Voters In Wisconsin Polled – Back Gov. Walker

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“We’ re here metformin side effects 1000 mg for the people.”

That’s a refrain we keep hearing.

In the march of the Dozens on the weekend of the 26th of February, 2011 – we saw an enlightening gathering of, well… some people who were concerned about a “right” that wasn’t even passed through the House, Senate or signed into Law.

Most people probably don’t realize that collective bargaining, which isn’t truly in danger in Wisconsin – not for their PAY most especially – was signed into being federally in an Executive Order by President Kennedy. And then it was revoked by Carter later. The Federal workers have almost no collective bargaining agreement. It’s actually a right to work employer.

This is a situation that has been hyped to death – and the funny thing you don’t hear about in the main stream media – aside from the union thuggery, attacks, threatening behavior and spoiled “I don’t need to sacrifice AT ALL” behavior? That the voters in Wisconsin are all for what the Governor is doing there.

In the, well, few hundred people who protested the Governor’s meeting in Washington – you heard the tired old slogans, but you don’t hear the truth.

People are losing their homes, cars, jobs and the people who want to ride the gravy train don’t care.

Who are the people of the left backing?

Amazingly – the people who aren’t the lower class, but the people who are making the lower class pay more and more of their vanishing incomes to just own a home or buy a car.

Kind of hard to say that companies who are losing money are raping people. GM finally made a profit after almost a decade – so I guess they were charging too much? Making too much profit? Oh  wait. They lost money for most of that same decade.

Where are the costs?

And the people see this for the truth now – they’re waking up.
According to Dick Morris:

WISCONSIN POLL RESULTS

The Dick Morris Poll conducted a telephone survey among 409 likely Wisconsin voters. The survey has a margin of error of +- 4%.

Findings: Wisconsin voters break almost evenly on Governor Walker’s proposed reforms, supporting them by a margin of 51-47.

They support many aspects of the proposal by significant numbers:

VOTERS SUPPORT CHANGING THE BENEFITS TO STATE WORKERS, PAY, AND AUTOMATIC DEDUCTION OF UNION DUES

• By 74-18, they back making state employees pay more for their health insurance.
• By 79-16, they support asking state workers contribute more toward their pensions.
• By 54-34, Wisconsin voters support ending the automatic deduction of union dues from state paychecks and support making unions collect dues from each member.
• By 66-30, they back limiting state workers’ pay increases to the rate of inflation unless voters approve a higher raise by a public referendum.

VOTERS OPPOSE CHANGING COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENTS

On the issue of limiting collective bargaining to wage and benefit issues, however, they break with the Governor, opposing the proposal by 41-54.

If the issues to be taken off the bargaining table are related to giving schools flexibility to modify tenure, pay teachers based on merit, discharge bad teachers and promote good ones, however, they support such limits on collective bargaining by 58-38. [emphasis mine]

ANALYSIS: Voters back the principal of collective bargaining. But they are also willing to limit these negotiations so that they would not impede education reforms. [emphasis mine]

For Governor Walker to prevail, he must focus on his goal of achieving reform in schools. He will not prevail as long as his proposal is essentially negative in nature (i.e. limiting collective bargaining). But if he emphasizes the positive intent that lies behind the proposal (i.e. giving schools the flexibility and freedom to implement education reforms), he will find a solid public majority behind him.

The fact still remains that the voters are backing Governor Walker’s play – the generic collective bargaining agreement aside – when people hear the limits Governor Walker is looking to put on the agreement, they back him by 20%.

Time to realize that 12% of the population is holding the rest of us hostage to higher prices with archaic laws and executive orders that need to be reworked.

Ask the unions – still going strong in Indiana – if collective bargaining going away kills them. It sure didn’t there – and it’s been gone since 2005. Hell – ask the Federal workers where they aren’t allowed to collectively bargain anymore thanks to Jimmy Carter. He repealed the Kennedy executive order.

Same thing in right to work states – and while wages are lower – the lowest costs of living are there as well – which once again proves the point – the lower wage earners actually have more purchasing power in the Right to Work states by far than someone in the Union Shop states.

Time to seriously look at revamping and putting reasonable limitations on collective bargaining and the Wagner Act and freeing up people in Union Shop states to voice their opinion and make a choice without losing their jobs.

Right now – collective bargaining is bargaining between two peoples with the same aims:

• government people who want to give raises to ingratiate themselves to voters
• government union leaders who want the same thing to stay in power

There is no one really representing the taxpayers – no one is willing to tackle this giant.

If the situation were more like this:

• A corporate president was able to appoint himself president of the union and retire from the corporation but still held the corporation in high regard
• A new corporate president who came on board and worked with the old president who is in charge of the union but on the corporate side

there would be hell to pay. There is no way the unions would accept that – and they shouldn’t. A debate, a discussion from two points of view, a negotiation – these are supposed to be done in good faith with both sides representing the side that they are on.

In the government – there is no one really standing tall at the negotiation table. Right now we have an NLRB that is at least 3-2 union, a pro union President and Senate, and an executive order that any Federal job over $25 million dollars must have union workers on it, escalating costs.

We have unions supporting taxes, fees, licenses, tariffs, fines and levies to make sure the government keeps having money to spend on the union workers, and the politicians respond with increases beyond compare, even in bad economies, to pay them back.

We have no Federal politician willing to piss off the 12% union workers by asking them to pony up or shut up. Isn’t about time that the Representatives of the WHOLE people represent the WHOLE of the people?

It’s the responsible thing to do – for ALL the people – not just the 12% who don’t want a pay cut or have to share the load on pensions or health care.

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