public employees must sacrifice their bargaining rights to balance this year's budget is misleading as there is no obvious relationship between union membership and state budgets. Indeed, "the biggest savings Walker is proposing for the current budget have nothing to do with public employees.

His bill proposes to save $165 million this year by simply refinancing state debt." But the $3.6 billion deficit Walker is apoplectic over is actually exacerbated by his own tax cuts. According to Wisconsin's nonpartisan fiscal office, Walker's three tax cut bills "will reduce general fund tax collections by $55.2 million in 2011-12 and $62.0 million in 2012-13." And, as the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities' Nick Johnson states, "the governor is likely to propose a LOT more tax cuts" in his proposed budget, including a total repeal of the state's corporate income tax. As Johnson notes, the tax cuts are "worsening the state's overall budget picture, and it is the state's overall budget picture -- not the current-year picture alone -- that [Walker] is using to justify going after the workers." Thus, the real fiscal truth behind Walker's deficit woes reveals Walker -- not workers -- as the budget buster.

THE UGLY TRUTH: As the Washington Post's Ezra Klein notes, what Walker is doing is not attacking the budget but "attacking the right to bargain collectively -- which is to say, he's attacking the very foundation of labor unions, and of worker power -- and using an economic crisis unions didn't cause, and a budget reversal that Walker himself helped create, to justify it." By doing so, the Republican governor will strike a severe blow at long-standing allies of his political opposition.

Unions have typically been "an important part of the core Democratic coalition" and Walker is creating an opportunity to land a blow at his opposition by attacking the political participation on behalf of those who support workers' rights. Any question of whether Walker's attack on unions is politically motivated can be answered by the fact that he exempted the police and firefighter unions from this power grab -- two groups that supported his candidacy. Certainly, Walker's anti-union policies didn't arise in a vacuum but were orchestrated and buttressed by notorious right-wing political players including Koch Industries and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation -- "a $460 million conservative honey pot dedicated to crushing the labor movement." Indeed, the Bradley Foundation's CEO, former state GOP chairman Michele Grebe, headed Walker's campaign and transition. What's more, media and astroturf organizations ginning up support for Walker's power grab include the MacIver Institute (which produced a series of videos attacking anti-Walker protesters) the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (which funded polls, policy pieces, and attack videos against Walker's opposition) and Americans for Prosperity (which not only helped elect Walker but bused in Tea Party supporters to hold a pro-Walker demonstration Saturday).

All of these groups receive funding from the Bradley Foundation. As the New York Times' Paul Krugman notes, "billionaires can field armies of lobbyists; they can finance think tanks that put the desired spin on policy issues; [and] they can funnel cash to politicians with sympathetic views." Given this political reality, unions "are among the most important" of the institutions "that can act as counterweights to the power of big money." Nancy MacLean, a labor historian at Duke University, said "eliminating unions would do to the Democratic Party what getting rid of socially conservative churches would do to Republicans." "It's a stunning partisan calculation on the governor's part," she said, "and really ugly."

ANTI-UNION TIDAL WAVE: The high-stakes battle against union rights is gaining momentum in other GOP-led states. While "Wisconsin is moving the fastest and most aggressively so far," Wisconsin Democracy Campaign director Mike McCabe points out that "this is a national push, and it's being simultaneously pushed in a number of states." Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich, who believes public employees should be fired if they strike, is backing a similar bill in Ohio to roll back collective-bargaining rights for about 400,000 public employees. Kasich will see at least 5,000 protesters today at the statehouse to protest his efforts.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) is ahead of the curve as he has already "aggressively gone after the state's public-sector unions, taking away their collective-bargaining rights on his first day in office in 2005." He is also pushing the legislature to weaken tenure protection for teachers. "The new crop of governors is even more bold," said Walker ally and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R). Incredulous over state employee benefits, Branstad indicated "he was anxious to reassess Iowa's public employee benefits and had brought in an official from the private sector to examine the state's collective-bargaining law." Currently, 16 states are "now weighing, or expected to weigh, laws to trim unions powers or benefits" including New Jersey, Michigan, Tennessee, Idaho, Indiana, and Florida.

This tidal wave of contempt that Republican controlled states hold against unions marks more than a blind power grab, and more than "a violent break with a bipartisan consensus about government workers that has operated unquestioned for four decades." Should it succeed, this Republican onslaught on unions will eradicate the existence of "the few influential players in our political system representing the interests of middle- and working-class Americans." As SEIU president Mary Kay Henry points out, "it's not just union members at risk; it's the services these members provide-whether that be as teachers, public safety personnel or home health care workers." Whether Walker and his cohort will succeed is unclear, but as Krugman notes, "anyone who cares about retaining government of the people by the people should hope that it doesn't."


The Conservative Opinion

Madison Madness
by Larry Kudlow

The Democratic/government-union days of rage in Madison, Wis., are a disgrace. Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan calls it Cairo coming to Madison. But the protesters in Egypt were pro-democracy. The government-union protesters in Madison are anti-democracy -- they are trying to prevent a vote in the legislature. In fact, Democratic legislators themselves are fleeing the state so as not to vote on Gov. Scott Walker's budget cuts.

That's not democracy.

The teachers' union is going on strike in Milwaukee and elsewhere. They ought to be fired. Think Ronald Reagan PATCO in 1981. Think Calvin Coolidge police strike in 1919.

The teachers' union on strike? Wisconsin parents should go on strike against the teachers' union. A friend e-mailed me to say that the graduation rate in Milwaukee public schools is 46 percent. The graduation rate for African-Americans in Milwaukee public schools is 34 percent. Shouldn't somebody be protesting that?

Gov. Walker is facing a $3.6 billion budget deficit, and he wants state workers to pay one-half of their pension costs and 12.6 percent of their health benefits. Currently, most state employees pay nothing for their pensions and virtually nothing for their health insurance. That's an outrage.

Nationwide, state and local government unions have a 45 percent total-compensation advantage over their private-sector counterpart. With high-pay compensation and virtually no benefits co-pay, the politically arrogant unions are bankrupting America -- which by some estimates is suffering from $3 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

Exempting police, fire and state troopers, Walker would end collective bargaining over pensions and benefits for the rest. Collective bargaining for wages would still be permitted, but there would be no wage hikes above the consumer price index. Unions could still represent workers, but they could not force employees to pay dues. In exchange for this, Walker promises no furloughs or layoffs.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is also pushing a bill to limit the collective-bargaining rights of teachers for wages and wage-related benefits. Similar proposals are being discussed in Idaho and Tennessee. In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich wants to restrict union rights across the board for all state and local government workers. More generally, both Democratic and Republican governors across the country are taking on the extravagant pay of government unions.

Why? Because taxpayers won't stand for it anymore.

In an interesting twist on this story, even private unions are revolting against government unions. Private unions pay taxes, too. And they don't have near the total compensation of the public unions. It's no wonder they're fed up.

The Democratic/government-union days of rage in Madison, Wis., are a disgrace. Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan calls it Cairo coming to Madison. But the protesters in Egypt were pro-democracy. The government-union protesters in Madison are anti-democracy -- they are trying to prevent a vote in the legislature. In fact, Democratic legislators themselves are fleeing the state so as not to vote on Gov. Scott Walker's budget cuts.

That's not democracy.

The teachers' union is going on strike in Milwaukee and elsewhere. They ought to be fired. Think Ronald Reagan PATCO in 1981. Think Calvin Coolidge police strike in 1919.

The teachers' union on strike? Wisconsin parents should go on strike against the teachers' union. A friend e-mailed me to say that the graduation rate in Milwaukee public schools is 46 percent. The graduation rate for African-Americans in Milwaukee public schools is 34 percent. Shouldn't somebody be protesting that?

Gov. Walker is facing a $3.6 billion budget deficit, and he wants state workers to pay one-half of their pension costs and 12.6 percent of their health benefits. Currently, most state employees pay nothing for their pensions and virtually nothing for their health insurance. That's an outrage.

Nationwide, state and local government unions have a 45 percent total-compensation advantage over their private-sector counterpart. With high-pay compensation and virtually no benefits co-pay, the politically arrogant unions are bankrupting America -- which by some estimates is suffering from $3 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

Exempting police, fire and state troopers, Walker would end collective bargaining over pensions and benefits for the rest. Collective bargaining for wages would still be permitted, but there would be no wage hikes above the consumer price index. Unions could still represent workers, but they could not force employees to pay dues. In exchange for this, Walker promises no furloughs or layoffs.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is also pushing a bill to limit the collective-bargaining rights of teachers for wages and wage-related benefits. Similar proposals are being discussed in Idaho and Tennessee. In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich wants to restrict union rights across the board for all state and local government workers. More generally, both Democratic and Republican governors across the country are taking on the extravagant pay of government unions.

Why? Because taxpayers won't stand for it anymore.

In an interesting twist on this story, even private unions are revolting against government unions. Private unions pay taxes, too. And they don't have near the total compensation of the public unions. It's no wonder they're fed up.

So, having lost badly in the last election, the government-union Democrats in Wisconsin have taken to the streets. This is a European-style revolt, like those seen in Greece, France and elsewhere. So it becomes greater than just a fiscal issue. It is becoming a law-and-order issue.

President Obama, who keeps telling us he's a budget cutter, has taken the side of the public unions. House Speaker John Boehner correctly rapped Obama's knuckles for this. If the state of Wisconsin voters elected a Chris Christie-type governor with a Republican legislature, then it is a local states' rights issue.

But does President Obama even know that the scope of collective bargaining for federal employees is sharply limited? According to the Manhattan Institute, federal workers are forbidden to collectively bargain for wages or benefits. Instead, pay increases are determined annually through legislation.

Meanwhile, Walker said it would be "wise" for President Obama to keep his attentions on Washington, not Wisconsin. "We're focused on balancing our budget," he said in a television interview. "It would be wise for the president and others in Washington to be focused on balancing their budget, which they're a long ways from doing."

Amen.

Obama should stay out. And Walker should stand tall and stick to his principles. A nationwide taxpayer revolt against public unions can save the country. Otherwise, the spiraling out-of-control costs of state public-union entitlements will destroy the local fisc, just as surely as the unreformed federal entitlements of Social Security and health care are wrecking our national finances.