One of the few nice things about the Wisconsin idiocy that the Democrats perpetrated is that it blinded everyone, including the Democrats, to a whole slew of critical union reform bills in various state legislatures. The latest one comes to us from Michigan, where the Republican-controlled legislature has approved – and the Republican governor will soon sign – a bill giving specifically-appointed emergency financial managers broad powers for staving off bankruptcy for school districts and towns in near-terminal fiscal shape (there’s a good deal of that going on in Michigan right now). This explicitly includes allowing districts and towns to break unsustainable union contracts (and there’s a lot of those in Michigan right now, too).
Reaction? Well, as I noted before this wasn’t on anybody’s radar, so they got about 3,000 protesters today to yell and whine about this. Which is pretty… mediocre, actually. Oh, well, you have to take into account the faux-populist limitations of the unions: I mean, it’s not like they’re Tea Partiers or anything.
Moe Lane
I reckon the problem is that they’ve depleted the pool of available protestors, sign painters, puppet makers, etc., pretty much across the Midwest. They’d bring some in from New York and environs, but they’re having to negotiate with Local 419 of the International Brotherhood of Protestors, Sign Wavers & Marchers over working hours and travel allowances.
Regards,
Ric
A reminder, folks: I require real emails for posting, and I am capricious and unfair about implementing that requirement.