Wisconsin Speaks, Public Unions Lose…Again
Last night was Wisconsin’s “Super Recall Tuesday” and the whole country watched with baited breath. Six Republicans faced Democrat challengers in race to control the state Senate. Public employee unions and other Democrat voters had hoped to win at least three seats, flip the Senate and wrest control away from the GOP with the ultimate goal of blocking Governor Scott Walker’s controversial budget slashing efforts. Of the six Republicans up for recall, four survived their challenges: Sens.Rob Cowles of Allouez , Sheila Harsdorf of River Falls, and Luther Olsen of Ripon. Senator Alberta Darling of River Hills won over Rep.Sandy Pasch (D-Whitefish) in a tight race that was originally called by the press for Pasch, but had to be amended as late night returns came in from traditional Republican strongholds.
With unions reportedly spending over $30,000,000 on the recall efforts, many in Wisconsin and around the country were concerned that the grassroots efforts that began in that state in 2010 – and ultimately made WI one of the more prosperous states in the union, currently – would be overturned, and the state might return to its fiscally unsustainable ways. However, the voters were undeterred. In one county, more voters turned out for the recall than did the Governor’s election. Moral, financial, and new media support poured in from all areas of the country. Americans seemed to realize that as Wisconsin goes, so may the rest of the Republic.
The battle for the Wisconsin senate has captured the entire country. It has become a symbol of the national battle between big government and individualism – a battle that many fear has consequences that will spell doom or success for the very future of the nation. With four of the six seats by the GOP, Wisconsin has officially beaten back this latest challenge to democracy. Next Tuesday brings another recall election, however the incumbents are Democrats. The results at that time will have no affect on control of Senate, but do represent an opportunity for Republicans to recover their losses from last night. Sources report polling is close and it could be another tight race.
Wisconsinites and others around the country are breathing a sigh of relief today, but the battle is most certainly not over yet. The amount of money and labor that poured in to Democrats from outside public employee unions and groups, including President Obama’s Organizing for America, is a sure sign that public employee unions are committed whole-heartedly to maintaining the status quo in the fiscal health of this nation. There are still challenges and accusations to be made, and even if Wisconsin finally puts this latest round of political maneuvering behind them, the front will only move to other states who are facing the same situations. Vigilance is key. The battle for Wisconsin may be coming to a close, but the war for the future of America rages on.
These union members are typical of the left in America these days where they “want” and are unwilling to “give up” anything like the rest of us are doing. We’re cutting back. We’re tightening our belts. But they aren’t willing to give up a dime in pay or benefits. Look at what the unions gave up when the auto makers were going bankrupt….nothing! They were making demands at a time when there was nothing left to give them. Besides they had taken everything the corporation could reasonably give them.
This is the reason why I have always been against unions. When I took jobs that were union I joined the union under protest. They didn’t care about what I felt, all they wanted was my money in dues. They made no concessions for me, I HAD to give up money to them. My question to them was, “Are you going to provide me with matching unemployment compensation if I get laid off?”. They said no, that they would help me a little bit with my utilities if I got a shut off notice but they couldn’t help me with my bills. Those were my responsibility, besides, they said, you need to keep yourself out of debt just in case you do lose your job so that it’s not so hard on you. Really? “Well”, I said, “What am I paying all those dues for then?”, “What do you do with all my money?” They said that was their business, besides, the union needs money to operate and alot of the dues are for that.
So I had a job as long as I had a job. That was their opinion. Well, I could give the same guarantee to myself! I could go get a job with good pay, good inexpensive health insurance, good working conditions, and paid holidays. What more could anyone want? But I know, because I have been laid off more than once, and they never tell you why. I worked for the commercial airlines for six years, with a year in business for myself working on general aviation. I had nothing to do with the decision the airline made to go out of business, and we never really found out why the airline made that decision. But 645 people lost their jobs in one day. It happens even to union jobs. So what is the difference these days union job or non union job? These days there isn’t much of a difference between companies that have unions and those that don’t have unions.
Back in the 1920’s when unions first came to America, there were guilds before that but they didn’t have much to do with how the company ran their business. It was the advent of the union in Russia my Lennin that stuck their noses right in the middle of how companies ran their businesses. As far as it goes, unions forced the companies to pay people higher wages, better working conditions, and better benefits mainly days off instead of working people seven days a week with no pay for being sick, or days off for holidays. All that came from unions impact on corporate America. At the time it was what helped create the “Middle Class” in America. It gave these working people the ability to buy things for themselves like cars, houses, sewing machines, refrigurators, better clothes, shoes, make up, a nice clock sitting on the night stand to wake up by, and such things as that. Those people who’s pay had gone up considerably by being in the unions created a whole range of new businesses that catered to this new “Middle Class” worker blossoming in American society. But did the Communists leave once their job was done? No, as a matter of fact they dug in even deeper into the lives of the worker, the business of the corporations, and then stepped into the very thing that could be used to control all of that, the government. They’ve been there ever since.
There is no need for unions these days because America has changed for the better. We don’t have sweat shops anymore, or dingy dark factories that were more of a death trap than a place to work and build things. These days we have well lit, well paid, well managed, well benefited, places to work where they understand the value of the worker. And I know there is the attitude of some businesses that believe the America worker is to expensive to hire and take care of. Well, I’ll tell you what then. You companies that have that attitude have two choices the way I see it. You can cut our pay, but then you have to pay for everything you were providing to us that you figure in our “real” pay, you know you’ve heard it, like how much the company pays us an hour to go on vacation, how much our insurance costs to the company if they were to figure that cost in pay and all that other crap. And no, I have never run a company, but I’ve had it explained to me. If you are making, let’s just say for the sake of conversation, $ 8.00 an hour. After the company figures in all the costs to provide us with all those benefits it actually comes to $15.00 an hour if we were paying for it all. Well then I suggest that the company either pays us the $15.00 an hour and let us go out and find our own health insurance and what other benefits the company thinks we cost it. Or cut the pay a dollar an hour from the $8 to $7 an hour, but the company pays for everything it costs US! We don’t pay doctor bills no matter how high they are or what’s wrong with us, they pay for all sick days no matter how many, they pay for day care expenses, they just pay for everything we have to try to pay on the measly $8.00 an hour. Yeah, yeah, I can hear it now, “The union could get all that for you!” No, they couldn’t. Because they haven’t even been able to get that for themselves from companies that are having to tighten their belts. And now we’re back to why the union won’t tighten it’s belt.
Unions are like the Blacks in Great Britain who think they are “entitled” to doing whatever they want to do. Yeah, and just watch what Blacks get from all that “freedom” they are taking for themselves. The unions are of the same attitude.