Friday, February 18, 2011

As Wisconsin goes, so goes the nation?

What's all the hubbub about in Wisconsin? Why have demonstrating public employees pretty much shut down the state?

The surface reason is because of the huge budget cuts the republican governor and the republican controlled legislature have made.

So you might reasonably ask, if the state is in such dire straits, what are they supposed to do? Don't the public employees realize they need to make concessions in wages and benefits and be happy they have jobs?

No, because the budget cuts in and of themselves are not the real issue. The real issue is the state's move to make illegal collective bargaining for all except for the police and fire fighters.

Collective bargaining is huge. It amounts to a person's right to organize and have a negotiating team bargain for them.

The state's effort amounts to union busting. No matter where you stand on unions, people have the right to organize. No government entity has the right to deny that right.

How this plays out in Wisconsin is going to have enormous, far-reaching consequences. If they succeed, every other state in the country will attempt the same thing.

If that happens, a big chunk of our democracy will have withered away and died.

Not a good situation. Bares watching.

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