THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Detroit! (Applause.) Thank you, Michigan! (Applause.) Oh, this is a --
AUDIENCE: Four more years!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you, everybody. It is --
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. Thank you.
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The videos are from an interview (aired just a few minutes ago) with Robert Bobb, the Detroit School District's Emergency Financial Manager, and conducted by Carolyn Clifford, a reporter for the local ABC affiliate in Detroit.
Presented without comment.
Part 1
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In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as 'right to work'…Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining by which unions have improved wages and working conditions of everyone.…Wherever these laws have been passed, wages are lower, job opportunities are fewer and there are no civil rights.
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Trust me when I tell you that this is the most tangled web you have ever seen in your life.
Since 2005, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy has urged reforms to Michigan law giving more power and protection to emergency financial managers, state-appointed officials who parachute into ailing cities or school districts and employ drastic measures to fix budgets on the brink of collapse. In January, the free-market-loving center published four recommendations, including granting emergency managers the power to override elected officials (such as a mayor or school board member) and toss out union contracts. All four ended up in Snyder's legislation.
"The Mackinac Center has been tied at the hip with the Republican Party establishment for years," says Doug Pratt, public affairs director at the Michigan Education Association. "It goes to their funding sources; it goes to their ideology."
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59% of folks in Michigan think that public employees should have the right to collective bargaining while only 32% are opposed, and 49% of voters even favor a state constitutional amendment to guarantee collective bargaining rights while 37% are opposed to such a measure. While union households are obviously the most supportive of collective bargaining, nonunion households support it by a 53/39 margin as well so the voters Snyder is antagonizing on this issue go beyond who you might expect.
LANSING - Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer (D - East Lansing) and House Democratic Leader Rick Hammel (D - Mt. Morris) announced at a Capitol Rally this afternoon that they would be introducing an amendment to the Michigan Constitution to guarantee the right of Michigan workers to collectively bargain, a right many workers feel is currently under attack.
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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
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Let's say you appear at your job tomorrow & your employers inform you that you’ll now be working twice as many hours per week & that you will henceforth receive half as much pay for your labor.
They also inform you that they've already colluded with all the other employers in the country & that they all have agreed to the same policy.
Would you like that?
Do you think that America would like it?
Because that is exactly what the United States would be like if not for “collective bargaining”.... without unions.
Without unions, there would still be CHILD LABOR..
Without unions, there would be no WORKMAN’S COMPENSATION for those injured on the JOB..
Without unions, there would be NO WORKPLACE SAFETY...
Without unions, there would be NO MINIMUM WAGE..
Without unions, there would be NO 40 hour work week..
Without unions, there would be NO OVERTIME…
Without unions, there would be NO "WEEKENDS"..
Without unions, there would be NO paid vacations.. or ANY vacations (if you wanted to KEEP your jobs)
Without unions, there would be NO pregnancy leaves..
Without unions, there would be RACIAL & GENDER discrimination on hiring & pay..
Without unions, there would be NO MIDDLE CLASS..
Without unions, there would be NO AMERICA…
.. and ANYONE who thinks that WITHOUT THEM TODAY, things WOULD NOT REVERT BACK are DELUSIONAL.. just look to the “Rand Pauls” in baggerville and their assertion that CHILD-LABOR LAWS ARE “UNCONSTITUTIONAL”.
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Union busting, disaster capitalism at it's finest. The Michigan Messenger:
Critics argue that the deep cuts in school funding and revenue sharing proposed by Snyder and Republican legislators could push many cities over the brink into bankruptcy, dramatically increasing the number of cities under the control of state-appointed emergency managers that will, after the passage of this bill, have unprecedented and — many argue — unconstitutional powers.
For reference purposes, it may be helpful to note that Rick Snyder is a former CEO of Gateway, the same guy who sold it to the Chinese.
Adding……this is the Michigan House bill that has already passed. And, a quote from Mark Gaffney, president of the Michigan AFL-CIO.
We are Wisconsin on the installment plan, Collective bargaining in Michigan is dying a death by a thousand cuts.
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Then of course, Scarbough goes on to improperly frame the whole issue, but still…..wingnuts should take note when even Scarborough thinks you’re whacked out, you are definitely out there.
Via Bob Cesca
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As the Main Street Movement of students, workers, and other middle class Americans erupts across America, many conservatives have invoked the legacy of former president Ronald Reagan to demand that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) not back down from his push to end collective bargaining for his state’s public employees. In a prank call with the Buffalo Beast’s Ian Murphy, where Murphy pretended to be right-wing billionare David Koch, Walker himself even fantasized about being just like Reagan.
Yet conservatives may be shocked to learn that their idol Reagan was once a union boss himself. Reagan was the only president in American history to have belonged to a union, the AFL-CIO affiliated Screen Actors Guild. And he even served six terms as president of the organized labor group. Additionally, Reagan was a staunch advocate for the collective bargaining rights of one of the world’s most famous and most influential trade unions, Poland’s Solidarity movement.
Founded in September 1980, Solidarity was formed in Soviet-occupied Poland as the USSR’s first free and independent trade union. By 1981, the union had grown to 10 million people and became a powerful force for demanding economic and political reforms within the Soviet Union. Solidarity began to use strikes to demand these reforms, and the Soviets responded by jailing their leaders and cracking down on their right to organize. During his Christmas address to the nation on December 23, 1981, President Reagan condemned the Soviet-backed Polish crackdowns on labor unions, promoting the “basic right of free trade unions and to strike”:
REAGAN: The Polish government has trampled underfoot to the UN Charter and Helsinki accords. It has even broken the Gdańsk Agreement of 1980 by which the Polish government recognized the basic right of free trade unions and to strike.
Continue reading "Ronald Reagan was the President of a Union" »
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He promised to sign legislation if elected governor that prohibits the Legislature from voting after 10 p.m. or before 9 a.m.
Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly approved legislation stripping public employees of their collective bargaining rights, in the face of ongoing protests that have gripped Madison for well over a week. The bill passed at 1:17 a.m., and Republicans only held the vote open for “seconds.” The vote was called while many Democrats were outside the Assembly chamber, preventing them from casting no votes. Only 13 of the Assembly’s 38 Democratic members got their votes in on time.Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) praised the Assembly’s action in a statement.
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Yesterday USA Today made a big splash when the paper released a Gallup poll finding that 61 percent of Americans nationwide oppose Governor Scott Walker's plan to roll back the bargaining rights of public employees. Today Gallup has released a partisan breakdown of those numbers, and it's striking..
Of course Republicans don’t favor collective bargaining rights. They are the party of the oligarchs.
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> We already know that Walker was union-busting for political reasons, and at the Koch brothers bidding, but here’s what he could have done had he really been trying to deal with the budget: "The state's entire budget shortfall for this year -- the reason that Walker has said he must push through immediate cuts -- would be covered by the governor's relatively uncontroversial proposal to restructure the state's debt. By contrast, the proposals that have kicked up a firestorm, especially his call to curtail the collective-bargaining rights of the state's public-employees, wouldn't save any money this year." H/T Steve Benen
> Jeff Cox, the Deputy Attorney General in Indiana who said he wanted to see “live ammunition” used on the Wisconsin protesters was fired.
> Scott Walker lied about campaigning on the collective bargaining issue: “I campaigned on (the proposals in the budget repair bill for Wisconsin) all throughout the election. Anybody who says they are shocked on this has been asleep for the past two years."
> WOO HOO! Indiana kills the bill! Senate leader says right-to-work bill is dead
> Calls to boycott Koch Industries (tea party sugar daddy/founder of fake grass roots movements tea party AND Wisconsin union busting ALSO sugar daddy to Justice Clarence Thomas) growing.
> Four Possible Endgames in Wisconsin
> AUDIO - It’s been confirmed that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has censored internet access in Madison, Wisconsin, by blocking a pro-union website.
> GOP Governors Unite Against Unions
> Feingold Calls On Walker To End His 'Assault On Wisconsin's Traditions'
> UPDATED: Fox Reverses Poll Results To Falsely Claim Most Americans Favor Ending Collective Bargaining
> Indiana Official On Wisconsin Protestors: ‘Use Live Ammunition’
> CONFIRMED: Gov. Scott Walker Pwned By Koch Impersonator – Proves Himself to Be a Whore for the Oligarchs
> Yesterday New Yorkers protested at Fox News Headquarters, angered by their coverage of the Wisconsin protests. via @thinkprogress
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KOCH: You’re the first domino.
WALKER WHORE: Yep. This is our moment.
KOCH: Now what else could we do for you down there?
WALKER WHORE: Well the biggest thing would be—and your guy on the ground is probably seeing this
END QUOTE FROM AUDIO
What a farce our government has become. “By” and “for the people” …..a promise that has become a joke.
A New York-based alt-news editor says he got through to the embattled Wisconsin governor on the phone Tuesday by posing as right-wing financier David Koch...then had a far-ranging 20-minute conversation about the collective bargaining protests. According to the audio, Walker told him:
- That statehouse GOPers were plotting to hold Democratic senators' pay until they returned to vote on the controversial union-busting bill.
- That Walker was looking to nail Dems on ethics violations if they took meals or lodging from union supporters.
- That he'd take "Koch" up on this offer: "[O]nce you crush these bastards I'll fly you out to Cali and really show you a good time."
Koch Whore: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, part 2
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According to pro-labor protesters in Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker (R) may be taking a page from former Egyptian Dictator Hosni Mubarak and cutting off internet access to key protest organizers within the state Capitol building.
If you are in the Capitol attempting to access the internet from a free wifi connection labeled “guest,” you cannot access the site defendwisconsin.org. The site has been used to provide updates on what is happening, where you can volunteer, and where supplies and goods are needed to support protesters. Administrators of the website were notified on Monday that the page is being blocked. Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate says that the site was put on a blacklist typically used to filter out pornography sites so that protestors inside the Capitol could not access this key site.
UPDATE 7:30 EST: Koch Industries Front Group Americans For Prosperity Launches Ad To Support Walker’s Union Busting
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Now Walker is threatening to begin sending out lay-off notices to state employees if they don’t do what he wants. What an asshat.
MADISON, Wis. - Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker warned Tuesday that state employees could start receiving layoff notices as early as next week if a bill eliminating most collective bargaining rights isn't passed soon.
Walker said in a statement to The Associated Press that the layoffs wouldn't take effect immediately. He didn't say which workers would be targeted but he has repeatedly warned that up to 1,500 workers could lose their jobs by July if his proposal isn't passed.
Honestly, I think Walker needs to reassess because I do not think he is going to win this fight.
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But if you do get it, then you realize that this can and should be a magic moment in our history. A moment where we can rise up and show this fetid teaparty army and their plutocratic puppet masters like David Koch and Sheldon Adelson that there is still a strong majority of sensible people in this country who know that a fair society is the only one that will ever survive long term. And this generation of wrecking crew Republicans won't just delay that fair and just society. They will crush out any possibility of there ever being one. At least in this country.
And that would be a sad fail of unparalleled dimension. An easy win will have passed us right by due to our own apathetic lethargy and a mass delusion that all the horrible things happening to us were never quite as bad as they seemed. Our collective will to resist an obvious insurrection of selfishness will have failed to come alive at the very moment that it must, and the American experiment will probably die right here in the lab.
Not only can we win this fight, we must.
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Wisconsin poll finds strong support for public employees: With the standoff in Wisconsin intensifying, the well-respected Dem firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner has released a new polling memo -- bankrolled by unions -- finding strong opposition to Governor Scott Walker's proposal to roll back bargaining rights. Key finding: When read a very detailed explanation of Walker's proposal, 52 percent of Wisconsin voters oppose it, 42 percent strongly so. Meanwhile, 42 percent support it, only 24 percent strongly.
The poll finds that since the standoff began, "Walker has seen real erosion in his standing, with a majority expressing disapproval of his job performance and disagreement with his agenda."
And: "When asked more specifically, 58 percent oppose eliminating collective bargaining, 57 percent oppose reducing wages for public employees and 50 percent oppose reducing pension benefits for public employees." And 59 percent of independents oppose the collective bargaining piece, too.
Read the full poll report here.
Just so you know, Conservatives are making noise about Obama’s support for the protests, with some even talking impeachment, which is, of course, a reach. You can read a couple of these posts here and here. HT Balloon Juice
If you’d like to contribute to the effort to support Democratic lawmakers in Wisconsin while they’re away from the capitol, go here.
My posts on the protests in Wisconsin.
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Have to get some sleep, but I wanted to get this up....it's inspiring and very cool, at that.
One of the most underreported stories about the pro-democracy movement in Egypt was the role of labor unions in the demonstrations, many of which were protesting against neoliberal right-wing economic policies just as much as they were protesting against the Mubarak dictatorship. During the uprising in that country, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka praised the role of organized labor, saying, “The people’s movement for democracy in Egypt and the role unions are playing for freedom and worker rights inspires us and will not be forgotten.”Now, as tens of thousands of union members and other Wisconsin residents are taking to the streets to protest against Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) attempt to abolish collective bargaining rights for most public workers, a leader of Egypt’s largest umbrella group of independent labor unions is praising the Wisconsin movement. In a videotaped statement, Kamal Abbas, the General Coordinator of the Centre for Trade Unions and Workers Services, tells the Wisconsin protesters, “We stand with you as you stood with us.” He says “no one believed” that the revolution against the Mubarak regime would succeed, yet they were able to bring the dictator down within 18 days. He encourages demonstrators to stay strong, saying, “Don’t give up on your rights. Victory always belongs to the people who stand firm and demand their just rights”:
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Hear, hear.
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First of all, just to ensure that we’re on the same page, when I say “paid” in this piece, I am referring to total compensation which includes not only salary, but health care plans, and so forth.
In Wisconsin, which has become a focal point in this debate, public servants already take a pretty hefty pay cut just for the opportunity to serve their communities (Keefe 2010). The figure below shows that when comparing the total compensation (which includes non-wage benefits such as health care and pensions) of workers with similar education, public-sector workers consistently make less than their private–sector peers. Workers with a bachelor’s degree or more—which constitute nearly 60% of the state and local workforce in Wisconsin—are compensated between $20,000 less (if they just have a bachelor’s degree) to over $82,000 a year less (if they have a professional degree, such as in law or medicine).
It is necessary for making true apples-to-apples comparisons to control for worker characteristics such as education in order to best measure a worker’s potential earnings in a different sector or industry. Controlling for a larger range of earnings predictors—including not just education but also age, experience, gender, race, etc., Wisconsin public-sector workers face an annual compensation penalty of 11%. Adjusting for the slightly fewer hours worked per week on average, these public workers still face a compensation penalty of 5% for choosing to work in the public sector.
Adding....According to Stark Reports, the cuts Walker is demanding amount to about $100 per week for public sector workers in Wisconsin. That is one hell of a lot to cut for someone earning $52k, which is what Stark says is the median teacher's salary in Wisconsin.
I mean, when all is said and done, the Governor is reaching into these workers’ pockets and taking out about $100 from every week’s paycheck.
Via Ezra Klein
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