Unions and the Wisconsin Governor

[guido911]

Aren't they the cheeseheads?  Living up to their name all right.

Get off the back of the unions already.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Nice try.  But another swing and a miss.

[Red Arrow]

I did not realize Wisconsin was Poland:

There are a LOT of people of Polish descent in WI.  According to Wikipedia, WI has the largest percentage of Polish of any of the states.

[Conan71]

Cheese heads and block heads, eh Red?

[guido911]

Are we talking about those wusses that took their pitiful marbles and went home rather than do what they were elected to do?

[Gaspar]

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The Iowa House has approved a bill that overhauls the state's collective bargaining law and reduces workers' negotiating rights.

The bill now goes to the Senate, where it is not expected to pass. Republicans who support the bill control the House, while Democrats have a majority in the Senate.


The Iowa Senate Democrats don't seem to be fleeing the state.  Probably because everyone is looking the other way. 

[RecycleMichael]

Who would want to leave Iowa?

"Wisconsin - Smell our Dairy Air"

[Gaspar]

[Gaspar]

Other states have now followed suit. 

* OHIO: Ohio's bill goes farther than Wisconsin's, prohibiting collective bargaining for 42,000 state workers plus 19,500 college system workers. For local governments, bargaining with unions representing some 300,000 workers including police, firefighters, and public school teachers, the bill takes healthcare and some other benefits out of the negotiating process. It denies them the right to strike.
The bill passed the Senate March 1. The Ohio House of Representatives will hold at least one more week of hearings on the bill, according to the spokesman for Republican speaker William G. Batchelder. A date for a vote has not been set. Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich has said he supports the measure.

* IDAHO: The Idaho state legislature has approved a bill to limit collective bargaining by public school teachers. The measure restricts collective bargaining to salaries and benefits, removing from negotiations such provisions as class sizes, teacher workload and promotions. Republican Governor Butch Otter was expected to sign it into law quickly.

* IOWA: The state House of Representatives is debating a bill curbing collective bargaining rights for public workers that was passed by the labor committee. The bill would exclude health insurance from the scope of collective bargaining, along with other changes. Democrats who control the Senate said they do not intend to bring the bill up for debate.

* MICHIGAN: Both chambers of the Michigan legislature have approved measures to give the state emergency powers to break union contracts to revive failing schools and cities. There are slight differences between the bills passed by the two chambers which must be reconciled. New Republican Governor Rick Snyder has said he supports the measure.

* INDIANA: Republican state lawmakers are pushing several measures that curb organized labor influence. The state Senate passed a bill that will narrow the scope of public school teachers' collective bargaining rights. The measure still needs to be approved by the state House, but House Democrats have left the state to deny votes on bills they say restrict workers' rights. One bill would create a state-wide school voucher system.

* NEW HAMPSHIRE: A right-to-work bill that refers only to public sector workers prohibits collective bargaining agreements that require employees to join labor unions. It also says that no public employee union is required to represent employees who elect not to join or pay dues. It passed the House and next goes to the Senate. Both legislative bodies have Republican majorities, but Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, has said he does not support the bill.

* KANSAS: The Kansas House has passed a bill that would outlaw employee payroll deductions for union dues and political action committees.

* TENNESSEE: A Republican-backed state bill would end teachers' rights to negotiate their working conditions with boards of education through collective bargaining. The bill has passed through the Senate Education Committee.

* OTHER STATES: Limits on public worker collective bargaining have been introduced in several other states as of last week, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. These include Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Washington, Alaska and Arizona.

[Gaspar]

The DOJ is now investigating death threats including this email sent to all Republican members of the Wisconson house. 


Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your familes
will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks. Please explain
to them that this is because if we get rid of you and your families then it
will save the rights of 300,000 people and also be able to close the deficit
that you have created. I hope you have a good time in hell. Read below for
more information on possible scenarios in which you will die.

WE want to make this perfectly clear. Because of your actions today and in
the past couple of weeks I and the group of people that are working with me
have decided that we've had enough. We feel that you and the people that
support the dictator have to die. We have tried many other ways of dealing
with your corruption but you have taken things too far and we will not stand
for it any longer. So, this is how it's going to happen: I as well as many
others know where you and your family live, it's a matter of public records.
We have all planned to assult you by arriving at your house and putting a
nice little bullet in your head. However, we decided that we wouldn't leave
it there. We also have decided that this may not be enough to send the
message to you since you are so "high" on Koch and have decided that you are
now going to single handedly make this a dictatorship instead of a
demorcratic process. So we have also built several bombs that we have placed
in various locations around the areas in which we know that you frequent.
This includes, your house, your car, the state capitol, and well I won't
tell you all of them because that's just no fun. Since we know that you are
not smart enough to figure out why this is happening to you we have decided
to make it perfectly clear to you. If you and your goonies feel that it's
necessary to strip the rights of 300,000 people and ruin their lives, making
them unable to feed, clothe, and provide the necessities to their families
and themselves then We Will "get rid of" (in which I mean kill) you. Please
understand that this does not include the heroic Rep. Senator that risked
everything to go aganist what you and your goonies wanted him to do. We feel
that it's worth our lives to do this, because we would be saving the lives
of 300,000 people. Please make your peace with God as soon as possible and
say goodbye to your loved ones we will not wait any longer. YOU WILL DIE!!!!
Reply Reply to all Forward

I'ts unfortunate if this letter came from a Wisconsin teacher, not only because of the threat, but because of the massive number of misspelled words!   

[Townsend]

I'm guessing it was written by the Governor's Chief of Staff to garner support.

[we vs us]

They're still protesting in Madison.  85-100k showed up yesterday. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/12/wisconsin-protesters-refu_n_834927.html

[Red Arrow]

They're still protesting in Madison.  85-100k showed up yesterday. 

They should be glad they are in Madison and not Libya.

[joiei]

The DOJ is now investigating death threats including this email sent to all Republican members of the Wisconson house. 


Do you have a link for this?

[heironymouspasparagus]

That is exactly the kind of thing Karl Rove has orchestrated repeatedly over the years.  Dirty tricks.  Probably has O'Keefe doing a film of it.