Unions vow to fight Walker’s budget plan
February 14, 2011 at 6:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
A state budget fix that would strip the ability to collectively bargain from state and local employees has prompted a flood of response.
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I think public employees think they are the kings of Wisconsin…
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Public sector employees? Kings of WI?
And Pat wonders why people don’t take anything she says seriously.
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how do we know it’s a she?
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Pat, You say teachers are kings of Wisconsin??? What does NEA stand for? Let us see education… NO,
Effort by teachers …..No
EXTROTION… YES. PAT IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THE TERMS OF YOUR EMPLOYMENT DO THE RIGHT THING ,,, QUIT. Your students will benefit! Bad attitudes are easy to replace in any bussiness!
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So this is how things work??? The state is broke, but the unions still demand more and more money? And Bob Jauch? He’s little more than 260lbs of wasted potential.
Why shouldn’t state employees be willing to make the sacrifices the rest of us have made? Why are they so special? Mn employees pat on average about 20% of their health insurance premium, and HALF of their pension. What’s wrong with WI employees doing the same?
I suspect that our resident Marxists haven’t even taken the time to see how much more a state employee makes when compared to a private sector worker doing the same job.
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What do you think BO did to GM shareholders and bondholders? He gave it to the very union, UAW, that bankrupted the corporation. Were you outraged when Obama stole value from stock and bond holders? I doubt it, so do not be outraged because you and your union are on the short end of the stick this time. I just hope this poetic justice repeats itself often!
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It is so refreshing to see a elected official stand up for the people who voted him in. A little reality check for the union members and they do not like it. The rest of the world has had to live under a budget, now the Wisconson unions do too. I only wish we could get MN Governor to do the same…… By the way I pay all of my retirement and all of my health insurance and all of my social seccurity and medicare taxes, so don’t whine to me……
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Wall St. had to live by a budget? They created the mess and get bonuses. You must have a relative on Wall St.
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Right, but no. Walker thinks it is much etter to take Wall Street failure out on public workers. Go figure!
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Spearman, corporations have improved the quality of all our lives. Just becausen you have not attained what you deserve or think you deserve???, does not diminish the improvement created. Unfortunately, you probably worship the post office, a government business, that can not make it even with gigantic tax payer subsidies. Government is not very good at creating wealth, unless you are lazy and just want a hand out.
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Good luck Gov. Walker, you have the support of the vast majority of workers (the entire private sector). The union thugs will be using their intimidation tactics to the fullest on this one. Breaking up the unions and their overpaid, overprotected, under-performing workers is something that needs to be done at all levels in this country if we ever hope to return to balanced budgets and sustainability.
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Good for him, unions serve no purpose in 2011.
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Unions created the 8 hr. day and the 40 hr. week.
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They’ve also created trillions of dollars in deficits in state/local governments across the nation.
When even FDR voiced his opinion against public sector unions, you know that you have no ideological leg to stand on.
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Spearman, global economy. Many of my physician friends work 70 + hours per week. They probably make less/hour than teachers, given the 36 hour work week for teachers and the extended summer vacation.
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ON THE CONTRARY! WI residents are concerned with democracy. They voted overwhelmingly for Walker because he said he was going to do what he has done. You can whine all you want about democracy. In this case it has actually worked. The People of Wisconsin have spoken! Who are you to tell them they should pay state employees more than their counterparts in the private sector? What about all those senior citizens and people on fixed incomes who bankroll those state wages? Why aren’t you concerned about them getting taxed out of their homes? Oh, I get it. They don’t work anymore so the union thugs don’t care about them. And those poor folks? They just haven’t been coerced into striking yet. Once they do, they’ll be on easy street, eh? I wish the union apologists would cite one single country where their brand of marxist-socialism has worked and continues to work. Just one. Pleeze?
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Germany. They kick our ass’s in technology, environmental concern and mass transit.They beat us in quality products and the amt of manufacturing production actually done in their country. They also have the freaking AUTOBONN!(spelling) And guess what, they are Socialists.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Germany isn’t marxists-socialist. And they’re broke. Pay attention. Oh, and who is doing all that manufacturing you speak so highly of? TheCapitalists. And unions? hardly.
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Jason said >”They also have the freaking AUTOBONN!(spelling) And guess what, they are Socialists.”
That would be AutoBAHN.
Germany is also slightly smaller than Montana. Comparing them to the U.S. is like, well, wondering why Ne$$ isnt as important as Obama.
Square miles
United States…3,790,000 sq. miles
Montana………147,046 sq. miles
Germany………137,847 sq. miles
Its all nice and fine to say Germany is better at stuff like mass transit and roads, until you discover they simply had to pave over a small state, not a huge country.
By the way, since you brought it up, the Autobahn. Very cool. I’ve driven on it.
BUT,
Did you know that with any increase in speed, your energy usage increases exponentially?
For example:
To go, say, twice as fast as you are now, you will use 4 times the amount of energy.
To go 4 times as fast as you are now will require 16 times as much energy.
I guess you could say that having the autobahn is very wasteful with a finite amount of resources.
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Right on the energy consumption Obama. Just like doing 70 on I35 burns much more fuel than doing 55. However, Their mass transit system helps eleviate the amt of people burning fuel in their cars. And fewer people drive because gas is 6 bucks a gallon. (thats ok, i still want to go try the Autobahn)
Now to Hugh, Explain the difference between Marxist socialist and just good old socialism. And Germany IS NOT BROKE! they and the rest of the EU bailed Greece out not to long ago. And the German manufacturers believed jobs at home in Germany were more important than letting the chinese to build it cheaper for them.(check out foreign newspapers, you may learn something not found on faux noise) They realized this was the only way to keep a stable tax base to upkeep infrastructure and services. To bad these d-bags in the US havent figured that out.
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Uh, on the public transit thing, can you say “population density”?
And I suppose the maxim “from those according to their ability, to those according to their needs” rings true, eh?
And the FRG recognized that the road they were on, socialism, was unsustainable, and they made an abrupt change of course. Pensions have been parred back. Social programs cut. You can’t even become a citizen over there like you can over here. They recognized that they were being eaten alive by immigrants coming to feed at the public trough. Yes! Germany is doing many things better than us, namely they are getting their borders under control, and they are limiting welfare to immigrants. Actions we would be wise to follow.
For the record, why don’t you define marism and socialism for us. I suspect that you’re a little less informed than you would like us to believe. But that’s OK. I also was naive when I was young. I only hope that we have a country left by the time you grow up.
Tax base? The Germans are amongst the most heavily taxed people on earth.
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North Dakota is the only state not broke because it has a socialist state bank. When the 97 flood happened in GF the State bank provided loans the private banks couldn’t.
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By definition a bank can’t be socialist. C’mon boy, do your homework and stop being a lackey stooge for the left.
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Quite frankly…..I’d rather see all CEO’s not sharing the wealth/million dollar bonuses targeted instead. Start limiting their salaries and bonuses, distribute the difference among the employees and everyone would be on a more equal playing field.
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How about getting your salary and bonuses limited, Misty? That should level the playing field for all the welfare leeches.
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Spread the wealth, don’t tip Obama supporters.
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Hugh J. What do you call a bank that isn’t private but public? If everyone in ND owns it then it is socialist by definition. Do your homework.
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Just like public education, except the Bank of ND works for its residents not a corrupt union.
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Note to those Democrat / Union folks: We had an election recently and the 30+ years of union favoring, Democrat contolled legislative & executive branches came to an end. Finally, those of us (the majority now) who have been paying for the years of public unions wage & benefits superiority, have responded. After the many years of either not being involved, apathetic or shouted down, the majority of Wisconsin voters desired a more conservative method of governing. We simply got darn tired of continuing tax and fee increases to cover the public unions demands. After a while, the few that always pulled the cart got exhausted. We finally told the damn riders to get off and help push for a change!
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Hey Unions and Unionmembers……..buh bye now.
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You know, it really is too bad. If the Unions hadn’t gotten greedy, they would be the champion of the working man today, with a rich history of standing up for the everyday fella.
As it turned out, Unions have become the parasite that attacks and kills a healthy body. Detroit is in the shape it is NOT from lack of Unions, but from a bad case of “Over-Union”.
Instead of being “Hailed the Conquering Hero”, today, Unions are spat upon in the dirt, for what they did to the companies and people that depended on them.
Rightly so.
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Obama, YOu’re right. Its over unionization that killed the union. The biggest complaint about walker is his wanting to strip the collective bargaining rights of workers. I have no issue with making the workers pay more for healthcare and their pensions but to take away the right to bargain is really crappy. Especially because he didnt do it to police/fireman/state patrol.
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Jason said >”The biggest complaint about walker is his wanting to strip the collective bargaining rights of workers.”
You know, Unions have such a bad name now, membership is almost non-existent. If the daggone unions would just smarten up for 1 second, Go on TV and say to the public, “The State is in trouble and that means our people are in trouble. How can we help?”
Man, that would make SOOOOOOOO much juice for them, they wouldnt believe it!
But they wont, and the reason is because Unions have become just another Political Association. Only their politics matter. Not the people. Not their jobs. Not their families.
(((sigh)))
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Jason you do know they would reserve the right to collectively bargain for salaries with this bill don’t you?
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Glad to see Walker do what he was elected to do and that is clean up the mess that liberal Doyle left us in. Jauch and Milroy don’t get it and never will but the union members in the Superior area keep voting them in. Unions should be non political but it will never happen as the liberal democrats use the union as their voting base the the union members follow like lemmings.
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Time to end the FAIRLAND BENEFITS the union has squeezed out of the state gov. which is broke.
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The pension systems are decimating governments’ budgets. The vast majority of private sector employees’ retirement systems are based on Social Security plus a 401K type retirement plan. This is considerably more affordable than the pension systems of previous generations. The pension systems for public sector workers are antiquated and governments will not be able to sustain these pension systems much longer.
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Those 14 liberal senators that left the state should be arrested for Civil Disobedience as soon as they get back into WI.
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Absolutely! And Republicans are The Party of No?!
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correct, they’re the party of “no”, as in no more BS!
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Exactly, NO MORE UNION BS!
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Did Wisconsin Dems forget about the new era of civility already?
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I hope these dopey union protesters and democrat state legislators keep drawing attention to themselves. The more they do, the more they will lose the sympathy of moderates and independents with their vile and disgusting behavior. I knew the unions were corrupt and detestable on a whole, but I didn’t think they would stoop to the depths of comparing the governor to Mubarak and Hitler. The governor and legislature’s proposal is reasonable, and it actually represents at least a small step in the right direction toward leveling the playing field between public and private sector employees.
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The Million Dollar Question: How is it not a conflict of interest when labor unions give thousands of dollars to politicians who in turn vote on labor contracts for those same unions?
Discuss.
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Minnesota doesn’t have a governor bought and paid for by the ultra right wing Koch Industries which controls much infrastructure in Wisc. and Mn.,i.e. oil refineries and pipelines, pulp mills etc. Their agenda is to return the US to the age of the robber barons of 120 yrs. ago. To do this they have to bust all unions. They are busing in hundreds of Tea Party members which they bankrolled and members of the Club for Growth. Wisc. Gov. Scott Walker, during his campaign, proposed $2.5 billion in various tax breaks for the rich and corporate interests which have already created a larger deficit than would have existed without them. The strategy has been to make up for these tax cuts by going after Badgercare(low income healthcare) and public employee benefits. This is a nationwide corporate ultra rightwing strategy to destroy the middle class.
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OK, color me foolish……I’ll bite:
Pray tell, spearman……why would the “corporate ultra rightwing” want to destroy the middle class?
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For the same reason corporate capital destroys the mc in the 3rd world. Cheap labor reserves. Where have you been? Read Trllateralism by Holly Sklar. The last 40 yr. strategy of transnational corporate capital is to lower the expectations of 1st world pop. to increase citizens perception of the legitimacy of the ruling classes, i.e. the 5% that control 60% of the assets. They want the monkey on our back. IOW If you don’t get educated because you can’t afford it then it is your own fault for not getting a good job not the domestic economy that is controlled by the oligarchy/pluticracy.
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Spearman, your governor is a fool who will be easily manipulated by your corrupt government unions. He would not have been elected to dog catcher except for the privledge of his unearned family wealth to fund his campaigns. Too bad for Minnesota tax payers.
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Now we know you’ve lost it. Without the middle class, who is left to purchase the products of the evil “corporate ultra rightwingâ€? How many thousands of barrels of oil can one man use in a day? And just how many “robber barons” do we have in the US? Spearman clearly hasn’t thought this whole conspiracy thing through to it’s illogical conclusion. But that’s the beauty of a conspiracy, the accuser doesn’t have to prove anything. It’s incumbent upon the accused to defend themselves, but how do you prove or disprove a negative? If you dig into the history of labor unions deep enough, you’ll find that they have their roots in cannibalism. And that their founders are actually alien beings from the planet deadbeat. I read all of this in the Irrational Inquirer, so it has to be true.
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