Why Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker must succeed.

With all the unrest in the Middle East some have not realized that an equally important battle is happening in Madison, Wisconsin where the newly elected Governor has attempted to surpass Chris Christie and go directly for the jugular.  Walker and the GOP controlled State legislature are seeking to significantly curtail the power of the teacher unions and that has evoked unimaginable responses from both the teachers and the Democrat legislators opposing the proposal.  The proposal itself is rather modest:

The state Senate and Assembly are expected to vote as soon as Thursday on Gov. Scott Walker's plan to end collective bargaining for all state, county and local workers except for police, firefighters and the State Patrol.

Walker's plan would make workers pay half the costs of their pensions and at least 12.6 percent of their health care premiums. State employees' costs would go up by an average of 8 percent. The changes would save the state $30 million by June 30 and $300 million over the next two years.
Unions could still represent workers, but could not seek pay increases above the Consumer Price Index unless approved by a public referendum. Unions also could not force employees to pay dues and would have to hold annual votes to stay organized.

So municipal workers and teachers are being asked to essentially operate and act like the private sector.  Although unlike the private sector, they are still being asked only to contribute a portion to their very own pensions, but are also being promised that no layoffs or pay cuts will occur!  I bet many in the private sector would love for a deal like that. 

The real anger stems from the teachers who stormed the Capitol Building (while calling in sick) and put up signs equating Walker with Hitler.  It has now become standard operating procedure for angry liberals to accuse the opposition of being Nazis despite the fact that the analogy makes no historical sense what so ever.   Walker is trying to break the strangle hold on bargaining and allow the Government to do the only thing that Government is supposed to do; deliver the maximum amount of services for the least amount of money.   Quite a vastly different scenario from Nazi Germany where the central government mandated controlled and planned wages/contracts/business ventures/etc.  Mind you Walker is not banning or busting unions, he simply wants the State to have the ability to negotiate!!

Collective Bargaining (CB)

This of course brings up the issue of collective bargaining, what is it and should we get rid of it.  As of now, a vast majority of States have chosen voluntarily to implement CB.  Some states allow for a mix and five states have outright banned it.  What Walker is doing is not unprecedented, but here is a visualization (source).

There is a big different in allowing private companies to CB as opposed to public ones.  As some astute bloggers have pointed out, even one of the most liberal presidents of all time recognized the danger of public unions being allowed to CB.  Here is what FDR had to say about this, keep in mind that it was under FDR that unions across the country became so powerful.

“Meticulous attention,” the president insisted in 1937, “should be paid to the special relations and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the Government….The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service.” The reason? F.D.R. believed that “[a] strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to obstruct the operations of government until their demands are satisfied. Such action looking toward the paralysis of government by those who have sworn to support it is unthinkable and intolerable.”

What FDR basically said, if we give public unions the power to CB they will hold the Government hostage!  In other words, public unions with the power to CB amounts to extortion.  CB mandates that a state MUST negotiate with the public union and MUST accept *some* deal no matter how bad it is or risk having the union shut down essential services.  In this situation the state and the tax payers lose while the unions gain.  In a scenario where the primary objective is to deliver quality low cost services public unions turn the entire situation upside down.  This is a monopoly at it's worst, where the customer gets the least amount of work done for the highest amount of cost. 

This is not a repudiation of the individuals involved in the union, many of whom can be hard working diligent people, this is a repudiation of the union - whatever union this may be.   States should have the option to negotiate with whomever they wish and more importantly, public workers should have the option of abstaining from the union in the first place something very difficult to accomplish these days.

Setting a precedent

If Walker succeeds and it looks like he might, despite Democrat lawmakers clearly in violation of their sworn duties (see Wisconsin Democrats hiding in Illinois) then this will create a wave through the country where the general public can finally push back against the pathetically obvious contradiction of organized public labor.  With public pensions threatening to wipe out State budgets and local/state taxes going up across the country the only way to restore fiscal sanity is to make sure that public workers operate exactly under the same rules and obligations as the rest of us.   As of now, public employees receive special treatment in virtually every state and use union money to beat back and destroy any private initiative that attempts to protect the tax payer.   One essential ingredient behind restoring America's fiscal health is the significant reduction in the scope and power of public unionism.