Wisconsin was among the first states to enact a comprehensive law giving labor unions the right to organize and bargain for public-sector workers, back in 1959. It's also the birthplace of the nation's largest public-sector union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which was founded in Madison in 1936.
Could Wisconsin now become the first union state to undo its laws requiring collective bargaining with government unions?
That tantalizing possibility was raised last week by Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, who campaigned on a pledge to reduce public employee compensation costs in fighting the state's deficit.
Could Wisconsin now become the first union state to undo its laws requiring collective bargaining with government unions?
That tantalizing possibility was raised last week by Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, who campaigned on a pledge to reduce public employee compensation costs in fighting the state's deficit.
Walker wants government employees to begin contributing 5 percent to
their pensions (to which they now contribute nothing) and 12 percent to
their health benefits--and as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported
last week, if concessions aren't forthcoming, he says he'll consider a
range of options from decertification of unions "all the way through
modifications of the current laws
in place."
"The bottom line is that we are going to look at every legal means we have to try to put that balance more on the side of taxpayers and the people who care about services," Walker said.
The new governor, a Republican, was known for his hard-line stance towards unions when he was Milwaukee County Executive. He'll now be working with a Republican-controlled Legislature, so the idea of ending or significantly modifying the state's public-sector public-sector bargaining is not as far-fetched as it may sound. At the very least, he can seek to prohibit collective bargaining of health benefits and pensions, which would allow the Wisconsin Legislature to make unilateral changes once current contracts expire. (Even New York's union-friendly Taylor Law prohibits bargaining of pensions.)
Wisconsin state and local employees don't have to belong to unions, but if they work in positions covered by contracts, they pay union dues through an agency-shop fee skimmed from their paychecks by the government. The same deal exists in most states that have passed public-sector Little Wagner Acts giving unions a right to negotiate a wide range of compensation and working conditions.
The unions aren't giving up without a fight. From the Journal Sentinel: "Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle and outgoing Democratic leaders in the Legislature are working to pass 2009-'11 worker contracts in a lame-duck session, which Walker says would block him from achieving savings through cuts to union benefits, at least until the contracts expire in June."
"The bottom line is that we are going to look at every legal means we have to try to put that balance more on the side of taxpayers and the people who care about services," Walker said.
The new governor, a Republican, was known for his hard-line stance towards unions when he was Milwaukee County Executive. He'll now be working with a Republican-controlled Legislature, so the idea of ending or significantly modifying the state's public-sector public-sector bargaining is not as far-fetched as it may sound. At the very least, he can seek to prohibit collective bargaining of health benefits and pensions, which would allow the Wisconsin Legislature to make unilateral changes once current contracts expire. (Even New York's union-friendly Taylor Law prohibits bargaining of pensions.)
Wisconsin state and local employees don't have to belong to unions, but if they work in positions covered by contracts, they pay union dues through an agency-shop fee skimmed from their paychecks by the government. The same deal exists in most states that have passed public-sector Little Wagner Acts giving unions a right to negotiate a wide range of compensation and working conditions.
The unions aren't giving up without a fight. From the Journal Sentinel: "Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle and outgoing Democratic leaders in the Legislature are working to pass 2009-'11 worker contracts in a lame-duck session, which Walker says would block him from achieving savings through cuts to union benefits, at least until the contracts expire in June."
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