Scott Walker and Collective Bargaining

[John Simkin]

The hard-line Republican governor, Scott Walker, has pledged to remove collective bargaining rights from public sector unions and cut local government workers’ health benefits and pension entitlements.

Polls carried out last week showed 53% were against cutting benefits and pay for government workers and 61% opposed to removing collecting bargaining. This is not surprising as collective bargaining is an important aspect of a free society. As far as I am aware, it has only been removed in communist, fascist or military dictatorships.

[Guest Tom Scully]

Elections have consequences, and last November, the majority who voted in Wisconsin cast votes resulting in the removal of their own advocacy. I guess they were complacent in doing this because, after all, the bottom 80 percent in the U.S. still own 12 percent of total private wealth, so why should they worry about what they are actually voting in favor of, yet?

Now, the working class and their allies have to attempt to claw back some of what they so casually voted away from themselves.

http://www.htrnews.com/article/20110219/MAN0101/102190683/Crowd-swells-to-40-000-on-4th-day-of-protests-in-Madison?odyssey=tab|mostpopular|text|FRONTPAGE

Crowd swells to 40,000 on 4th day of protests in Madison

Feingold, Jackson add support to demonstration against Walker's bill

3:11 AM, Feb. 19, 2011 ...

http://www.defendwisconsin.org/

3/3 – March, Rally, Press Conference to Stop Walker’s Attacks on Wisconsin

– March 2, 2011Posted in: Announcements

MARCH 3 • THURSDAY

5:00 PM • Funeral Procession From Library Mall to the Capitol

5:30 PM • Rally and Press Conference, State Street side of the Capitol

STOP WALKER’S ATTACKS ON WISCONSIN

No Cuts or Concessions!

MARCH 3 • THURSDAY

Read the comments in reaction to news coverage of a 23 year old beauty pageant winner who was evicted from her home with her mother, as a consequence of her father's recent death from prostate cancer and her mother's heart attack and resulting denial of insurance payment, inability to work, and $800 monthly cost of medicines.

In right wing America, the 23 year old girl receives the vitriol of the indoctrinated because they view her as lazy and failing to prioritize her endeavors. The comments paint a picture of a country where the mindset of the majority is to fully support the elite class and their propaganda and agenda.

http://today.newsvine.com/_news/2011/02/25/6131159-homeless-miss-colorado-anyone-can-fall-victim-to-this#c51977893

This story makes me sick. Blair attended the Art Institute of Colorado where it is over $45,000 a year to attend and has one of the nation’s top placement programs for careers. When she was featured on the Colorado news it showed her working on a $2800.00 Mac computer. On a normal day when Blair is around town you will see her wearing $300.00 boots, new hair extensions and top notch clothing. Most 23 year olds are out working, paying rent and trying their hardest to get where they want to be. Blair for the past 4 years has competed both in the Miss Colorado America and Miss Colorado USA pageant each year. Each pageant has an entry fee of nearly a thousand dollars. Why was she competing for 2 pageants a year when she could have been paying her rent? If you were to ask many former Miss Colorado’s I bet you they would say it’s a shame that a girl like Blair is using her title to get handouts when most of them worked hard to pay for things while representing their state. Miss Colorado USA 2008 is an entrepreneur and almost lost her clothing store that she started due to hard times during her reign and yet she didn’t use her title to get her a handout. Miss Colorado 2009 was a broke working college student who went into debt to make her way to Miss USA, Miss Colorado USA 2007 was a full time student who managed to work, volunteer and pay her way to Miss USA, Miss Colorado 2010 comes from a low income farm family and did everything she could to get sponsors to help her to Miss USA. At 23 you are an adult, making the choice to pay rent instead of playing is the responsible choice.

Edited March 2, 2011 by Tom Scully

[John Simkin]

Elections have consequences, and last November, the majority who voted in Wisconsin cast votes resulting in the removal of their own advocacy. I guess they were complacent in doing this because, after all, the bottom 80 percent in the U.S. still own 12 percent of total private wealth, so why should they worry about what they are actually voting in favor of, yet?

My figures are slightly different from you. In 2007 official statistics show that just 1% of Americans own 42.7% of all financial worth. The next 19% own 50.3%. In other words, the bottom 80% own only 7% of all financial worth. I would imagine that the US is the most unequal society in the world.