21st
Some initial thoughts on Wisconsin…
Not knowing much about unions and having never been to Wisconsin in my life, here are the facts as I see them having done some basic, preliminary research this weekend.
The basics:
Over 70,000 union supporters rallied in Madison, Wisconsin’s state capitol, Saturday in opposition to newly-elected Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s “budget repair” bill, which attempts to balance the state’s $3.6B budget deficit over the next two years by cutting public worker benefits and state unions’ collective bargaining rights.
At issue is Walker’s desire to go beyond the benefit cuts and curb unions’ collective bargaining rights in the state. The state employee unions have agreed to contribute more money to their pension and healthcare benefits — well below the average paid by private workers and public workers in other states — if Walker, for his part, drops his quest to essentially restrict collective bargaining to the issue of wages.
One of the most aggravating things about trying to follow what’s going on in Wisconsin is the sheer abundance of misinformation propagated by parties on all sides, including the unions, Walker and members of the media.
The debate has more to do with collective bargaining than about healthcare and pension reform. Let’s get the part about benefits out of the way and then go on to collective bargaining which is murkier.
Republican Governor Scott Walker faces a $137 million budget deficit through June 30 and must tackle a $3.6 billion in his upcoming two-year budget for 2011-13. For context: Wisconsin’s budget woes place it roughly in the middle of the pack compared to the other 49 states.
Walker’s argument:
I need to close this shortfall. I want public workers to contribute more to their healthcare and pension benefits. When it comes to healthcare, public workers in Wisconsin currently pay less than half of what public workers in other states pay and they also pay less than half of what Americans in the private sector pay. On pensions, most pay nothing. They should pay more. I want them to pay 5.8 percent towards their pensions and 12.6 percent towards their healthcare. These cuts would result in $330 million in revenue through 2013 that could help pay down the deficit.
Unions response:
Fair enough, we’ll pay more. But don’t say we haven’t already sacrificed. Under Walker’s predecessor, Governor Jim Doyle (D), we had furloughs imposed on us that constituted a reduction in pay. We also saw our healthcare premiums more than doubled from 2.5 percent to 5.6 percent in 2011 under Doyle. You realize your pension and healthcare reforms would result in an average cut in take-home pay of 8 percent!
Walker’s response:
Yes, but like I said, you still pay very little towards your benefits compared with those in the private sector and public workers in other states. Also, very few of you have been laid off, unlike in the private sector where about 5.6 percent of Wisconsin’s workforce lost their jobs since 2007. By making these cuts now, I won’t have to lay off public workers. Something has to be done.
Unions response:
Funny that the police and fire unions and state troopers that supported you in your campaign for governor are exempt from these cuts. Hmmm… Anyway, we said we’d pay more. Moving on — We have a major problem with the part in the bill that deals with collective bargaining rights. Let’s talk about that…
Walker’s response
Yes, let’s. I want to limit collective bargaining to the issue of wages only and cap all salary increases for union members to the rate of inflation (unless approved by referendum). I want to prohibit state workers from being required to pay union dues, I want unions to collect the dues themselves rather than having them automatically taken out of workers’ paychecks, and I want to limit union-government contracts to one year.
Unions response
That’s an “assault on unions!” President Obama said that. You ‘re blatantly attempting to break unions apart so that you can negotiate even lower wages for public workers in future contracts. Union membership will fall apart if union members see their pay raises limited to inflation while those of non-union members are not.
Walker’s response
Re: Obama - Yeah, I know he did and he shouldn’t have. He should focus on his own budget problems. I hear they’re quite bad. As for collective bargaining — We’re broke. Local municipalities need all the help they can to
balance their budgets and they can’t do that right now because collective bargaining currently gives unions too much power in those discussions.
Oh yeah, and elections have consequences.
