Everyone should be aware of the Labor Struggle in
Wisconsin the birth place AFSCME International where it split from AFGE. There has been much talk about the issue of Collective Bargaining Rights for Public Employee Labor Organizations. However,
this is not what the real issue is at the root of this blatant misleading struggle as portrayed by the media. In politics I have learned always to look deeper at any Political Campaign that comes in the form an apparent truth and as a savoir, protector and enforcer of rights. Its very easy to be mislead by these type of campaigns because it uses as it hook something that maybe true and people can indentify with. Almost all of us love a good drama when some great good seeks to expose the bad or evil empire.
Proper understanding of the Collective Bargaining concept will allow anyone to see through this marketing campaign which has come across as a blatant effort to mislead the public.
Collective Bargaining has to be tied to an issue. It does not exist unless there is an issue to be bargained. The issue in
Wisconsin is centered and based on your BENEFITS. Your employer wants the right to determine benefits, cost of benefits to employee and/or employer. For example, your employer decides it wants to increase your insurance premium by 50% they want do so without bargaining. Their entire marketing campaign is based on demonizing public sector workers as over paid, lazy and expendable. Despite their insistence on building a negative campaign against Public Sector Employees, we all know for a fact the same people hating on Unions are either gladly living off the benefits (that your employer aim too curtail) or will with open arms accept a good government union job.
Another area where more control is sought is in the area of pensions and retirement programs. You employer wants to set the terms of retirement contributions. A great example of this would be a notification from your employer that it will no longer contribute to your retirement account. Your hard earned benefits and the cost associated with those benefits is the issue. Your employer seeks to strip your right to NEGOTIATE YOUR BENEFITS. This is of concern to us here because D.C. is one of the few jurisdictions that allow us to negotiate a compensation agreement every three years. If the opposition is victorious that will throw up in the air many benefits we take for granted. Stay tuned fore more post on this topic. Next post will go into the media hype campaign against the Unions.
And never forget, for the Union haters, your very own US Constitution is based on the concept of
Union. The preamble of the US Constitution plainly states "WE THE PEOPLE, IN ORDER TO FROM A MORE PREFECT
UNION".
