Presidential campaign funds finance strike

Protests — Wisconsin high school students join throngs of protestors.

When an individual has insufficient funds in his bank account to make a purchase, their card is either denied or is charged an overdraft fee. When states run out of money, certain items in their budget must be cut or reduced. The search for the proverbial money tree has rendered fruitless, and therefore these are the fiscal realities of life.

Facing a tremendous fiscal deficit, republican lawmakers in Wisconsin decided to trim fat off their budget deficit off $3.04 billion.

Protesters say the bill being passed will take away the Teachers Union’s collective bargaining rights. Collective bargaining occurs when a group of people, in this case teachers unions, are represented by elected leaders control working conditions and increase wages. Since collective bargaining with unions ends up costing the state more and more money every year, Gov. Scott Walker sought to end the program and save the state millions.

If collective bargaining rights are taken away from the teachers, they will have to individually re-new their contracts. Salary increases will not be for everyone. Since the teachers who are not as efficient or teach poorly will be paid less then they are now they will not benefit from the group effort to monopolize their contracts.

The 14 democratic senators in the Wisconsin Senate were highly outnumbered in the senate and cannot gain enough votes to stop the bill for their union constituents.

There is an old adage, which states, “If you can’t beat them and if you can’t join them, RUN!”

Which is exactly what the democrats did — they left the senate room one by one and disappeared. They were eventually found staying in the same hotel in an attempt to hide from the media. Once they came back to the senate room, the senators remained in session till midnight when Senator Kaufert accused the democrats of grandstanding for the protestors outside.

“I’m sorry if democracy is a little inconvenient, and you had to stay up two nights in a row,” democratic Senator Mark Pocan said. “Is this inconvenient? … It’s inconvenient. But we’re going to be heard,” according to FoxNews.com Wisconsin’s schools are closing at rapidly increasing numbers. On Wednesday Feb. 17, an estimated 30,000 teachers were in Madison protesting.

Unions originated as a result of poor working conditions during the industrial revolution of America. When assembly lines preceded the robotics of today, the majority of the workforce was impoverished European immigrants. The working conditions were at the very least hazardous, and loss of life or limb was common. Thus the birth of labor unions. Those laborers who went on strike were striking to get safe work environments with enough pay to feed their families.

Today’s unions, however, are much different than when they were originated. The unions of today do not reward added effort and good work like non-union companies. If one worker is lazy, he receives the same amount of pay that an industrious and efficient worker would receive.

As with any major strike and walkout there is always another side to the story.

The largely untold portion of the story is that The Democratic National Committee’s Organizing for America segment, the remnant of the 2008 Obama campaign, is playing an integral role in organizing protests against the Wisconsin Governor’s attempt remove most public employees bargaining rights on their contracts, according to Politico.com’s Ben Smith.

To date, OFA Wisconsin’s field efforts include filling buses and building turnout for the rallies this week in Madison, organizing 15- rapid response phone banks urging supporters to call their state legislators, and working on planning and producing rallies, a Democratic Party official in Washington said according to Politico.com.

Unfortunately, it is “politics” as usual in Madison as well as Washington, D.C. The same president who has ardently spoke about the importance of reducing the national deficit is the same president whose leftover campaign fund is financing the protests aimed at further increasing Wisconsin’s deficit.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *