The teachers unions in Wisconsin have put themselves in a bind. From National Review Online:
"So far the angry teachers of Wisconsin have not yet won over the public. They have not convinced the majority that, in an age of staggering budget deficits, they — or, indeed, public employees in general — must as a veritable birthright enjoy salary, benefits, and pensions on average far more generous than those of their private-sector counterparts, who make up the majority of taxpayers.
Teachers are right that the crisis transcends compensation. Yet why, others might ask, would teachers’ unions oppose merit pay? Why should someone who did not join the union still have to pay its dues? Why should the state have to collect the dues from employee paychecks on behalf of the union? Moreover, when these questions are posed amid a landscape of teachers skipping classes to protest, urging students to join them, and soliciting fraudulent doctors’ notes to cover their cancellations of classes — while their supporters in the legislature hide out to prevent a quorum and thereby subvert the democratic process reaffirmed last November — the public becomes further estranged from their cause."
The teachers went astray when they fibbed about calling in sick so they could protest and followed it up with those bogus doctors notices. Furthermore, did the teachers have the parents permission to have the students join them??
The conundrum gets deeper. From Hot Air:
"Given the disaster that union contracts and especially pension plans have become in most states, we can expect to see this fight take place everywhere in the nation, including on the federal level. Unions have a conundrum in this crisis as well; the more they flex their muscles to maintain their status quo and block the serious downsizing that most people want government to conduct, the more it will expose their grip on politicians and make it even more urgent to dismantle their grip on power.
We have finally come in Madison to the basic question: will voters control government and public policy, or will the unions? Don’t kid yourselves into thinking the unions don’t understand that, either. They know exactly what’s at stake in the Battle of Mad Town, and that’s why they’re throwing everything they have into winning it."
Which is why Democrats and unions must be defeated. Sarah Palin makes this plain:
"Hard working, patriotic, and selfless union brothers and sisters: please don’t be taken in by the union bosses. At the end of the day, they’re not fighting for your pension or health care plan or even for the sustainability of Wisconsin’s education budget. They’re fighting to protect their own powerful privileges and their own political clout. The agenda for too many union bosses is a big government agenda that only serves the union bosses themselves – not union members, not union families, and certainly not the larger community. Everybody else is just there to foot the bill; and if that bill eventually takes the form of thousands of teachers and other public sector workers losing their jobs because the state of Wisconsin can no longer afford to keep them on the payroll, that’s a risk the union bosses are willing to take as long as their positions are secure. Union brothers and sisters: you are better than this and you deserve better. Don’t be led astray."
Amen. Don't go down with the union bosses. They're not worth it.
Background Reading:
NRO: On Teachers and Others
Hot Air: Palin to Wisconsin: Do not let unions bully you
No comments:
Post a Comment