The report is that the unions will agree to “the financial aspects of [Gov. Scott] Walker’s budget-repair bill” (which is nice, because they don’t have the votes to stop them) in exchange for the removal of the collective bargaining provisions (which is – oddly enough! – also something that they don’t have the votes to stop). Walker’s response? Get back to work:
As thousands of protesters marched and chanted, Gov. Scott Walker on Saturday rejected an overture from a Democratic state senator that public employee unions had agreed to make financial sacrifices contained in the budget-repair bill in return for the right to bargain collectively.
Cullen Werwie, Walker’s spokesman, said in a statement that State Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) “should come to work and debate the bill while doing his job in Madison.
What this means, of course, is that the unions are sliding towards the edge of the cliff on this one, and they know it. The counter-protests seen here (H/T to The Other McCain for the above link) must be quietly putting Wisconsin Democrats in a panic: they can tell their own minions that it’s not a reflection of grassroots outrage (unlike their own artificial outrage), but they themselves know better. Hence, what looks like a fairly hasty attempt to try to firewall the disaster by trying to go for what looks like a deep concession.
Not that it’s a concession at all: as it stands, the moment those Democratic Senators walk through the door the state legislature can get on with making the “financial aspects” AND reforming collective bargaining practices. Why on earth would there be any further discussion on this issue? The relevant conversation took place last November.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
Hey how about telling the union thugs … ‘I won, we do what I say’ …
Or maybe ‘don’t mind you riding in the back of the bus, but don’t put the hands on the wheel’.
Or maybe ‘After-all you are the people who put the bus in the ditch’.
Neither can be construed as hate speech, because Obama said pretty much the same things …
Yup, Tarpon, you pretty much (totally ;)) nailed it.
May I suggest “Change has come to Wisconsin”? Or perhaps “It’s not surprising then that they get bitter — they cling to their unions.”
How about all the people who have turned the capitol into a circus face the penalty for an unruly, unlawful assembly? How about the doctors who have been passing out fake excuses (and maybe fake prescriptions for pain killers, who could know?) get their licenses revoked? How about the state Senators who fled the state have their offices declared abandoned or empty or whatever is required to have them booted?
GREAT POST!
WE are all over this issue on our blog Common Cents…
http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com
The only reason they are agreeing to the financial cuts while keeping the collective bargaining is the unions know they can get the financial cuts reversed if they retain the bargaining.
Yup, you can tell EXACTLY what’s important to the union (and the Democrats, BIRM); it’s not their “members” – they’re perfectly willing to throw them under the bus to keep the tongue on the self-licking ice-cream cone they’ve created with compulsory, government-garnished dues. Which they promptly use to lobby the government for more money from which they skim those dues. And support politicians who will ensure the payment loop remains intact.
If they actually had to convince their rank and file to pay dues, you wouldn’t find them jetissoning the money in favor of the union’s power position quite this quick, now would you?