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View Full Version : Wisconsin high court upholds anti-union law



BJJ-Blue
06-15-2011, 11:13 AM
"(CNN) -- Wisconsin's top court Tuesday reinstated a contentious law that curbs the collective bargaining rights of most state employees. Opponents of the law said the fight will now be taken to those who supported it.

The state's Supreme Court, by a 4-3 vote, set aside a ruling by a lower court judge who had placed a permanent injunction against the law. The court ruled the state Legislature did not violate the state's constitution when it passed the legislation.

The ruling was a major victory for Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who pushed for the bill over a chorus of angry teachers, union members and others who said it was an attack on worker rights.

"The Supreme Court's ruling provides our state the opportunity to move forward together and focus on getting Wisconsin working again," Walker said in a statement.

The Wisconsin AFL-CIO criticized the ruling.

"The inability of the Wisconsin Supreme Court to separate partisan politics from the well-being of Wisconsinites is the latest indication that citizens do not have a voice in this state," it said in a statement. "And the only way for Wisconsinites to repair that voice is to take back the Senate this summer, stop Walker's unbridled assault on working people and take back the statehouse in 2012."

Stephanie Bloomingdale, secretary-treasurer of the state AFL-CIO, told CNN recall elections next month targeting six senators is proof citizens are angry about the "anti-worker legislation."

Protesters returned to the state Capitol in Madison on Tuesday, some wearing recall T-shirts.

The law, which sharply curbs the collective bargaining rights of most state employees, sparked an extremely heated, high-stakes political fight. Republicans insist that the measure is necessary to control skyrocketing public employee benefit costs and close a $137 million budget shortfall. Democrats argue that it is little more than an attempt to gut public-sector labor unions, one of their core constituencies."

Source: (complete article)
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/06/14/wisconsin.collective.bargaining/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1

This is great for 2 reasons. 1) We will see that this saves Wisconsin's taxpayers alot of money and will be a big factor in balancing their budget. 2) All those spreading doom-and-gloom scenarios if this law went into effect will be proven right or wrong. They made predictions, now we get to see if they were correct or just fear-mongering.

Lee Chiang Po
06-17-2011, 07:07 PM
American labor unions were initiated by young communists, bringing the labor unions to America to protect the masses from exploitation by the large industries. However, they lost that effectiveness years ago when the wage and hour laws came into being, child labor laws, and OSHA. It is not like we are not protected at the work place as equal to the labor unions. Today they are just extortionist that force industry to pay ever increasing wages, which in turn runs a tight circle bringing everyone effected by it to raise their own wages and thus making the dollar worth less and less. A new automobile today costs an average of 29,000 bucks. Average. In the 60's I bought a brand new ford off the showroom floor for 3500 bucks. Not cheap, but a full years wages at that time. The difference in materials today from then is only the cost, which is all labor. Thanks to the labor unions. They are also corrupt. On most docks you must pay for a job along with being a card carring union member. Once you get that job paid for, your job is again in jeapardy because it will likely be sold to another union member. Then there is the mob. We need to dump every labor union out there and let our economy recover if it can. I personally think it is far too late.

David Jamieson
06-18-2011, 12:02 AM
no point in kvetching about it. the law is passed it seems, so that is that...