Wisconsin Teachers shut down schools for 2nd day to Protest Elimination of CBA

• OneBuckeye

  

  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/02/17/teachers-march-wisconsin-capitol-senate-moves-curtail-union-rights/
  

  Senate Democrats in Wisconsin failed to show up Thursday for a vote on a "union-busting" bill that has prompted police officers to launch a dragnet for the missing lawmakers.
  
  Republicans hold a 19-14 majority but a vote cannot be taken until at least one Democratic senator is present.
  
  "It's kind of unbelievable that they're elected to do a job and they wouldn't show up to do it," Republican Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald told Fox News.
  
  Fitzgerald said the apparent boycott may force the State Assembly to vote first on the bill. But he added that if police officers find the lawmakers, they will bring them back to the chamber for a vote.
  
  "This isn't something I've ever seen in the state of Wisconsin," he said. "It's a very volatile situation right now but those people were elected to do a job and unfortunately they're not doing it. They're not representing the people of their district."
  
  The bill has sparked a storm of protest for three days. Teachers marching at Wisconsin's Capitol Building in Madison shut down schools for a second day Thursday so they could demand collective bargaining rights that they say are essential to keeping kids in school.
  
  Dozens of schools closed as a result of high absences as thousands of protesters, including students and teachers, marched on the Capitol building to demand state lawmakers strike down a bill that would require union concessions worth $30 million by July 1 and $300 million over the next two years.
  
  The bill, which also bans collective bargaining rights for teachers, requires educators to contribute 5.8 percent to their pensions and 12.6 percent to their health care. Currently, educators pay 0.2 percent for their pensions and 4 to 6 percent of their health care costs.
  
  "Our goal is not to close schools, but to instead to remain vigilant in our efforts to be heard," said Mary Bell, president of the 98,000-strong Wisconsin Education Association Council.
  
  State lawmakers proposed the legislation as part of an effort to close a $3.6 billion budget gap, and say they expect it to pass and eventually reach the desk of newly elected Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
  
  "This bill isn't about an assault on public employees. We have great public employees throughout the state, I have them in my district, hard-working folks," said Republican state Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald. "What this is is about the budget. We're $3.6 billion in the hole. We're not going to raise taxes to solve it. We all ran, you know, this last election cycle on saying that we are going to cut government spending. ... Everybody is going to have to do their part."
  
  But Michael Langyel, head of the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association, said Walker and Republican lawmakers are asking public employees to give up more than everyone else.
  
  "If people say the only way to solve this budget crisis is to take away from people who are working hard, they are wrong. We believe that we have a right to have a fair wage for our hard work. More importantly, the collective bargaining process allows us to positively impact school policy issues. We are the advocates for our students, and we will maintain our voice in defending our students," he told Fox News.
  
  Langyel added that if Walker wants to balance the budget, he should force his friends to pay more.
  
  "There are many people who support the governor who contribute nothing and pay nothing and are not contributing. This is the time to have fair taxation in the state of Wisconsin, where the friends of the governors do not get a free ride and the hard-working people have to carry the extra burden," he said.
  
  Speaking Wednesday to WTMJ4 in Milwaukee, President Obama weighed into the debate, saying that making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain "seems like more of an assault on unions."
  
  "I think it is very important for us to understand that public employees, they're our neighbors, they're our friends," he said. "These are folks who are teachers and they're firefighters and they're social workers and they're police officers."
  
  It is important "not to vilify them or to suggest that somehow all these budget problems are due to public employees," Obama said.
  
  Education Secretary Arne Duncan told Fox News on Thursday that he is "troubled by the current climate" but was hopeful for a good resolution. He added that everyone is going to have to compromise even as teachers perform "Herculean" work.
  
  "We have to work together with them to give every child a chance for a great education and we need to work together and we need to prove outside the comfort zone but to vilify one group or demonize one group doesn't move us as a country that we need to go," Duncan said.
  
  But Walker said the demands on public employees are "modest" compared with those in the private sector, and are meant to prevent a shutdown, which could result in 6,000 state workers not getting paid.
  
  "We're at a point of crisis," the governor said, adding that he would call out the National Guard if needed to keep state operations, including prisons, running.
  
  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2008, the average salary for an elementary school teacher was $51, 240 while middle school educators earned $50,950 and high school teachers earned $49, 400.
  
  Wisconsin's measure would end collective bargaining for state, county and local workers, except for police, firefighters and the state patrol. Unions still could represent workers, but could not seek pay increases above those pegged to the Consumer Price Index unless approved by a public referendum. Unions also could not force employees to pay dues and would have to hold annual votes to stay organized.
  
  Republican-backed changes to the bill made by the state's Senate budget committee Wednesday would extend a grievance procedure to public workers who don't have one and require more oversight and put a deadline on changes.
  
  Fitzgerald said despite the heated debate, and individual threats against lawmakers, the majority of Wisconsin residents approve of the bill.
  
  "Although the protesters have been very rowdy, very one sided on what legislators are hearing, there's a silent majority out there that spoke on November 2, said, you know, we have to (head the state) in the right direction to put our fiscal house in order. So that's what we're going to do. It's very difficult but you know that's what we're set out to do and hopefully."
  

  
  This is what is coming to ohio. I think think its a shame teachers are doing this to improve the schools they are shutting down in order to protest.
• fan_from_texas

  All the Democratic senators have left the state so as to hold up a vote.
• CenterBHSFan

  

  Yeah, my stepfather was telling me something of this earlier today, though not in as much detail.
  
  I have to say that I'm indignant that politicians would act and do something that lowdown and dirty.
  
  You know THEY are the ones who decided to run for office, people put their trust in them and voted for them. And then they turn around and pull a stunt like this??!
  WTF!!
  
  I hope every single one of the cowards get voted out the next go'round. Every single one of them. They aren't fit to hold the title of democrat, let alone their office!!!!
  
  SHAME!
• Little Danny

  

  They are doing it for the children
• iclfan2

  

  So we have two sets of public officials not doing their jobs here? Way to go. Teachers care so much about kids that they are willing to shut school down.
• CenterBHSFan

  

  The teachers not going to school doesn't exasperate me 1/4 as much as the lowdown, dirty, cowardly, and unjustified politicians who literally run and hide from their jobs!
  *EDIT
  
  Sometimes when I consider that I classify myself in the same category as these punks (democrat), I wonder if I've lost my mind.
• Little Danny

  

  CenterBHSFan;682477 wrote:The teachers not going to school doesn't exasperate me 1/4 as much as the lowdown, dirty, cowardly, and unjustified politicians who literally run and hide from their jobs!
  *EDIT
  
  Sometimes when I consider that I classify myself in the same category as these punks (democrat), I wonder if I've lost my mind.

  
  Center, Ronald Regan said it best, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me".
  
  I've mentioned to you before my family is from your home town. I was born there, but I was not raised there. My parents are some of the most conservative people I know, yet they would never think to vote for a Republican. It is the mentality they adopted in the Ohio Valley after years of indoctrination that the Republican Party was for the rich and the Democratic Party was for the working person.
• CenterBHSFan

  

  Little Danny;682498 wrote:Center, Ronald Regan said it best, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me".
  
  I've mentioned to you before my family is from your home town. I was born there, but I was not raised there. My parents are some of the most conservative people I know, yet they would never think to vote for a Republican. It is the mentality they adopted in the Ohio Valley after years of indoctrination that the Republican Party was for the rich and the Democratic Party was for the working person.

  I agree with everything you have said here. My Granny was one of those people who voted straight democrat, yet was very conservative fiscally and socially. Weird, ain't it?
  Also, you hit the nail on the head with the Ohio Valley. The trouble with that train of thought in this day and age is that the parties seem to be switching, especially here in the Valley. That's weird, too. What's even more strange is that the democrats around here seem to advocate only for certain groups of working person. You know what I mean.
• Tobias Fünke

  

  What are the changes being recommended in Ohio?
• O-Trap

  

  Removing collective bargaining, which basically means teachers would have to negotiate their compensation structures, raises, etc. as individuals instead of as a part of the collective. This would essentially beget a merit-based pay system, which is currently undefined.
• Belly35

  

  Fire the teachers now and tar and feather the democrats that did not show up for work....
• Cleveland Buck

  

  Bring in the scabs.
• majorspark

  

  Cleveland Buck;682590 wrote:Bring in the scabs.

  They better be ready for sand in their gas tanks and flat tires.
• O-Trap

  

  majorspark;682593 wrote:They better be ready for sand in their gas tanks and flat tires.

  
  That's awesome. Take people desperate for work and treat them like shit because they're willing to do what others won't.
• tk421

  

  I'm glad they are passing this bill. The public employee free ride is over. States can no longer afford it. If these teachers don't want to contribute to their own retirement and health care like everyone else, they can get another line of work. Shame on the Democrats for tucking their tails and running, not surprised though.
• majorspark

  

  O-Trap;682596 wrote:That's awesome. Take people desperate for work and treat them like shit because they're willing to do what others won't.

  Its a shame I know. Unfortunately that is what happens in some of these labor disputes. My mother in law was a teacher. During a strike when replacement teachers were brought in some of the striking teachers engaged in these actvities. I remember this well because my wife could not believe her mother would be associated with such activity.
• O-Trap

  

  majorspark;682600 wrote:Its a shame I know. Unfortunately that is what happens in some of these labor disputes. My mother in law was a teacher. During a strike when replacement teachers were brought in some of the striking teachers engaged in these actvities. I remember this well because my wife could not believe her mother would be associated with such activity.

  It really is a shame. It reminds me of the movie "The Replacements." People who don't know how good they have it throwing a tantrum because the organization brings in people who are willing to do the job for far less.
• dwccrew

  

  It's ok, the teachers are really doing it for the students. They care so much about the students that they are willing to neglect the students' education by shutting school down so they can protest. Why don't the teachers just allow their union leadership to do the protesting for them just like they let them negotiate their contracts?
• Belly35

  

  Perfect Obama piped in ...... in support of the Unions go figure......
  Thanks you Obama this is sure to pass now...... get a clue Obama nobody believes in you or your socialist agenda.. America is fed-up of Unions ...
  
  The article tells of thousand of protestor ... those are fucking teachers that did not show up for work...
  
  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/02/18/republicans-challenging-unions-state-capitols/
• BGFalcons82

  

  I'm Ok with the teachers showing up to protest. They have to follow the legislature's calendar, so they couldn't pick when they could get off of work. They stood up for themselves. While I disagree with their position on the issue, I think it is an American thing to show up and protest. It certainly beats protesters and thugs bussed in from other states to raise hell when they have no dog in the hunt. Dems would never do that, would they? :rolleyes:
  
  As far as the Dem lawmakers hiding in Illinois when their constituents need them most, they should all resign today. Cowards. Deal with the problem or quit. The words, "dereliction of duty", come to mind and isn't that an offense that is cause for removal?
• fish82

  

  I'm encouraged by the lefties in WI putting their money where their mouth is an toning down the "hateful rhetoric." :rolleyes:
  
  Five bucks says the "party of civility" beats the shit out of somebody by Sunday. Again.
• QuakerOats

  My, my, my; where was the outrage on (p)msnbc last night regarding the dramatic lack of civility demonstrated by the protestors in Wisconsin. Imagine .... they even had signs comparing Walker to Hitler, but the 'network' decided to talk about something else.
  
  The Tea Party was blasted for their gatherings, but public unions get a free pass. A new ULTRA-low in reporting, and I thought they could not get any worse. Laughable.
• SQ_Crazies

  

  Wow..smh.
• QuakerOats

  The teachers are allowing the union 'leaders' to control them like puppets; maybe they aren't that smart after all. Could possibly the real professionals among the ranks finally make a break and shut down the NEA. If they truly gave one shit about the kids and their profession, that would be Step # 1.
• SQ_Crazies

  

  No kidding they aren't that smart, they're teachers. Someone said to me the other day, "my professor is just flat out dumb." My response, "why do you think he's a professor?"