POLITICS - Attack on Labor Unions by Wisconsin Republicans

If you look at the below excerpt you'll note that Mr. Williams fails to make the link between the budget issue and collective bargaining. He frames the whole argument around Wisconsin's budget problem and ignores the union issue.

Nowhere in the transcript is a direct linkage made between labor's bargaining rights and the state budget made. I do believe this is an attack on Labor Unions which Republicans have always hated. Wisconsin Republicans are using the state's budget problems as an excuse for killing unions. The ability of workers to bargain pay and benefits IS the core of Labor Unions.

"Wisconsin Public Workers Union Rights Go Head-to-Head with State Budget Woes" PBS Newshour Transcript 2/18/2011 (includes video)

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): Jonathan Williams, we do hear the unions and their allies saying what Gov. Walker and these other governors, whether it's Ohio or other states, may want to do is take away their bargaining rights as unions, in other words, completely weaken or even decimate them as a union.

JONATHAN WILLIAMS, American Legislative Exchange Council: Well, you know, we really want to protect teachers. You know, they do a great service to our children. I'm a product of two public schoolteachers from Michigan. And I -- I believe they have a great value to our society.

However, the benefits have gotten out of line with those in the private sector. There's no reason why we can't go for, for instance, new teachers and say, the defined benefit model is going to fail the states. This isn't just a right-wing talking point. This is -- a former liberal speaker of the House, Willie Brown, on the left in California has said this.

It is not a partisan issue. It is an issue of fiscal sustainability for the states. You know, why do we think we are talking about bankruptcy in the states today? It's pensions.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But what about this notion of taking way their right to have collective bargaining, in other words, the core of what a union does for its members?

JONATHAN WILLIAMS: Well, sure.

I mean, we have been seeing this. Gov. Mitch Daniels did something like this in 2005 by executive order. And, you know, we feel that, you know, through the legislative process has more transparency and accountability, so voters can weigh in. And that is what we see right now in Madison. But we do have an open and honest hearing about it.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Is that what the AFT and other unions are most concerned about, Randi Weingarten?

RANDI WEINGARTEN, American Federation of Teachers: Yes, Judy.

The -- the bottom line here is taking away bargaining rights doesn't create one more cent in the Wisconsin coffers. What we're talking about is really having a voice at work.

If the governor was serious about respecting teachers, about wanting public services to be the best they could be, about wanting to make sure that he heard the taxpayers, and wanting to make sure that there was fiscal solvency in that state, he would actually talk to the workers, as opposed to ignoring every single entreaty they have made.

The reason they're on the streets is because he refuses to talk to them. The only redress they have is on the streets.