BREAKING: UPDATE 1-Federal judge rules
Wisconsin's union reforms constitutional
Reuters - September 11, 2013 By Brendan O'Brien
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/11/usa-unions-wisconsin-idUSL2N0H724L20130911
MILWAUKEE, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Wisconsin's collective bargaining reforms, which
prompted strong protests from organized labor, do not violate the free speech
and equal protection rights of public sector union workers, a federal judge
ruled on Wednesday.
The reforms, passed in 2011 by Republican lawmakers, severely limit the
bargaining power of public sector unions while forcing most state workers to
pay more for benefits such as health insurance and pensions. They also made payment
of union dues voluntary and forced unions to be recertified every year.
The laws sparked efforts to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and
some Republican lawmakers who voted for them. Walker survived a recall election last year.
Federal Judge William Conley in Madison wrote in his ruling that the First
Amendment grants public employees the right to free speech and association, but
does not grant them collective bargaining rights.
The reforms, which do not apply to public safety workers, do not violate
equal protection rights of workers because the government has the right to set
wages and benefits for individual workers based on performance and skills,
according to Conley. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/11/usa-unions-wisconsin-idUSL2N0H724L20130911
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Governor Walker's Victory Spells Doom For Public Sector Unions ...
Op/Ed 6/05/2012 Bill Frezza, Contributor
http://www.forbes.com/sites/billfrezza/2012/06/05/governor-walkers-victory-spells-doom-for-public-sector-unions/
Public
sector unions have reached their high water mark. Let the cleanup begin as the
red ink recedes.
Despite a last-minute smear campaign accusing Scott
Walker of fathering an illegitimate love child, the governor’s recall election
victory sends a clear message that should resonate around the nation: The
fiscal cancer devouring state budgets has a cure, and he has found it. The
costly defeat for the entrenched union interests that tried to oust Walker in retribution for
challenging their power was marked by President Obama’s refusal to lend his
weight to the campaign for fear of being stained by defeat. We’ll see how well
this strategy of opportunistic detachment serves in the fall as Obama reaches
out to unions for support.
This fight is not without precedent. Progressive patron
saint Franklin Delano Roosevelt—who more than any other president set our
country on a course away from the founding principles of limited government—knew
that public sector unions would be the death of the social welfare state he
worked so hard to create. Hence, he consistently opposed allowing government
employees to unionize. Today, Greece
sets the example of what happens when public sector unions gain the upper hand.
In 1959 Wisconsin
became the first state to allow collective bargaining by government employees.
The projected cost of supporting Baby Boomer union retirees now threatens to
bankrupt the state, as it does many others. Scott Walker ran for office
promising change. The fiscal medicine he is administering may be bitter, but it
looks like it is starting to work. The state budget has been
balanced. The unemployment rate has been dropping and is now below the
national average. Property taxes are down. Fraudulent sick leave policies—which
allowed employees to call in sick and then work the next shift for overtime
pay—have been ended. The government has stopped forcibly collecting union dues
from workers’ paychecks.
Best of all, the myth that union bosses represent their
members’ interests has been exposed as a lie. Now that union dues are
voluntary, tens of thousands of union members have stopped paying them.
Membership in the Wisconsin chapter of the
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union (AFSCME) has
dropped by half. Membership in the state’s American Federation of Teachers
(AFT) is down by over a third. Given unions’ influential role in most
elections, the national implications of this trend are staggering.
Walker’s message is clear: The key to bringing balance back to public sector
labor relations and balance state budgets is to break the iron triangle of
closed-shop mandatory unionization, compulsory dues collection, and oversized
campaign donations to politicians that promise to do the unions’ bidding. If
other governors take his cue and take up the cause, that giant sucking sound
you hear will be the air coming out of union bosses’ bloated political action
budgets.
The work in Wisconsin
is not complete. The controversial law exempted police and firefighters, a
political concession to get the legislation passed. Federal courts have zeroed
in on this anomaly, striking down certain sections of the law because they do
not treat workers equally. This needs to be repaired— by rescinding the
exemption for public safety workers. With the recall election behind him, Walker may be
sufficiently emboldened to do just that.
The power of private sector unions was long ago broken by
many heavily unionized companies going bankrupt. While this was painful for
both workers and shareholders, the economy motored on as nimbler non-union
competitors picked up the slack. This approach is problematic for the public
sector because bankrupt state and local governments cannot be replaced by competitors
waiting in the wings. Yes, citizens can always vote with their feet, emptying
out cities like Detroit, leaving the blighted wreckage behind.
But isn’t Walker’s
targeted fiscal retrenchment less painful than scorched-earth abandonment?
Chicago machine candidate Barack
Obama rode into office to the tune of Hail to the Chief,
promising the unions that backed him the gift of card check elections, ending
the secret ballot that shields employees from union intimidation. He may well
ride into retirement to the tune of On Wisconsin as the era of closed
shop unionism comes to an end.
Bill Frezza
is a Boston-based writer and venture capitalist. You can find all of his
columns, TV, and radio interviews here. If you would like to have
his columns delivered to you by email, click here
or follow him on Twitter @BillFrezza.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/billfrezza/2012/06/05/governor-walkers-victory-spells-doom-for-public-sector-unions/
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