I support Walker’s budget. Wade is right on. If public workers think private sector jobs are better, go get them. Why do you stay in your job if it’s so crummy? Nobody in the state has better benefits than you. Fact. Collective bargaining holds the taxpayers hostage…what a sham, you donate money to Dems who keep your gravy train rolling, expecting the rest of us with less to pay for it.
To G – Not sure why you think public sector workers think that private sector jobs are better. With regard to benefits being good or bad, why do you want to drag other people down? Why don’t you want good benefits for all Americans? With your logic, we should all give away whatever assets we have and surrender them to the good of the state. Which sounds eerily like a sham Mao cultural revolution.
With regard to “holding the taxpayer hostage’, the benefits were paid into over years and were bargained as total compensation for these workers. The benefits go into a collective fund that is theirs. It is not something you paid for. As far as the current benefit package goes, there was an immediate reach to compromise when Walker unveiled the Budget Repair Bill, that is, assuming the collective bargaining rights were not dashed out. The compromise unions offered would address the budget shortfall he is talking about. If it’s just about money and not a power grab, the issue would’ve been solved rapidly.
As for donating funds to the Democrats…that isn’t even making sense unless you are hoping to stop any flow of donations to either party–in which case the billionaires would have to quit shoving our democracy around. THAT is not a bad idea – it would give the average person more of a voice.
I’ll be posting some things that address what you bring up. I don’t agree with you, but thanks for coming . Thanks for commenting.
Wow! I actually welled up during that. This video represents the America I love. I am so proud to see people coming together to fight for themselves, instead of letting ourselves be enslaved and drinking the Kool-Aid. Thank you so much for this video – it really gives me hope.
Tate, you need some help with your English skills. Let’s hope others will still have the opportunity for an education. The countries we US citizens compete with put education in an area of higher importance. It’s clear that Governor Walker believes education is not important. It hasn’t been important for him, and I think he’s out to prove, “Who needs an education? You can become governor without one.” People of Wisconsin, wake up! This issue is bigger than you think.”
Wade – You have got to be kidding. Many of the state employees DO NOT belong to a union. We are not rolling in the bucks. In fact, perhaps you do not realize that we haven’t had a real raise in years. Our last 1% raise for cost of living was taken away from us three years ago when we state employees had to acept furloughs – 16 days to be exact over 2 years. That hurt and we did not openly complain. Check web sites mentioned earlier and you will see that WI college professors DO NOT make any where near the salary that private schools do. In fact, teachers at NTC make more than UWMC professors and we have PH D’s in our field of expertise while many of those teachers do not even hold a masters
degree. This deduction in our salary will definitely hurt us and takes away the benefits that are sold to us as a reason why we don’t make the higher paid salaries. Yes, we are civil servants but our health and retirement should be taken care of to supplement our many years of service and reduced wages.
Taking away collective bargaining for those teachers represented by unions will strip them of a voice with their employer and as stated we all do not belong to unions and yet we will suffer because those who belong to unions help to protect the rights of all.
Wake up and show compassion for those of us who give to the service of the state at large.
As a family who lived on a teachers salary for 20+ years. A Masters + 45 was the top of the scale and after 4 years as an insurance agent equaled that pay. This did not require a college education nor did it require the molding of a persons life.
Where have our values gone to think that the bargaining unit of the teachers, firemen, police officers and the rest of the backbone of our country is of no significance?????
Wake up America!!!!!
For “corrupt teachers unions ” ~ I urge you to visit the WI State Department of Public Instruction web site. The DPI collects and posts online salary, experience and other information for more than 100000 Wisconsin. Then compare the incomes for private sector positions with the same education ~ the gap will amaze you. Especially when teachers work over 10+ hour days to meet the needs of our children and their parents. They have some time off for summer break – usually 6 weeks to PREPARE for the upcoming school year.
Government workers growing rich? Do you really think teachers, street crew workers, research assistants and college advisors are rich? Really? I know some who struggle to make payments on their modest houses.
If you think this assault on workers will end with public unions, you are mistaken. This is a calculated political agenda that would make the most corrupt political bosses of the old days very proud. Moderate republicans in the WI House and Senate have been told by the Governor and his hatchet men to get in line behind this “repair bill” or face certain Republican opposition in primaries during the next election.
Tim, I think a personal story from a public employee who has to pinch pennies might be great for the blog. If you can get your friend to leave a comment here – great. Then I can follow up to their email and do an interview or write up a piece. Can do so on an anonymous basis.
I know that a lot of public workers are out there that are nurses assistances, correctional workers, janitors. It simply is not possible for all of these people to be rolling in dough.
Awesome video…love the music…will have to remember Arcade Fire. I’m ashamed of my baby boom generation. This younger generation brings tears of hope to my eyes. They get it, they’re awesome, and I cannot believe the things they are accomplishing through collaboration. This video captures this quite elegantly.
I think ordinary Americans would be willing to make more sacrifices if the wealthy demonstrated their willingness to do the same. They’re not. In fact, they are attacking and blaming the lowest socio-economic tiers of America. The Republicans (and Democrats) keep thinking they “GOT THE MANDATE” to carry out their agendas. They got voted in to attempt to have someone represent the people. Bye Bye Tea Baggers. You are waking the sleeping giant called the center and they’re none to happy. Can you hear them now?
Whens the last time a corporation has come to Wisconsin and set up shop. I can gaurantee not in the last ten years because Wisconsin is one of the worst states to do buisness in with all the hoops and ladders and taxes they have to jump through to even start up in Wisconsin. Gov. Walker is setting up Wisconsin for Jobs and Trying to lower taxes to create a friendly place to start jobs. Read where most of the jobs in Wisconsin are by County. They are in Local Government and Services. We have no jobs to speak of When small communties and schools are hurting and there is no jobs The teacher and county worker still gets thier 6% raise every year no matter what. Most people have to be accountable for there work by showing up every day and getting out production at a cost effective manner otherwise you dont have a job. We are in a world economy its not just Wisconsin. We compete with the World and We have to wake up and be responsible for actions.
Thank you ,,,it is what all workers in this country should be joining in,,,no media coverage at all wisconsin is going to start something big or it would be on the republican media
Wisconsin is the laboratory for the establishment of a plutocratic dictatorship. Governor Scott Walker will, if the Hard Right gets its way, be the first state with a despotic governor who serves a secretive cabal of people who see themselves as the only people who have any claim on the bounty of America. Today it is Wisconsin and Ohio; tomorrow it will be Michigan and Pennsylvania; later it will be Connecticut and New Jersey; later it will be California and New York — at which time America will resemble the sort of places that many of our ancestors fled — like Russia.
Wade (and others that are blindly supporting Walker and the Republican’s agenda)
I wonder what you consider ‘rich’? I have woked extremely hard for the past 19 years, not only to attain my original bachelor’s degree to become a teacher, but for my master’s degree as well to become a more effective teacher. I am a two sport coach AND the middle school athletic director. In addition to that I work through most of the summer teaching six week’s of summer school.
And here is the shocker…I live check to check.
I don’t have additional homes, I don’t have ‘toys’ like ATVs or Snowmobiles, I don’t have hunting land, I can’t afford vacations…I survive. What I make pays my mortgage, my car payments, MY TAXES, puts food on my table, and allows my family of four to have a modest living. I don’t complain about it, But up until now I have done so with dignity, I have done so with rights in the work place. Make no mistake, the argument to this bill is completely about The republicans trying to take those rights and take that dignity as a worker.
The GOP governor of Wisconsin is just doing what the GOP leaders around the country want him to do. They want him to break unions so as to eliminate any organized oppositions to Republicans running for office in this country in the future. Then they can have thei rich corporate friends give unlimited campaign funds to them, thanks to the US Supreme Court decision allowing unlimited campaign funding by corporations. I don’t call that democracy!
The fight here is for the rights of all to bargain for the wage/earnings contract. This is why unions were formed originally. Ever heard of sweatshops? Child labor? Read any Dickens? My husband always has worked in the private sector and he has always bargained for his compensation. I realize that this has not been the case lately in the U.S. BUT do not blame the unions for that. Blame the corporations that want more and more and more. They are currently sitting on BILLIONS of dollars, but aren’t hiring, because they can take advantage of the current global crisis. Wisconsin is not in deep budget despair despite the hype. Walker wants to flex his muscle over the educated probably because he himself does not have a degree. To me his lack of education seems painfully evident just by the why he has tried to change WI law without even notifying those who would be affected. This fight is about principle. Wisconsin has always been a very principled state and that’s why I love it. I hope it never changes.
“We the Taxpayers – We the Taxpayers” I have heard or read this so many times it makes me wonder if these “Tax Payers” believe they are the only ones paying taxes in this State. It’s as if they do not think that all the demonstrators and Gov. Workers don’t also pay taxes. WAKE UP PEOPLE it is not about how much our Gov. employees are paying for insurance &/or pension. It is about the rights of WI workers. If this Repair Bill passes in it’s current form all workers union and non will be effected. They will all become slaves to big business and it will not end in WI. I am retired and a taxpayer and urge everyone to stop pointing fingers and call our Representatives and urge them to vote no on current bill. Ask Gov. Walker to please find a way to repair budget without removing our rights.
Richard Hedtke
Combined Locks,
How much do you really know about the Food Guide Pyramid?Ever wonder why the people in our country have continued to balloon in weight since the implementation of the Food Guide Pyramid in the 1980’s?Why would the USDA and The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) continue to recommend eating guidelines that clearly aren’t working for us more..
According to Rachel Maddow’s research, Wisconsin is projected to have a budget surplus this year. This is about union busting, not budget balancing. If Wade is concerned about corruption, he need look no further than the Republican party.
To Wade: the problem is not that public employees have collective bargaining protections, the problem is that THE REST OF US DO NOT! The safety net for the rest of us has been systematically stripped away, our earnings have eroded, our health care has become unaffordable. This is not the fault of the folks with unions – it is because the powers that be want it that way. Let’s put the blame where it is: the very wealthy and the corporations of this country do not want to pay THEIR fair share, and do not want the common man to cease to struggle. If we all had enough to eat and could pay our bills easily, we might just have enough time and energy to pay attention to the actions of those who purport to lead this country.
Gov Scott Walker is doing what he was elected to do. Clean up the corrupt teachers unions and get the Wisconsin government to operate within its budget. Public service is suppose to be just that, a service. Why do so many in Wisconsin government jobs grow rich while the common man struggles to put food on the table? The Governor is doing right!
blue cheddar 
keeep going up!
I support Walker’s budget. Wade is right on. If public workers think private sector jobs are better, go get them. Why do you stay in your job if it’s so crummy? Nobody in the state has better benefits than you. Fact. Collective bargaining holds the taxpayers hostage…what a sham, you donate money to Dems who keep your gravy train rolling, expecting the rest of us with less to pay for it.
To G – Not sure why you think public sector workers think that private sector jobs are better. With regard to benefits being good or bad, why do you want to drag other people down? Why don’t you want good benefits for all Americans? With your logic, we should all give away whatever assets we have and surrender them to the good of the state. Which sounds eerily like a sham Mao cultural revolution.
With regard to “holding the taxpayer hostage’, the benefits were paid into over years and were bargained as total compensation for these workers. The benefits go into a collective fund that is theirs. It is not something you paid for. As far as the current benefit package goes, there was an immediate reach to compromise when Walker unveiled the Budget Repair Bill, that is, assuming the collective bargaining rights were not dashed out. The compromise unions offered would address the budget shortfall he is talking about. If it’s just about money and not a power grab, the issue would’ve been solved rapidly.
As for donating funds to the Democrats…that isn’t even making sense unless you are hoping to stop any flow of donations to either party–in which case the billionaires would have to quit shoving our democracy around. THAT is not a bad idea – it would give the average person more of a voice.
I’ll be posting some things that address what you bring up. I don’t agree with you, but thanks for coming . Thanks for commenting.
Your video made me cry.
Thank you, this has been a long time coming.
Keep the momentum going! So proud of the Wisconsin public workers!
Wow! I actually welled up during that. This video represents the America I love. I am so proud to see people coming together to fight for themselves, instead of letting ourselves be enslaved and drinking the Kool-Aid. Thank you so much for this video – it really gives me hope.
Tate, you need some help with your English skills. Let’s hope others will still have the opportunity for an education. The countries we US citizens compete with put education in an area of higher importance. It’s clear that Governor Walker believes education is not important. It hasn’t been important for him, and I think he’s out to prove, “Who needs an education? You can become governor without one.” People of Wisconsin, wake up! This issue is bigger than you think.”
Wade – You have got to be kidding. Many of the state employees DO NOT belong to a union. We are not rolling in the bucks. In fact, perhaps you do not realize that we haven’t had a real raise in years. Our last 1% raise for cost of living was taken away from us three years ago when we state employees had to acept furloughs – 16 days to be exact over 2 years. That hurt and we did not openly complain. Check web sites mentioned earlier and you will see that WI college professors DO NOT make any where near the salary that private schools do. In fact, teachers at NTC make more than UWMC professors and we have PH D’s in our field of expertise while many of those teachers do not even hold a masters
degree. This deduction in our salary will definitely hurt us and takes away the benefits that are sold to us as a reason why we don’t make the higher paid salaries. Yes, we are civil servants but our health and retirement should be taken care of to supplement our many years of service and reduced wages.
Taking away collective bargaining for those teachers represented by unions will strip them of a voice with their employer and as stated we all do not belong to unions and yet we will suffer because those who belong to unions help to protect the rights of all.
Wake up and show compassion for those of us who give to the service of the state at large.
As a family who lived on a teachers salary for 20+ years. A Masters + 45 was the top of the scale and after 4 years as an insurance agent equaled that pay. This did not require a college education nor did it require the molding of a persons life.
Where have our values gone to think that the bargaining unit of the teachers, firemen, police officers and the rest of the backbone of our country is of no significance?????
Wake up America!!!!!
For “corrupt teachers unions ” ~ I urge you to visit the WI State Department of Public Instruction web site. The DPI collects and posts online salary, experience and other information for more than 100000 Wisconsin. Then compare the incomes for private sector positions with the same education ~ the gap will amaze you. Especially when teachers work over 10+ hour days to meet the needs of our children and their parents. They have some time off for summer break – usually 6 weeks to PREPARE for the upcoming school year.
Support staff
Fox cities
Government workers growing rich? Do you really think teachers, street crew workers, research assistants and college advisors are rich? Really? I know some who struggle to make payments on their modest houses.
If you think this assault on workers will end with public unions, you are mistaken. This is a calculated political agenda that would make the most corrupt political bosses of the old days very proud. Moderate republicans in the WI House and Senate have been told by the Governor and his hatchet men to get in line behind this “repair bill” or face certain Republican opposition in primaries during the next election.
Tim, I think a personal story from a public employee who has to pinch pennies might be great for the blog. If you can get your friend to leave a comment here – great. Then I can follow up to their email and do an interview or write up a piece. Can do so on an anonymous basis.
I know that a lot of public workers are out there that are nurses assistances, correctional workers, janitors. It simply is not possible for all of these people to be rolling in dough.
Awesome video…love the music…will have to remember Arcade Fire. I’m ashamed of my baby boom generation. This younger generation brings tears of hope to my eyes. They get it, they’re awesome, and I cannot believe the things they are accomplishing through collaboration. This video captures this quite elegantly.
I think ordinary Americans would be willing to make more sacrifices if the wealthy demonstrated their willingness to do the same. They’re not. In fact, they are attacking and blaming the lowest socio-economic tiers of America. The Republicans (and Democrats) keep thinking they “GOT THE MANDATE” to carry out their agendas. They got voted in to attempt to have someone represent the people. Bye Bye Tea Baggers. You are waking the sleeping giant called the center and they’re none to happy. Can you hear them now?
Whens the last time a corporation has come to Wisconsin and set up shop. I can gaurantee not in the last ten years because Wisconsin is one of the worst states to do buisness in with all the hoops and ladders and taxes they have to jump through to even start up in Wisconsin. Gov. Walker is setting up Wisconsin for Jobs and Trying to lower taxes to create a friendly place to start jobs. Read where most of the jobs in Wisconsin are by County. They are in Local Government and Services. We have no jobs to speak of When small communties and schools are hurting and there is no jobs The teacher and county worker still gets thier 6% raise every year no matter what. Most people have to be accountable for there work by showing up every day and getting out production at a cost effective manner otherwise you dont have a job. We are in a world economy its not just Wisconsin. We compete with the World and We have to wake up and be responsible for actions.
Here is the document appraising the financial situation in Wisconsin before Gov. Walker decided to gut the rights of public employees.
Click to access 2011_01_31Vos&Darling.pdf
No where does it mention the shortfall that Walker mentions in his proposed bill.
For those of you who think that public sector employees are over-compensated in comparison to prviate sector.
http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/6759/
Thank you ,,,it is what all workers in this country should be joining in,,,no media coverage at all wisconsin is going to start something big or it would be on the republican media
Wake up, Americans!
Wisconsin is the laboratory for the establishment of a plutocratic dictatorship. Governor Scott Walker will, if the Hard Right gets its way, be the first state with a despotic governor who serves a secretive cabal of people who see themselves as the only people who have any claim on the bounty of America. Today it is Wisconsin and Ohio; tomorrow it will be Michigan and Pennsylvania; later it will be Connecticut and New Jersey; later it will be California and New York — at which time America will resemble the sort of places that many of our ancestors fled — like Russia.
It’s 1776 in Wisconsin!
WOOOOOO!!!!
KEEP IT UP!
Wade (and others that are blindly supporting Walker and the Republican’s agenda)
I wonder what you consider ‘rich’? I have woked extremely hard for the past 19 years, not only to attain my original bachelor’s degree to become a teacher, but for my master’s degree as well to become a more effective teacher. I am a two sport coach AND the middle school athletic director. In addition to that I work through most of the summer teaching six week’s of summer school.
And here is the shocker…I live check to check.
I don’t have additional homes, I don’t have ‘toys’ like ATVs or Snowmobiles, I don’t have hunting land, I can’t afford vacations…I survive. What I make pays my mortgage, my car payments, MY TAXES, puts food on my table, and allows my family of four to have a modest living. I don’t complain about it, But up until now I have done so with dignity, I have done so with rights in the work place. Make no mistake, the argument to this bill is completely about The republicans trying to take those rights and take that dignity as a worker.
The GOP governor of Wisconsin is just doing what the GOP leaders around the country want him to do. They want him to break unions so as to eliminate any organized oppositions to Republicans running for office in this country in the future. Then they can have thei rich corporate friends give unlimited campaign funds to them, thanks to the US Supreme Court decision allowing unlimited campaign funding by corporations. I don’t call that democracy!
The fight here is for the rights of all to bargain for the wage/earnings contract. This is why unions were formed originally. Ever heard of sweatshops? Child labor? Read any Dickens? My husband always has worked in the private sector and he has always bargained for his compensation. I realize that this has not been the case lately in the U.S. BUT do not blame the unions for that. Blame the corporations that want more and more and more. They are currently sitting on BILLIONS of dollars, but aren’t hiring, because they can take advantage of the current global crisis. Wisconsin is not in deep budget despair despite the hype. Walker wants to flex his muscle over the educated probably because he himself does not have a degree. To me his lack of education seems painfully evident just by the why he has tried to change WI law without even notifying those who would be affected. This fight is about principle. Wisconsin has always been a very principled state and that’s why I love it. I hope it never changes.
“We the Taxpayers – We the Taxpayers” I have heard or read this so many times it makes me wonder if these “Tax Payers” believe they are the only ones paying taxes in this State. It’s as if they do not think that all the demonstrators and Gov. Workers don’t also pay taxes. WAKE UP PEOPLE it is not about how much our Gov. employees are paying for insurance &/or pension. It is about the rights of WI workers. If this Repair Bill passes in it’s current form all workers union and non will be effected. They will all become slaves to big business and it will not end in WI. I am retired and a taxpayer and urge everyone to stop pointing fingers and call our Representatives and urge them to vote no on current bill. Ask Gov. Walker to please find a way to repair budget without removing our rights.
Richard Hedtke
Combined Locks,
How much do you really know about the Food Guide Pyramid?Ever wonder why the people in our country have continued to balloon in weight since the implementation of the Food Guide Pyramid in the 1980’s?Why would the USDA and The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) continue to recommend eating guidelines that clearly aren’t working for us more..
It’s not that public employees don’t have to make shared sacrifices. It’s HOW the governor is doing it.
He’s not negotiating. That goes against principles of fairness and dignity for the workers.
The Unions are standing up for their dignity to be treated fairly as people.
According to Rachel Maddow’s research, Wisconsin is projected to have a budget surplus this year. This is about union busting, not budget balancing. If Wade is concerned about corruption, he need look no further than the Republican party.
Woo! Thanks for posting this!
To Wade: the problem is not that public employees have collective bargaining protections, the problem is that THE REST OF US DO NOT! The safety net for the rest of us has been systematically stripped away, our earnings have eroded, our health care has become unaffordable. This is not the fault of the folks with unions – it is because the powers that be want it that way. Let’s put the blame where it is: the very wealthy and the corporations of this country do not want to pay THEIR fair share, and do not want the common man to cease to struggle. If we all had enough to eat and could pay our bills easily, we might just have enough time and energy to pay attention to the actions of those who purport to lead this country.
HELL YEAH!!!!
DON’T GIVE UP!
DON’T GIVE IN!
That. Was. Awesome!!!
Encore! Encore!
Gov Scott Walker is doing what he was elected to do. Clean up the corrupt teachers unions and get the Wisconsin government to operate within its budget. Public service is suppose to be just that, a service. Why do so many in Wisconsin government jobs grow rich while the common man struggles to put food on the table? The Governor is doing right!
Shared! & thanks for the coverage and the bedtime music.
You really captured the spirit here beautifully. Thank you!!!