From CNN.com
by Rick Fantasia
There should be no illusions. What is unfolding in Wisconsin and a half-dozen other states may be the beginning of the end for American labor.
Both the corporate leaders who are funding these initiatives and their Republican Party valets feverishly trying to push them through state legislatures understand this. The billionaire Koch brothers, for example, have pumped money into the Wisconsin effort; their energy and consumer products conglomerate was a top contributor to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's election campaign.
They must be giddy with anticipation, knowing how close they are to their long-standing goal of removing any significant opposition to their rule in American society. Too dramatic? If anything, it is an understatement.
As anyone following the events in Wisconsin knows, it has not been a matter of public employee unions showing intransigence in the face of a state budget shortfall.
The public sector unions have agreed to the financial concessions Gov. Walker had claimed were necessary to right the fiscal ship. No, the prize he hopes to deliver to his corporate supporters and ideological soul mates is much larger and more important than a simple balanced state budget.
Shock and awe has been the method employed, but just like in the war through which the phrase entered our national lexicon, momentary disorientation can give way to obstinate resistance, and no one anticipated the counter-mobilization that has galvanized workers in Madison, Wisconsin, and elsewhere.
Union labor recognizes that this is it: a Waterloo for the working class in America. Up to now it has been mostly a one-sided class war as private sector corporations have systematically weakened or destroyed their existing labor organizations, while intimidating and firing their workers when they have sought to organize themselves into unions.
For three decades this war has mostly played out beyond the public radar screen, as corporations and their consultants have turned workplace after workplace across the country into battlegrounds over the rights of workers to have some voice in the conditions of their labor.
When Walker and other governors complain that public sector workers receive better pension or health care benefits than do private sector workers in their states, they may be right, but this is because workers in the much larger private sector -- with unionization rates now at about 7%, down from 35% in 1955 -- have already had their pensions, their health care benefits, and their working conditions gutted. (About 35 % of public sector workers are unionized.)
Until now this corporate assault was not aimed at the destruction of public sector unions and the decent jobs and benefits that they were able to negotiate for workers. Public employee unions have agreed to concessions in the face of state and municipal budget problems across the country, as they have in Wisconsin, but asking them for more -- taking away the right to organize and bargain collectively -- tramples Americans' human rights.
Americans may not fully grasp what is at stake here, but we fail to do so at our peril. Unions have made mistakes, but they are the only defense that workers have.
Without viable unions to serve as a counterweight to corporate power, America's working people and their families are at the mercy of the largest and most powerful economic organizations on the planet.
Ironically, while mobilizing to destroy unions here, U.S. corporations have been somehow able to thrive in foreign countries that have much higher unionization rates and where labor movements have much more influence in society.
Unionization rates are about twice as high in Germany and Canada, for example, and as much as five times as high in the Scandinavian countries, but U.S. companies have been able to do their business quite profitably for decades.
Strong unions in these countries mean that their citizens enjoy high quality health care for all without having to pay huge insurance premiums, free or inexpensive child care for working families, university educations that leave no one in debt, five to six weeks of paid annual vacations, and worker standards of living that are mostly equal to or higher than those of American workers.
Socialism? Hardly. The capitalists of Europe and Canada do perfectly well for themselves, thank you, even though their CEO's don't generally expect salaries and stock options reaching into the stratosphere, like ours do.
If there were no labor movement in the U.S., there would be no social security system, no Medicare or Medicaid as we know them (unions regularly provide power and push-back at attempts to privatize or cut back ), no limits to child labor, or hours worked, or safety standards, or any ability to prevent or respond to unfair or despotic treatment by employers.
Whether in unions or not, American workers hold these protections because of unions. How long will they last if the unions are destroyed? Wisconsin is either the beginning of the end or it's a beginning.
Which side are you on?
http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/02/24/fantasia.union.wisconsin/index.html?hpt=C2
Showing posts with label public sector workers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label public sector workers. Show all posts
Thursday, February 24, 2011
The blame your neighbor game continues
From Tallahasse.com
Ralf Bronner
Our elected leaders call for public employees to sacrifice their supposedly lavish salaries and benefits. Letter writers echo this sentiment. The underlying premise, however, is factually inaccurate. Numbers showing that median public sector pay is higher than median private sector pay belie the actual composition of the two work forces.
A 2007 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics survey showed that approximately two-thirds of public sector jobs are professional or administrative, compared with 51 percent in the private sector. About 20 percent of private sector jobs are low-skilled or temporary, compared with only 2 percent in the public sector.
A 2010 study showed that 55 percent of California public employees have college degrees and 21 percent have graduate degrees, compared with 35 and 11 percent, respectively, in the private sector. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker further distorts the alleged disparity by including part-time employees — commonplace in business but rare in government — in his sector salary comparison.
In low-skill jobs, for which government has many fewer employees, government wages do exceed business wages. But for high-skill jobs, public-sector wages are significantly lower.
A recent Wisconsin study showed that, when human capital aspects are factored in, Wisconsin's public sector workers earn 8.2 percent less than business counterparts. Taking benefits into account shrinks the difference to 4.2 percent. Florida state Sen. JD Alexander's assertion that public employee benefits constitute a "free ride" is factually incorrect: government employees' higher benefits do not offset their lower wages.
California's government employees were generally unionized, whereas the business counterpart contains both union and nonunion workers. Thus public sector unions are not driving up wages as their critics charge; rather, if unionized business workers had been compared with unionized government workers, the public sector disadvantage would have been even greater. Rather than demonize public sector unions, we ought to ask what factors keep unions out of the private sect
Unfortunately there are no comparable Florida analyses, and neither an apparent interest nor obvious agency in Florida government to manage such data. Significantly, nobody has asked OPPAGA for such analyses. Why is fact-based reasoning so threatening?
Similarly, groups such as Florida TaxWatch and Florida's mainstream media don't seem interested, perhaps because workers lack the collective purse to commission studies by the former or advertising in the latter.
If we shrink public sector benefits, what does the future hold? One HR consulting firm showed that 68 percent of Fortune 500 firms offered ongoing pension plans in 1998, but only 42 percent did by 2008; 88 percent in 1991 offered retiree health coverage before Medicare eligibility applies (age 65), but only 33 percent did in 2008.
This foretells what it means to "run government like a business." Clearly the business model holds limited regard for the future health and welfare of America's workers. This trend also signals the importance of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which Florida's leaders simultaneously aim to dismantle.
My arguments will not influence Florida's current leaders. They have the answers they want and don't care to be confused with any more facts.
So I appeal to Florida's citizens to hold leaders accountable to everybody's interests and values. There is class warfare afoot — a new form that pits middle class business workers against their government counterparts.
Our economic circumstances were caused by business greed and carelessness —and poor policy decisions by political leaders — not by public employee largesse.
We must insist on reliable analysis about wages and benefits before inflicting this political vengeance. Educated professionals know their value: They will seek it by moving elsewhere, and Florida will be the poorer. Finally, we must stop the siren song that scapegoats the compensation of public employees as the primary culprit for poor economic circumstances.
Read more: Ralph Brower: Public employees are not the culprits | tallahassee.com | Tallahassee Democrat http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20110223/OPINION05/102230306/Ralph-Brower-Public-employees-are-not-the-culprits#ixzz1EsFsJnEf
Ralf Bronner
Our elected leaders call for public employees to sacrifice their supposedly lavish salaries and benefits. Letter writers echo this sentiment. The underlying premise, however, is factually inaccurate. Numbers showing that median public sector pay is higher than median private sector pay belie the actual composition of the two work forces.
A 2007 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics survey showed that approximately two-thirds of public sector jobs are professional or administrative, compared with 51 percent in the private sector. About 20 percent of private sector jobs are low-skilled or temporary, compared with only 2 percent in the public sector.
A 2010 study showed that 55 percent of California public employees have college degrees and 21 percent have graduate degrees, compared with 35 and 11 percent, respectively, in the private sector. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker further distorts the alleged disparity by including part-time employees — commonplace in business but rare in government — in his sector salary comparison.
In low-skill jobs, for which government has many fewer employees, government wages do exceed business wages. But for high-skill jobs, public-sector wages are significantly lower.
A recent Wisconsin study showed that, when human capital aspects are factored in, Wisconsin's public sector workers earn 8.2 percent less than business counterparts. Taking benefits into account shrinks the difference to 4.2 percent. Florida state Sen. JD Alexander's assertion that public employee benefits constitute a "free ride" is factually incorrect: government employees' higher benefits do not offset their lower wages.
California's government employees were generally unionized, whereas the business counterpart contains both union and nonunion workers. Thus public sector unions are not driving up wages as their critics charge; rather, if unionized business workers had been compared with unionized government workers, the public sector disadvantage would have been even greater. Rather than demonize public sector unions, we ought to ask what factors keep unions out of the private sect
Unfortunately there are no comparable Florida analyses, and neither an apparent interest nor obvious agency in Florida government to manage such data. Significantly, nobody has asked OPPAGA for such analyses. Why is fact-based reasoning so threatening?
Similarly, groups such as Florida TaxWatch and Florida's mainstream media don't seem interested, perhaps because workers lack the collective purse to commission studies by the former or advertising in the latter.
If we shrink public sector benefits, what does the future hold? One HR consulting firm showed that 68 percent of Fortune 500 firms offered ongoing pension plans in 1998, but only 42 percent did by 2008; 88 percent in 1991 offered retiree health coverage before Medicare eligibility applies (age 65), but only 33 percent did in 2008.
This foretells what it means to "run government like a business." Clearly the business model holds limited regard for the future health and welfare of America's workers. This trend also signals the importance of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which Florida's leaders simultaneously aim to dismantle.
My arguments will not influence Florida's current leaders. They have the answers they want and don't care to be confused with any more facts.
So I appeal to Florida's citizens to hold leaders accountable to everybody's interests and values. There is class warfare afoot — a new form that pits middle class business workers against their government counterparts.
Our economic circumstances were caused by business greed and carelessness —and poor policy decisions by political leaders — not by public employee largesse.
We must insist on reliable analysis about wages and benefits before inflicting this political vengeance. Educated professionals know their value: They will seek it by moving elsewhere, and Florida will be the poorer. Finally, we must stop the siren song that scapegoats the compensation of public employees as the primary culprit for poor economic circumstances.
Read more: Ralph Brower: Public employees are not the culprits | tallahassee.com | Tallahassee Democrat http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20110223/OPINION05/102230306/Ralph-Brower-Public-employees-are-not-the-culprits#ixzz1EsFsJnEf
Monday, February 21, 2011
Tunisia, Egypt, Wisconsin, Florida
From the St. Petersburg Times
by Ron Matus
Opposition is heating up statewide as the Florida Legislature closes in on monumental changes to the teaching profession.
On popular blogs, some teachers are even pushing for Florida to follow Wisconsin, where tens of thousands of protesters have descended on the state Capitol.
If some of the current legislative proposals don't change, "Do I believe public employees will descend on Tallahassee? Yes," said Kim Black, president of the Pinellas teachers union. "It could be a hurricane, we just don't know what category yet. People are organizing."
The Pinellas teachers union has scheduled a "save our public schools rally" in Pinellas on March 4, the Friday before the legislative session begins on March 8, while other local teachers unions are planning similar events. Rallies to support teachers, firefighters and police officers are being organized around the state for March 8.
"Our students don't understand the constant bullying of their teachers and quite frankly, neither do we," says a flier for the rally in Pinellas, which is slated for the same intersections that hundreds of teachers flocked to last year to protest Senate Bill 6.
SB 6 — passed by the Legislature and vetoed by former Gov. Charlie Crist — would have dramatically changed how teachers are hired, fired, paid and evaluated. Gov. Rick Scott has said he would have signed it, and a new version is moving fast through legislative committees.
Lawmakers will also consider requiring teachers, police officers and other state and county workers to chip in up to 5 percent of their pay towards their pensions.
Florida teachers are closely watching events in Wisconsin. Many Wisconsin schools have closed because teachers are attending the rallies. Schools in Madison closed last week after 1,000 teachers called in sick.
So far, legislation to curb collective bargaining rights has not surfaced in Florida. But in a 20-page list of proposals, Scott's education transition team recommended that teacher evaluations be removed from the bargaining process, and that bargaining be limited to salaries and benefits.
The Florida Constitution recognizes the right of employees to bargain collectively.
Ron Matus can be reached at matus@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8873.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/with-eye-on-wisconsin-florida-teachers-gear-up-for-rallies/1152921
by Ron Matus
Opposition is heating up statewide as the Florida Legislature closes in on monumental changes to the teaching profession.
On popular blogs, some teachers are even pushing for Florida to follow Wisconsin, where tens of thousands of protesters have descended on the state Capitol.
If some of the current legislative proposals don't change, "Do I believe public employees will descend on Tallahassee? Yes," said Kim Black, president of the Pinellas teachers union. "It could be a hurricane, we just don't know what category yet. People are organizing."
The Pinellas teachers union has scheduled a "save our public schools rally" in Pinellas on March 4, the Friday before the legislative session begins on March 8, while other local teachers unions are planning similar events. Rallies to support teachers, firefighters and police officers are being organized around the state for March 8.
"Our students don't understand the constant bullying of their teachers and quite frankly, neither do we," says a flier for the rally in Pinellas, which is slated for the same intersections that hundreds of teachers flocked to last year to protest Senate Bill 6.
SB 6 — passed by the Legislature and vetoed by former Gov. Charlie Crist — would have dramatically changed how teachers are hired, fired, paid and evaluated. Gov. Rick Scott has said he would have signed it, and a new version is moving fast through legislative committees.
Lawmakers will also consider requiring teachers, police officers and other state and county workers to chip in up to 5 percent of their pay towards their pensions.
Florida teachers are closely watching events in Wisconsin. Many Wisconsin schools have closed because teachers are attending the rallies. Schools in Madison closed last week after 1,000 teachers called in sick.
So far, legislation to curb collective bargaining rights has not surfaced in Florida. But in a 20-page list of proposals, Scott's education transition team recommended that teacher evaluations be removed from the bargaining process, and that bargaining be limited to salaries and benefits.
The Florida Constitution recognizes the right of employees to bargain collectively.
Ron Matus can be reached at matus@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8873.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/with-eye-on-wisconsin-florida-teachers-gear-up-for-rallies/1152921
Sunday, February 20, 2011
What is really happening in Wisconsin
From Mother Jones
by Andy Kroll
Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker, whose bill to kill collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions has caused an uproar among state employees, might not be where he is today without the Koch brothers. Charles and David Koch are conservative titans of industry who have infamously used their vast wealth to undermine President Obama and fight legislation they detest, such as the cap-and-trade climate bill, the health care reform act, and the economic stimulus package. For years, the billionaires have made extensive political donations to Republican candidates across the country and have provided millions of dollars to astroturf right-wing organizations. Koch Industries' political action committee has doled out more than $2.6 million to candidates. And one prominent beneficiary of the Koch brothers' largess is Scott Walker.
According to Wisconsin campaign finance filings, Walker's gubernatorial campaign received $43,000 from the Koch Industries PAC during the 2010 election. That donation was his campaign's second-highest, behind $43,125 in contributions from housing and realtor groups in Wisconsin. The Koch's PAC also helped Walker via a familiar and much-used politicial maneuver designed to allow donors to skirt campaign finance limits. The PAC gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, which in turn spent $65,000 on independent expenditures to support Walker. The RGA also spent a whopping $3.4 million on TV ads and mailers attacking Walker's opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Walker ended up beating Barrett by 5 points. The Koch money, no doubt, helped greatly.
The Kochs also assisted Walker's current GOP allies in the fight against the public-sector unions. Last year, Republicans took control of the both houses of the Wisconsin state legislature, which has made Walker's assault on these unions possible. And according to data from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, the Koch Industries PAC spent $6,500 in support of 16 Wisconsin Republican state legislative candidates, who each won his or her election.
Walker's plan to eviscerate collective bargaining rights for public employees is right out of the Koch brothers' playbook. Koch-backed groups like Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Reason Foundation have long taken a very antagonistic view toward public-sector unions. Several of these groups have urged the eradication of these unions. The Kochs also invited (PDF) Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, an anti-union outfit, to a June 2010 confab in Aspen, Colorado; Mix said in a recent interview that he supports Governor Walker's collective-bargaining bill. In Wisconsin, this conservative, anti-union view is being placed into action by lawmakers in sync with the deep-pocketed donors who helped them obtain power. (Walker also opposes the state's Clean Energy Job Act, which would compel the state to increase its use of alternative energy.) At this moment—even with the Wisconsin uprising unresolved—the Koch brothers' investment in Walker appears to be paying off.
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/wisconsin-scott-walker-koch-brothers
by Andy Kroll
Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker, whose bill to kill collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions has caused an uproar among state employees, might not be where he is today without the Koch brothers. Charles and David Koch are conservative titans of industry who have infamously used their vast wealth to undermine President Obama and fight legislation they detest, such as the cap-and-trade climate bill, the health care reform act, and the economic stimulus package. For years, the billionaires have made extensive political donations to Republican candidates across the country and have provided millions of dollars to astroturf right-wing organizations. Koch Industries' political action committee has doled out more than $2.6 million to candidates. And one prominent beneficiary of the Koch brothers' largess is Scott Walker.
According to Wisconsin campaign finance filings, Walker's gubernatorial campaign received $43,000 from the Koch Industries PAC during the 2010 election. That donation was his campaign's second-highest, behind $43,125 in contributions from housing and realtor groups in Wisconsin. The Koch's PAC also helped Walker via a familiar and much-used politicial maneuver designed to allow donors to skirt campaign finance limits. The PAC gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, which in turn spent $65,000 on independent expenditures to support Walker. The RGA also spent a whopping $3.4 million on TV ads and mailers attacking Walker's opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Walker ended up beating Barrett by 5 points. The Koch money, no doubt, helped greatly.
The Kochs also assisted Walker's current GOP allies in the fight against the public-sector unions. Last year, Republicans took control of the both houses of the Wisconsin state legislature, which has made Walker's assault on these unions possible. And according to data from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, the Koch Industries PAC spent $6,500 in support of 16 Wisconsin Republican state legislative candidates, who each won his or her election.
Walker's plan to eviscerate collective bargaining rights for public employees is right out of the Koch brothers' playbook. Koch-backed groups like Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Reason Foundation have long taken a very antagonistic view toward public-sector unions. Several of these groups have urged the eradication of these unions. The Kochs also invited (PDF) Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, an anti-union outfit, to a June 2010 confab in Aspen, Colorado; Mix said in a recent interview that he supports Governor Walker's collective-bargaining bill. In Wisconsin, this conservative, anti-union view is being placed into action by lawmakers in sync with the deep-pocketed donors who helped them obtain power. (Walker also opposes the state's Clean Energy Job Act, which would compel the state to increase its use of alternative energy.) At this moment—even with the Wisconsin uprising unresolved—the Koch brothers' investment in Walker appears to be paying off.
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/wisconsin-scott-walker-koch-brothers
Will the slumbering masses wake in Florida too?
By TODD RICHMOND and DINESH RAMDE
MADISON, Wis. - A state Capitol thrown into political chaos swelled for a fifth day with nearly 70,000 protesters, as supporters of Republican efforts to scrap the union rights of state workers challenged pro-labor protesters face-to-face for the first time and GOP leaders insisted again Saturday there was no room for compromise.
A few dozen police officers stood between supporters of Republican Gov. Scott Walker on the muddy east lawn of the Capitol and the much larger group of pro-labor demonstrators who surrounded them. The protest was peaceful as both sides exchanged chants of "Pass the bill! Pass the bill!" and "Kill the bill! Kill the bill!"
"Go home!" union supporters yelled at Scott Lemke, a 46-year-old machine parts salesman from Cedarburg who wore a hard hat and carried a sign that read "If you don't like it, quit" on one side, and "If you don't like that, try you're fired" on the other.
The Wisconsin governor, elected in November's GOP wave that also gave control of the state Assembly and Senate to Republicans, set off the protests earlier this week by pushing ahead with a measure that would require government workers to contribute more to their health care and pension costs and largely eliminate their collective bargaining rights.
He says the concessions are needed to deal with the state's projected $3.6 billion budget shortfall and to avoid layoffs of government workers.
"We did have an election and Scott Walker won," said Deborah Arndt, 53, of Sheboygan Falls. "I think our governor will stand strong. I have faith in him."
At a rally organized by Tea Party Patriots, the movement's largest umbrella group, and Americans for Prosperity, supporters of Walker carried signs with a fresh set of messages: "Your Gravy Train Is Over . . . Welcome to the Recession" and "Sorry, we're late Scott. We work for a living."
"We pay the bills!" tea party favorite Herman Cain yelled to cheers from the pro-Walker crowd. "This is why you elected Scott Walker. and he's doing his job. . . . Wisconsin is broke. My question for the other side is, 'What part of broke don't you understand?'"
Nearby, nearly two dozen cabs blocked a major intersection near the Capitol. The driver of the lead cab leaned out of the window and played a trumpet, while others attempted to honk their car horns in sync with a chant from pro-labor protesters: "This is what democracy looks like."
"One of the reasons the company decided to support the protesters is because the members of this company started off striking their employer for better wages and that employer . . . refused to allow them to bargain collectively," said John McNamara, the marketing director of Union Cab.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald reaffirmed Saturday that Republicans have not been swayed by the pro-labor protesters who since Tuesday have filled the Capitol with chanting, drum-beats and anti-Walker slogans.
"The bill is not negotiable," Fitzgerald said inside a heavily guarded Senate parlor at the Capitol. "The bill will pass as is."
Fitzgerald said Republicans have the votes needed pass the so-called "budget repair" bill just as up as soon as 14 Senate Democrats who fled the state on Thursday and remain in hiding return to the Statehouse. The missing Democrats have threatened to stay away for weeks and remain more resolved than ever to stay away "as long as it takes" until Walker agrees to negotiate, Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach said Saturday.
"I don't think he's really thought it through, to be honest," Erpenbach said.
Democrats offered again Saturday to agree to the parts of Walker's proposal that would double workers' health insurance contributions and require them to contribute 5.8 percent of their salary to their pensions, so long as workers retained their rights to negotiate with the state as a union.
Fitzgerald said he was unimpressed given that the offer was something the GOP has rejected for months. The restrictions on collective bargaining rights are needed so local governments and the state will have the flexibility needed to balance budgets after cuts Walker plans to announce next month, he said.
Walker, who was spending time with his family Saturday and wasn't expected to make an appearance at the tea party-organized rally, also rejected the Democrats offer. His spokesman, Cullen Werwie, said the fastest way to end the stalemate was for Democrats to return and "do their jobs."
Sen. Tim Cullen, a Democrat from Janesville, refused to say where he was Saturday but said he didn't expect the Senate to meet again until Tuesday. Cullen said he was watching Saturday's rallies on television with some friends.
"I'm hoping to see no violence, that's what I'm hoping most to see," Cullen said. "This has been a very peaceful, respectful thing all week given the size of the crowds."
Madison police estimated 60,000 or more people were outside the Capitol with up to 8,000 more inside. Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney had planned to add 60 deputies to the 100 who patrolled during the week. But Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain said there had been no arrests or problems by midafternoon.
"We've seen and shown the world that in Madison, Wis., we can bring people together who disagree strongly on a bill in a peaceful way," DeSpain said.
Steve Boss, 26, a refrigerator technician from Oostburg, carried a sign that read "The Protesters Are All 'Sick' -- Wash your Hands," a reference to the teacher sick-outs that swelled crowds at the Capitol to 40,000 people Friday and raised the noise in its rotunda to earsplitting levels. Boss said the cuts Walker has proposed were painful but needed to fix the state's financial problems.
"It's time to address the issue. They (public workers) got to take the same cuts as everyone else," he said. "It's a fairness thing."
Doctors from numerous hospitals set up a station near the Capitol to provide notes covering public employees' absences. Family physician Lou Sanner, 59, of Madison, said he had given out hundreds of notes. Many of the people he spoke with seemed to be suffering from stress, he said.
"What employers have a right to know is if the patient was assessed by a duly licensed physician about time off of work," Sanner said. "Employers don't have a right to know the nature of that conversation or the nature of that illness. So it's as valid as every other work note that I've written for the last 30 years."
John Black, 46, of Madison, said he came out to the rallies in order to help bridge the gap between the pro-labor protesters and tea party members. He carried signs that asked for a compromise on the budget bill while a friend's son handed out purple flowers.
"We liked Scott Walker as a change agent, but he moved too quickly and because of that there's always room for compromise," Black said.
---
Associated Press writers Scott Bauer and Jason Smathers contributed to this report.
http://headlines.verizon.com/headlines/portals/headlines.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=headlines_portal_page__article&_article=3334125
MADISON, Wis. - A state Capitol thrown into political chaos swelled for a fifth day with nearly 70,000 protesters, as supporters of Republican efforts to scrap the union rights of state workers challenged pro-labor protesters face-to-face for the first time and GOP leaders insisted again Saturday there was no room for compromise.
A few dozen police officers stood between supporters of Republican Gov. Scott Walker on the muddy east lawn of the Capitol and the much larger group of pro-labor demonstrators who surrounded them. The protest was peaceful as both sides exchanged chants of "Pass the bill! Pass the bill!" and "Kill the bill! Kill the bill!"
"Go home!" union supporters yelled at Scott Lemke, a 46-year-old machine parts salesman from Cedarburg who wore a hard hat and carried a sign that read "If you don't like it, quit" on one side, and "If you don't like that, try you're fired" on the other.
The Wisconsin governor, elected in November's GOP wave that also gave control of the state Assembly and Senate to Republicans, set off the protests earlier this week by pushing ahead with a measure that would require government workers to contribute more to their health care and pension costs and largely eliminate their collective bargaining rights.
He says the concessions are needed to deal with the state's projected $3.6 billion budget shortfall and to avoid layoffs of government workers.
"We did have an election and Scott Walker won," said Deborah Arndt, 53, of Sheboygan Falls. "I think our governor will stand strong. I have faith in him."
At a rally organized by Tea Party Patriots, the movement's largest umbrella group, and Americans for Prosperity, supporters of Walker carried signs with a fresh set of messages: "Your Gravy Train Is Over . . . Welcome to the Recession" and "Sorry, we're late Scott. We work for a living."
"We pay the bills!" tea party favorite Herman Cain yelled to cheers from the pro-Walker crowd. "This is why you elected Scott Walker. and he's doing his job. . . . Wisconsin is broke. My question for the other side is, 'What part of broke don't you understand?'"
Nearby, nearly two dozen cabs blocked a major intersection near the Capitol. The driver of the lead cab leaned out of the window and played a trumpet, while others attempted to honk their car horns in sync with a chant from pro-labor protesters: "This is what democracy looks like."
"One of the reasons the company decided to support the protesters is because the members of this company started off striking their employer for better wages and that employer . . . refused to allow them to bargain collectively," said John McNamara, the marketing director of Union Cab.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald reaffirmed Saturday that Republicans have not been swayed by the pro-labor protesters who since Tuesday have filled the Capitol with chanting, drum-beats and anti-Walker slogans.
"The bill is not negotiable," Fitzgerald said inside a heavily guarded Senate parlor at the Capitol. "The bill will pass as is."
Fitzgerald said Republicans have the votes needed pass the so-called "budget repair" bill just as up as soon as 14 Senate Democrats who fled the state on Thursday and remain in hiding return to the Statehouse. The missing Democrats have threatened to stay away for weeks and remain more resolved than ever to stay away "as long as it takes" until Walker agrees to negotiate, Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach said Saturday.
"I don't think he's really thought it through, to be honest," Erpenbach said.
Democrats offered again Saturday to agree to the parts of Walker's proposal that would double workers' health insurance contributions and require them to contribute 5.8 percent of their salary to their pensions, so long as workers retained their rights to negotiate with the state as a union.
Fitzgerald said he was unimpressed given that the offer was something the GOP has rejected for months. The restrictions on collective bargaining rights are needed so local governments and the state will have the flexibility needed to balance budgets after cuts Walker plans to announce next month, he said.
Walker, who was spending time with his family Saturday and wasn't expected to make an appearance at the tea party-organized rally, also rejected the Democrats offer. His spokesman, Cullen Werwie, said the fastest way to end the stalemate was for Democrats to return and "do their jobs."
Sen. Tim Cullen, a Democrat from Janesville, refused to say where he was Saturday but said he didn't expect the Senate to meet again until Tuesday. Cullen said he was watching Saturday's rallies on television with some friends.
"I'm hoping to see no violence, that's what I'm hoping most to see," Cullen said. "This has been a very peaceful, respectful thing all week given the size of the crowds."
Madison police estimated 60,000 or more people were outside the Capitol with up to 8,000 more inside. Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney had planned to add 60 deputies to the 100 who patrolled during the week. But Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain said there had been no arrests or problems by midafternoon.
"We've seen and shown the world that in Madison, Wis., we can bring people together who disagree strongly on a bill in a peaceful way," DeSpain said.
Steve Boss, 26, a refrigerator technician from Oostburg, carried a sign that read "The Protesters Are All 'Sick' -- Wash your Hands," a reference to the teacher sick-outs that swelled crowds at the Capitol to 40,000 people Friday and raised the noise in its rotunda to earsplitting levels. Boss said the cuts Walker has proposed were painful but needed to fix the state's financial problems.
"It's time to address the issue. They (public workers) got to take the same cuts as everyone else," he said. "It's a fairness thing."
Doctors from numerous hospitals set up a station near the Capitol to provide notes covering public employees' absences. Family physician Lou Sanner, 59, of Madison, said he had given out hundreds of notes. Many of the people he spoke with seemed to be suffering from stress, he said.
"What employers have a right to know is if the patient was assessed by a duly licensed physician about time off of work," Sanner said. "Employers don't have a right to know the nature of that conversation or the nature of that illness. So it's as valid as every other work note that I've written for the last 30 years."
John Black, 46, of Madison, said he came out to the rallies in order to help bridge the gap between the pro-labor protesters and tea party members. He carried signs that asked for a compromise on the budget bill while a friend's son handed out purple flowers.
"We liked Scott Walker as a change agent, but he moved too quickly and because of that there's always room for compromise," Black said.
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Associated Press writers Scott Bauer and Jason Smathers contributed to this report.
http://headlines.verizon.com/headlines/portals/headlines.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=headlines_portal_page__article&_article=3334125
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