Power to the people

[maypirate]

Regarding the asshole from yesterday, he never ended up calling back, at least not while I was there, and my boss basically said that we would deal with him by saying we'd forget the matter if he promised to never come to the store again. Hooray, everyone wins! Or something.

And now for some politicality.

The atrocious man the rest of the state atrociously elected governor has been trying to lay down some extravagantly atrocious bills, and as a result there's been protests at the Capitol every day this week, which is a whole two blocks from my job. I actually just heard the shouting as a huge mass of protesters marched down State St. It makes me very proud to live in a place that can still be reactionary when the situation calls for it, and god I hope it makes a difference, but I'm still upset and bewildered that this horrible,nasty man was even elected in the first place. I wonder if the people who voted him in who are going to get socked by his awful policies have realized what they've done yet.

And the right-wing media does not approve: Beck Cites WI Protests To Claim That "Evil [Is] Spreading Around The Globe." On the February 16 edition of his Fox News show, Beck stated that protests in Madison, WI, as well as in the Middle East and Mexico are part of "evil spreading around the globe."

It's a sorry day in politics when people standing up for themselves are labeled as "evil," but then again, Glenn Beck is a sorry, wicked man. But I'm proud to be a citizen of a city named alongside Cairo.

Maybe there's still a chance to make a difference.

Comments

[infinityduck.livejournal.com]

My office is half a block from the epicenter of the protests. It's been like a party every day! An angry party, but still.

Also, here's some positive national coverage for a change: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/41613240

[weilide.livejournal.com]

That's odd -- Glenn Beck is usually so measured and incisive…

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

A few of my teachers, friends, and co-workers are at the protest. I wish I could be there with them.

[harukaceles.livejournal.com]

I was there Tuesday and meant to be there yesterday, but had to deal with other things. I'm not even one of the state workers represented by the union, but I'm with the protests. It sucks to have those in charge of the state against you, and then also have so many people who aren't state employees against you because "you have a fluff job and make too much anyway so everyone has to bleed." I understand having to pay more and so forth, but everything about this process and taking away the rights union employees have already fought once for is wrong.

[mikkeneko.livejournal.com]

Well, this is the same movement that labelled organized boycotts as "blacklisting," so what can you do.

[hyperiate.livejournal.com]

Maybe I don't understand...what's wrong with the bill?

[maypirate.livejournal.com]

Aside from the fact that he's a foul man with minimal intelligence who destroyed the opportunity for Wisconsin to have high speed rail (which would have also created about 5000 jobs), there are things like this:

-Republican leaders plan to soon pass a bill that would effectively strip collective bargaining rights from most public workers in Wisconsin

-the governor unveiled a budget repair bill that would remove nearly all collective bargaining rights for nearly all public employees in the state and make it easier for employers to fire workers that engage in some form of labor unrest.

-School officials fear anticipated cuts to K-12 education in Gov. Scott Walker's budget proposal next week could have a "devastating" effect on public education — from up to 85 teacher layoffs in Janesville to a $17.5 million hole in Madison's K-12 budget. (http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/education/local_schools/article_8e1a9c8e-3ab0-11e0-8e4e-001cc4c002e0.html?sourcetrack=moreArticle)

I'm reading up on the impact it would have on the university, since that's where my parents have made and continue to make their livelihood, but the the conclusions I'm seeing is that the bill is unacceptable and would violate principles already set in place.

And maybe I seem naive and don't know all the issues, but as a person who grew up in the Madison school district and has watched excellent teachers suffer brutal wages and now possibly lose their bargaining power, I have to say that even with my own poor wages, I would gladly accept a tax increase to better fund the schools that taught me.

[hyperiate.livejournal.com]

See, I've never quite understood the purpose of unions. Those excellent teachers are paid the same as mediocre teachers of the same seniority because they are considered the same for employment purposes -- the union decides that teachers make this much plus that much for every year of experience. Excellent teachers should earn more than poor teachers but unions prevent that.

Who wouldn't want the ability to market their individual strengths? If I were part of a pool of "29 year old college educated males", paid the same as any other in the group, given the same job opportunities as any other in the group, and so on then I wouldn't have much reason to work any better than anyone else in the group, would I?

[maypirate.livejournal.com]

But the teachers themselves are against this bill. University staff is against this bill. All I'm really saying here is that I'm trying to understand the issues, and support them. The teacher's union in Madison, at least, has always been a very strong and important force, and I'm happy to stand behind them.

[sink-or-swim.livejournal.com]

Unions exist because without them hard working people in the lower class would get stepped on in terms of pay and benefits.

[mikkeneko.livejournal.com]

I've never quite understood the purpose of unions.

Teacher's unions specifically or unions in general?

[hyperiate.livejournal.com]

I'd say teacher's unions moreso than others. As I see it unions have a place in situations where people are completely replaceable at virtually zero-cost.

Someone who sits on a factory line and counts the number of widgets that go by could be replaced by someone else in a heartbeat with no loss of performance because there is a huge supply of labor and little demand. As a result such a job is a race to the bottom in terms of pay, but we have minimum wage laws for that reason. As it is, a union negotiates that person's pay up from a $7/hr minimum wage to a $16/hr + $3/year + pension job that costs the equivalent of $30/year, for which amount they could hire THREE people who are looking for widget counting jobs and get a bonus 300% productivity level to boot.

So in that case Union pay representation benefits the few at the expense of the many. Pay isn't everything, however, and it definitely has a place in terms of negotiating working conditions, settling grievances, etc. When you don't care about retaining someone you can take great liberties with their working conditions and unions rightly should put a stop to that.

I'm more confused by Unions representing people who can be judged on their own individual merit -- good teachers _can_ be identified and targeted for retention (through pay, vacation time, and other incentives). Why would exceptional teachers want to be paid as though they were the average member of their trade? In that case it seems like half of teachers would be underpaid while the other half are overpaid. The only way a majority of teachers would support something like that is if the union made use of their unique ability to strongarm their employer through work disruption in order to increase that pay rate above the average market rate.

For example, if in a non-unionized, free market the average teacher makes $25/hr, new and underperforming teachers make $15/hr, and exceptional teachers make $40/hr, then Union representation saying that everyone will be paid $25/hr is actually pulling down the pay of the top half their members and pulling up the bottom. This is backwards to me -- bad teachers should be fired to make room for those who have the potential to be exceptional and exceptional teachers should be able to earn much more than they do.

But then the Union says, "I know the market rate is $25, but we're going to strike until you pay $30. You can't hire anyone who isn't in the union, and you can't fire all of us, so we can (and it's our fiduciary duty to) really ask for whatever we think you can afford."

And so then you have a majority of the pool who are being pulled up to a higher-than-market rate and only the very best who are still being pulled down. The school district is unable to pay for more teachers (because they are paying $15,000 an hour for 500 teachers instead of $12,500, they can only afford the 500 instead of 600 for the same rate) and working conditions decline as those who are employed are overworked and end up spending more time at home doing their work (guess what that does to their hourly rate?).

Unions can definitely have a place in ensuring consistent working conditions, coordinating people, even settling grievances provided it doesn't result in "unfireable" employees. I just don't see how their collective bargaining power serves the public good, nor how it is a "right" to be "fought for."

[infinityduck.livejournal.com]

Basically, unions raise the standard of living for workers in industries where historically they have been exploited. It's not about holding down exceptional employees, rather about bringing everyone up. Teachers already get paid so little, so imagine what their wages would be like if they weren't unionized.

http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/briefingpapers_bp143/
http://www.ehow.com/about_5401882_labor-unions-needed.html
http://www.howstuffworks.com/labor-union.htm

Granted, for every article in support of unions, there's one against them. It's a hot topic, and I'm glad it's getting national coverage.

Unions are a big thing in America; I don't know why Walker thought he could so callously dismiss them. Did he really think there wouldn't be a fight? Maybe he should go back to college and finish the degree he abandoned after completing only 36 credit hours. I suggest he pay more attention during those history and political science classes.

Yes, I'm bitter. Because I finished MY goddamn degree. :)

[infinityduck.livejournal.com]

In the interest of fairness, here's a highly critical Wall Street Journal article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657704576150111817428004.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

I still hold that, while unions may not be a right, they are a necessary layoer of protection for workers. If unchallenged, business WILL exploit its work force if it can get away with it. See Wal-Mart et al.

...wow, that's a lot of politics. I've become all of my friends from college. x.x

[mikkeneko.livejournal.com]

Unions are a big thing in America; I don't know why Walker thought he could so callously dismiss them. Did he really think there wouldn't be a fight?

Probably he felt that the time was ripe. Neoconservative sentiment is hot right now in America, and the economy is lousy; except rather than making people look towards their own protections, that just helps promote a dog-eat-dog, screw-everyone-else-I-got-mine mentality among the desperate working class. There's also a resurgence of 1950s era anti-communism going around, being used as a tool to discredit and cripple the progressive and human rights movement, covering everything from health care to equal pay standards for women.

You also have a generation that is growing up in America with no memory of what life was like before the unions, or when and why their fathers and grandfathers fought so hard and so desperately for them. See also people who think that "feminism" is a dirty word; since they've lived in a world where women have always had voting rights and always had at least the semblence of equal employment, then they can rest content in their privilege and never have to imagine a world where that isn't so.

Heck, even in race relations this still crops up from time to time, or you wouldn't get people declaring "Racism is over," upon the election of a black man to high office. But at least race issues are still enough in the public consciousness that people know to dismiss such comments as ridiculous. If you try to point out however that women make 75% the pay of men in the same jobs, or that one our of seven women will be raped in their lifetime; or that 1% of our population controls 90% of our wealth and this should be considered a bad thing, you'll simply get laughed out of court.

[infinityduck.livejournal.com]

I completely agree. It would be wonderful if we lived in an America where race issues were obsolete, or workers are not exploited, or there was gender equality. But people need to be reminded that these issues are ongoing, and that they require constant maintenance to keep from regressing.

You might watch this clip from MSNBC and think it's a little too conspiracy theory to be true, but I have a growing feeling that it IS true. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27EN1k4TSao

This isn't about the merits of unions. It's about crippling the biggest competition to conservative political spending. It's about finishing what Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission started.

[mikkeneko.livejournal.com]

Okay.