A Mountain Reflection: Cutting Union Cheese in Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s state animal, the badger, is a critter known for its fearless tenacity. When attacked, it refuses to back down.
A Mountain Reflection: Cutting Union Cheese in Wisconsin
CONTINUED PROTEST: Protesters demonstrate outside the office of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker during his fireside chat at the Wisconsin State Capitol Feb. 22, in Madison. (Eric Thayer/Getty Images)
2/23/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/Wisconsin_109353967_2.jpg" alt="CONTINUED PROTEST: Protesters demonstrate outside the office of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker during his fireside chat at the Wisconsin State Capitol Feb. 22, in Madison. (Eric Thayer/Getty Images)" title="CONTINUED PROTEST: Protesters demonstrate outside the office of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker during his fireside chat at the Wisconsin State Capitol Feb. 22, in Madison. (Eric Thayer/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1807844"/></a>
CONTINUED PROTEST: Protesters demonstrate outside the office of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker during his fireside chat at the Wisconsin State Capitol Feb. 22, in Madison. (Eric Thayer/Getty Images)
Wisconsin’s state animal, the badger, is a critter known for its fearless tenacity. When attacked, it refuses to back down.

Gov. Scott Walker seems to have badger blood in him, standing firm on all aspects of his budget repair proposal.

“We’re not going to compromise on the principle of balancing our budget,” Gov. Walker said in a recent interview with The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. “We can’t turn to higher taxes; that would cripple the economy.

“Instead, we’ve got to make sure we make the tough decisions. But I think people respect that. It’s certainly what they elected me to do.”

Monday marked the beginning of a second week of protests in Wisconsin’s state capital, Madison. Tens of thousands of protesters carrying signs and shouting slogans crammed into the streets and inside the Capitol.

Union supporters and public sector employees are said to be behind the protests, with the issue being Gov. Walker’s proposal to end collective bargaining for unions, wages the exception.

“What’s Disgusting? Union Busting” was the chant heard in the Capitol Monday, according to a Detroit Free Press report.

Media reports were generally supportive of the protesters. But the perception that this protest is one of Wisconsin citizens reacting to a governor’s proposal doesn’t tell the whole story.

Media reports, Internet bloggers, and other sources reveal not grass-roots spontaneity, but an organized influx of out-of-state unions and progressive groups who have seized the opportunity.

Organizing for America (OFA—formerly Obama for America), a group formed to elect President Obama in 2008 but now rallying to “support the president’s agenda” and “the president’s approach on the big issues facing our nation,” is one group backing the protests.

“To all our labor brothers and sisters, to all of our public worker friends. We stand with you and we stand strong,” stated a Feb. 21 Tweet from Madison, on an OFA community blog.

President Obama himself has framed Gov. Walker’s proposed budget reductions as an “assault on unions.”

‘Vicious Cycle’

So why is the governor firm on reducing unions’ collective bargaining power? Gov. Walker, in his Heritage interview, states that collective bargaining does not allow state and local governments flexibility in union negotiations, when trying to make cuts over here to save jobs over there.

Walker also claims that forcing public sector employees (even nonunion members) to pay union dues funds the unions’ collective ability to lobby for more government spending, describing it as a “vicious cycle.”

This stream of union money is what’s really at stake, says the governor.

“Really, these national [union] leaders coming in don’t care so much about their [union member] rights, as much as they care about the money,” Gov. Walker states. “And the money they really want is the money that, right now by law, each of those workers are forced to pay to the local union, which ultimately streams up to the inter-nationals, in Washington and across the country.”

As for budgets, many states have reached a point where underfunded pension plans cannot be sustained. The money promised for these payouts is simply not there; it was spent a long time ago.

We’re now in the era of tough (and sometimes unpopular) choices, and the repercussions of bloated bureaucracies and entitlements.

And no one wants to wind up in California’s shoes.

Wisconsin is a microcosm of what we all will face to some degree in the near future. If Gov. Walker succeeds, a stronger wave of fiscal conservatism will pass through state legislatures, and into the elections of 2012.

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