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With help from the billionaire Koch Brothers, Wisconsin's new Republican Governor, Scott Walker, is "taking a page from Mubarak's playbook" in a scheme to destroy the state's unions, according to political watchdog group Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
On Friday,Walker announced plans to literally bust unions representing the state's 175,000 public workers--and he's threatened to call out the National Guard to do it.
Under the guise of budget cuts, Walker and his Republican-controlled legislature are set to unilaterally strip workers of collective bargaining rights. Though the measures getting the most press are his proposals to have workers cough up about 6 percent of salary to pay for benefits, the measures go much deeper and have been branded as the most extreme of any sought by any state--so far.
Some of his proposals:
1. Workers would have to vote every year to re-certify their union.
2. No more automatic payroll deductions for union dues; unions will have to collect from each worker individually.
3. Workers can just opt out of paying union dues completely (and unions will still have to represent them, regardless).
4. No more bargaining or contract rights for work rules, such as transfers, vacations, hours of shifts and days off, health and safety, applying for jobs....nothing. Without work rules, Walker and his cronies can put whoever they want into state jobs. The vast majority of work rules are considered "non-economic" items and will have no economic benefit to the state if eliminated.
5. The only thing that could be bargained is wage increases, which even then would be limited to the consumer price index.
So what does all this have to do with the Koch Bros.?
Plenty.
Today the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC) learned and sent out an e-alert about how state Repubs are in collusion to deprive full public comment on the proposals, which the legislature will consider THIS WEEK -- when they weren't even scheduled to be in session!
Among the disturbing revelations is information that one of the Koch's front groups, Americans for Prosperity, got advance notice of public hearings and are organizing busloads of Tea Partiers and other Republicans to attend. Here's the email:
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A Page from Mubarak's Book
E-LERT February 14, 2011
So this is how they think democracy works? Following up on the E-Lert sent this morning, there is important additional information to share.
The Legislature's Joint Finance Committee will be holding a public hearing tomorrow at 10 a.m. in room 412 East in the State Capitol on the proposed budget-repair legislation that takes away worker rights in the name of balancing the state's books.
Trouble is, as of 1:45 this afternoon there still was no mention of the hearing on the schedule of committee activities on the Legislature's public web site. The Democracy Campaign has learned that paper copies of the hearing notice were posted inside the Capitol building earlier today, and legislative leaders claim that satisfies the public notice requirement.
Over the noon hour notices of scheduled votes in the joint finance and joint retirement systems committees were posted on the web site and the finance committee's announcement indicates the committee will vote "upon adjournment of the public hearing" without providing any information about that hearing. Yet a Republican front group called Wisconsin Club for Growth sent an e-mail to its members at 8:45 this morning informing them of the public hearing and indicating that the Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity are paying to bus people to the hearing.
These two groups obviously were tipped off about the public hearing far enough in advance to arrange for bus transportation and set up an online registration system their members can use to sign up for the free bus rides. Yet as of right now there has been no notification for the general public outside of paper copies of a hearing announcement tacked to walls inside the Capitol.
Before Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak was toppled from power, it was widely reported by several news organizations that Mubarak's regime was involved in organizing counterprotests aimed at propping up the discredited government. Taking a page from Mubarak's playbook, those in charge of state government in Wisconsin are feeding inside information about their intentions to friendly groups that in turn are paying to fill hearing rooms with supporters of the regime's plans.
Spread the word by sending this message to people you know. To support the Democracy Campaign's efforts to make people matter more than money, go here.
Wisconsin Democracy Campaign
210 North Bassett Street, Suite 215
Madison, WI 53703
www.wisdc.org
www.impartialjustice.org
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With thanks to my friends at Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons.
