Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Who will speak for the little guy?

Thank You Huffington Posts' Sally Kohn for this.....
What's happening in Wisconsin isn't about budget deficits or government spending or even public employee benefits. It's class war, wherein the big business, conservative Right tries to pit working class Americans against one another so that the super-rich can continue to pilfer our private and public coffers for their own boundless gain. Here are the facts you need to know -- and spread:
1. 60% of Wisconsin's largest corporations pay ZERO taxes
According to the Institute for Wisconsin's Future, in 2007 60% of corporations in Wisconsin with over $100 million in annual revenues paid zero taxes. None. Zip. Zilch.

2. Raising corporate taxes in Wisconsin to the national average would generate $1 BILLION in revenue

By comparison, Gov. Walker's union busting bill will "save" a measly $350 million (that is, if you consider lowering the income and security of a core group of tax-paying workers "saving" money...).

3. Cutting taxes on corporations and the rich created state budget crises.

States do not have a spending problem. They have a revenue problem. The recession caused all tax receipts to be lower, but government revenue was artificially suppressed long-before by tax cuts for the big business and the rich pushed through at both the federal and state levels. But with Wall Street tycoons still raking in big bonuses while the rest of us stagger and suffer, anger against big business might reach a boiling point... unless private sector workers can be pitted against public sector workers in a "blame government" charade to diffuse anger from the rightful target.

4. Gov. Walker and the attack on unions are paid for by anti-government Koch brothers

David and Charles Koch, scions of the second largest private corporation in the United States, know how to get a good deal for their dollar. Do you really think the brothers who fund the anti-government, pro-big business Tea Party really give a damn about Wisconsin's deficit? They are using Wisconsin in their larger play to destroy all unions, further strip all workers of benefits and decent wages, and increase power and profit for a very few, very large corporations like their own. The Koch brothers are among Gov. Walker's top political contributors.


It's so plain to see, so easy to understand!! Why are the rightie, teabagger, conservative, democrat haters, so blind??
This morning I listened to my Gov. Chris Christie on Morning Joe talk about unions in NJ. He ALMOST had me believing his bull but I had a second cup of coffee and came to my senses. This effort to abolish unions and silence the middleclass worker is un-American.  Who will protect the factory worker, the teachers, the janitors, the police and firefighter who puts his life on the line every day? The big corporations who republican governors can thank for their elections surely don't want unions in this country backing democrats, so this is how they begin the process of killing the democratic party, kill off the organizations who put dems in office.
Now let me say this, I do believe union workers should contribute to their healthcare costs, they should contribute more to their pensions, but they should not have their voices silenced.

Did I ever tell you my husbands story? He worked for a small town company that grew to be a world wide manufacturer of flooring, Mannington. He was a welder/millwright and worked for this company just like his grandfather before him. He was there for 15 years. This company claimed to care about their workers but was not gonna let any union come in and poison the minds of their workers. One night myhusband was called to work at 2 am. He went in, performed his job and even stayed all night and his shift the next day. After not receiving the over time pay he deserved he started asking questions. When he was repeatedly told he would not get that pay he did not back down and was subsequently fired for insubordination. When he went to his friend the boss, the plant founders son, he begged for his job back but was given no mercy. You talk about humiliation, it's hard for me to even write about it... Anyway myhusbamd was accused of trying to form a union or something to that effect, and it wasn't true but when he told his story to the Labor Relations board they immediately took the case. He won I guess you could say, but it was a tiny settlement,  he should have taken the bastards to court! So, if the plant had a union representing the workers rights, he would still be there today and retiring in a few yrs. This is just one of the reasons we have unions, without them the MIDDLE CLASS HARD WORKER gets shit on by the big guy every fuckin time!

Thanks for listening...

22 comments:

okjimm said...

good post. good information. News just out... from HuffPo

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/22/walker-unions-wisconsin-protests_n_826908.html

Walker's Union busting may COST Wisco $46MM

... challenges in the courts may be viable, too. A just settled Case will cost the state $500,000 when he illegally replaced Union workers in Milwaukee County with private contractors.

Malcolm said...

Sorry to hear about what your husband went through. Although unions aren't perfect (what is?), they are vital to this country. It's crazy how working-class conservatives have been suckered into being anti-union.

By the way, did you see this:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_wisconsin_budget_unions

Hey Governor, does the word "punkd" ring a bell?! It'll be interesting to see how the right-wing media/blogosphere tries to spin this. Knowing them, they will probably ignore it as if it didn't happen.

Sue said...

thanks jimm, I thought it was good info too. I'll check out the link tonight.

Malcolm I saw that punked phone call, I'm looking forward to how FOX spins it!

okjimm said...

FYI.... prank phone call 'could' put him in legal trouble, thouigh I doubt it...

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/wisconsin-scott-walker-koch-prank

..knives have been drawn...Wowzers.

The Prophet Dervish Z Sanders said...

In a prior thread Will said, "And, yes, if this fellow's goal is to try and bust the unions then I condemn him for that". What's with the "if". Walker IS trying to bust the unions, as confirmed by this article from the AP... (the prank phone call story).

On a prank call that quickly spread across the Internet, WI Gov. Scott Walker was duped into discussing his strategy to cripple public employee unions, promising never to give in... Walker believed the caller was conservative billionaire David Koch, but it was actually a liberal blogger.

The two talked for at least 20 minutes — a conversation in which the governor described several potential ways to pressure Democrats to return to the Statehouse and revealed that his supporters had considered secretly planting people in pro-union protest crowds to stir up trouble...

The governor's plan would strip most public employees of their collective bargaining rights and force them to pay more for their health care and retirement benefits. Unions could not collect mandatory dues and would face a vote of its members every year to stay in existence.

On the call, Walker said he expected the anti-union movement to spread across the country... "this is our moment" [Walker said]. ...Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie confirmed that it Walker's voice on the call". [end article quote]

It's so plain to see, so easy to understand!! Why are the rightie, teabagger, conservative, Democrat haters, so blind??

Beats me, although I SO agree with you about them being blind. According to an article in the Conservative publican "Human Events", The Demands of the Irresponsible, the protestors in Wisconsin are part of the "I won't pay" movement. These "idealistic freeloaders" (according to the article) won't pay for their benefits -- you know, the ones they negotiated for, and accepted less pay in exchange for.

Will thinks workers getting together and negotiating for pay and benefits is "collective brutishness"...

Jerry Critter said...

Just wait. Someone is going to say "It doesn't matter. Corporations don't pay taxes anyway."...which of course is right-wing bullshit.

Dave Dubya said...

With only very few exceptions, nobody speaks for the little guy. That was the unions' job, until fascism took hold in Amerika.

Hugh Jee From Jersey said...

Quite a personal story about you and your hubby, Sue. If anyone thinks that America would be better off without the labor movement, I'd say that person is either (a) naive (b) stupid (c) a Republican or (d) two or more of the previous responses.

And if you need a history lesson on life without unions, check out the story of The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory and the tragedy from 100 years ago that will be remembered next month. It seems to be the aim of the Right to create a "take it or leave it" plutocracy, a dictatorship of the corporation that will control the elective process....if it isn't doing so already.

Dwight Eisenhower must be spinning in his grave.

I wonder what these rightie SOB's want to do about the first Monday in September....rename it "God Bless All Things Corporate Day"?

Sue said...

I will definitely watch the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory...it's on PBS, maybe the reason the right wants to stop funding public tv?? ;-)

Thanks guys!

(O)CT(O)PUS said...

Sue,
FYI, there is a top post from Rocky at the Zone and midway is an update about an investigative report I have working on for almost 2 years. It is about how the GOP busted an airline pilot union and tried to steal the pension fund of it members. Pls. have a look.

Jeanette said...

Sue,
Your husband's experience though painful then and even now was like millions of other workers who have lost their jobs to greedy corporations. The struggle to form unions has been long and bloody. But because of what he went through, your are who you are today, someone who has a deep understanding of the working class.
My father paid his way through college, working for the Santa Fe railroad in Kansas as an engineer/fireman. He studied labor relations and became a labor mediator, but he never forgot his background when he was in negotiations; he remembered his mother, my grandmother, who was a nurse and raised him alone for most of the years he was growing up. And in our house, we were brought up to believe in the right of people to organize and to bargain collectively. And my mother always looked for the union label when she bought our clothes. I see that respect for unions coming back. I see thousands of young people in Madison standing with workers at the Capitol and getting a real Labor Studies education. And like the motto of Wisconsin "Forward", we will keep going Forward, Not Backward!

okjimm said...

ok... I share this at Shaw's place....Wisco workers are currently working under what amounts to a %3 pay reduction and DO pay for their own benefits....

links added... feel free to use this anyway you can...

This is pure union busting in Wis....State Workers DO PAY for their benefits, follow the link... and have already accepted, under the previous budget, a pay reduction.....


gees, here's another link.... I do not have time to summarize.

http://www.tax.com/taxcom/taxblog.nsf/Permalink/UBEN-8EDJYS?OpenDocument


plus...they have approx a 3% pay reduction for two years under a previous budget......
The Governor’s furlough mandate, established in response to the State’s projected budget shortfall, requires an effective cut in pay for all full-time, 12-month employees equivalent to 16 days over the two-year period July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2011. The resulting furlough time off (FTO), required by the Governor and approved by the State Legislature, is required for all State and University employees, regardless of the funding sources used for their individual salaries and benefits. The mandatory furloughs result in a 3.065% annual pay reduction.

http://www.uwsa.edu/furloughs/

Sue said...

Thanks Octo I will, I did read rocks great post this week too BTW.

Thanks for that look into your family Jeanette! My cousin! We are who we are and SO PROUD too!!

jimm thanks for the links, you have been a great help in giving us all a first hand look inside Wisconsin!

Anonymous said...

I grew up in a very pro union extended family and I cannot help but realize that for 30 years we have followed the supply side economics principles, we have bought into the ideas of free markets and yet nothing that was promised has occurred...

We not only do not have better jobs but actually have fewer shitty jobs. Our standard of living for the country as a whole has been stagnating....

We are worse off not better...

Its time to change course and its time somebody stands up for the little guy because the big guys that have done quite well over the last 30 years don't give a damn about the little guy....

Sue said...

http://www.alternet.org/economy/150034/the_media_isn%27t_telling_you_that_wisconsin_public_workers_pay_for_100_of_their_pensions_and_health-care/

jimm have you used this link anywhere? Great read at Alternet.

Sue said...

You're right TAO. The union haters really believe those workers EARN TOO MUCH and take from taxpayers for their benefits and wages. Read the Alternet article and see how Wisconsins union workers pay 100% of their benefits and pensions. The right wingers led by the Kochroaches are out to fuckin steal these pensions!!! This story is never ending and gets dirtier and dirtier. Our country is full of the most corrupt thieves who want to steal from the working class to give to the rich!! This is insane! If we dare say America is corrupt we get vilified, but it is the truth!

Lisa said...

Oh yes the little guy.


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yzQ78HXN-94/TWUhQ2i8IJI/AAAAAAAAADY/cZz9jR4CXT0/s1600/Un-Love%2BTriangle.jpg

Lisa said...

One of my customers bought a union in years ago and they nearly ruined their business. They had to get rid of them or lose their doors.

okjimm said...

Well... as long as Lisa brought up triangles....
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKdMuVu1wi8

Bill said...

Sorry about your husband's story Sue. I have kind of the opposite. I've been a contract worker for the state of Illinois for years, but now with our newly elected Governor and his need to pay off the unions that supported him, they've been ordered to elminate the 4 contract workers and hire 5 union people. Sounds efficient right? Of those five new positions to replace us 4 contractors the department head has so far been presented with two people to interview. One was acceptable one was not. (one has been convicted of computer fraud and they sent him as applicant to work on the Criminal History system at State Police. Let that one sink in for a minute. So, at the staff meeting this morning he told us four contractors he has federal grant money available and he is trying to use it to keep us until he gets his slots filled and we can train the newbies. Since it is federal money he needs no budget approval from state people.

HOWEVER the union has to agree to it. Of course the union is who got all of us contractors 'fired' in the first place but they are hoping to convince the union to let us stay on until the Central personnel people get their shit together and present some candidates and actually hire them.

So yeah. Unions have their place, but they are far from perfect and there is a lot of corruption in them.

Sue said...

thanks for sharing your story Bill, I'm sorry you are in that situation. Of course unions are not perfect, and yes there are stories like yours all the time. But unions have their place and I feel we need to look at the big picture, the truth of what the right, led by the Kochs, wants to do starting with eliminating unions all over the country. They have a plan, an agenda, and we need to stand for the American people, we must stand for the little guy who has no voice up against the corporate hogs.

Anonymous said...

"You're right TAO. The union haters really believe those workers EARN TOO MUCH and take from taxpayers for their benefits and wages."

These are facts, actually. The currently-overpaid government workers will indeed work for less. And if they are too greedy to earn a fair wage and walk, there are plenty who will replace them.

And yes, this unearned money is stolen from the taxpayers.