So I know my international politics, but this has received very little coverage over here. So what's the craic? It sounds really interesting. Disclaimer: I am really into labour rights, so odds are I'm on their side
you can check this vimeo out that talks about whats going on. i sniped it from a friend's page on FB. he's a college professor feeling the crunch himself. http://vimeo.com/20277863
In a nutshell it's big business/corporations trying to union bust under the guise of balancing the budget. Unions (yes I'm in one) are slowly dying here in the states and are the last line of defense from these corporations basically trying to make everyone work for slave wages. Collective bargaining is one of the few tools left. I'm so fucking sick of the conservative right wing nut jobs blaming unions as the problem. How about not giving huge tax breaks to any potential corporations setting up base and selling out every constituency in the continental US?
Great clip, i will repost. I'm a proud union member, my son has full health insurance, I work in a safe environment and everyday I work is a step towards a brighter future. I'd like to think people like Gov. Scott Walker and his supporters are just Illinformed and misguided, but ignorance and spite seems to be the motivating factor which is sad Divided we fall
Yep, same deal in Ohio and it looks like it will pass. Suddenly the pensions of public employees are the reasons for bankrupting the state, not the flow of industry to China , bank fraud etc. It's all some teachers fault. Here they've included Cops and Firefighters unions too. What burns my a$$ is the glenn beck types who are calling the protestors commies etc. We're talking about a bunch of cops and firefighters, probably 75% of them are military veterans who have literally laid their life on the line for their country, and now their communities. Bunch of chicken hawks putting down the people who have actually been in the sh*t. It's a messed up situation, sure budget cuts are needed but these bills have very little to do with the budget, it's all about union busting. Locally it crosses party lines too, our democratic mayor spent an entire year lying about city finances to avoid giving the police officers a one percent raise! One percent ! I wrote my state senator who is a republican Army veteran, he sent back a form letter that basically said he's thinks the bill is needed but the current one goes to far. So that was a tad encouraging. My wife is a state university art history adjunct professor, so it affects our family.
Oh! THAT Scott Walker. I totally "WTF?"d yesterday when I saw a bumper sticker with "Hang Scott Walker" written on it.
I find it pretty sad that all of the revolutions in the middle east get so much coverage yet something like this here in the states get a 30 second clip. Why you ask? Well it's easy, most of the corporations that run the networks are anti union so you know what side they lie with. Also toppling of dictatorships in the middle east is part of that great american tradition of selling 'freedom'. Truth is the corporations running this country can't wait to set up shop there and just see it as another market to tap (with no regulations), and drain them of natural resources. Once you stop looking at the world as a sheltered American and stop believing the spoon fed media here it's pretty easy to read between the lines of everything going on here in the US and abroad. It all boils down to this criteria: what resources do the corporations want, how cheap can the labor force be, how much money is to be made and/or what's our profit margin. All the other rhetoric you hear is just trying to hide this fact. Sad state of affairs
My secret is out comrade... ! One of the things people are saying, thanks to FOX news.. "I'm a tax payer, I pay your salary" followed by "Your benefits are better than mine!" On the surface that sounds unfair, but in reality public employees have negotiated not taking raises in pay in exchange for keeping the benefits untouched. So over the years you have them making less than private employees, but with equal or better benefits. Now all of a sudden they are accused of bankrupting the state/country. Some public employee fields have no civilian counterpart, so how can you compare pay? Of course different studies show different things, one study may say they make more than private, the other less. Depends on who pays for the study... They want to give "merit pay" for teachers, police and fire fighters. How the hell could that be a fair system? A teacher in a bad neighborhood will never get any sort of merit increase, while the nice schools will rake it in. Opposite with cops, bad area + busy = merit pay, nice neighborhood + slow = no pay raises. Again, all of the state's financial troubles are caused more by bad investments, fraud and outright waste. But now everybody who listens to FOX news is riled up into thinking some teacher's pension is the downfall of America, and all unions are socialist commie backed thugs. Anyways, it looks like this stuff will pass here in Ohio. I don't believe the democrats will try to change it if they regain power, as it greatly benefits most urban cities which they usually run. Locally or Democrat mayor has said nothing about it, I'm sure he's all for it.
