Re: recent posts on solidarity and the protests in Wisconsin, the article
below articulates fraying solidarity at local and regional scales in the
state. It would be interesting to hear perspectives on this from those
involved at UW.
It is likely to be a harbinger of things to come in e.g. the UK, where the
government has already attempted to set the stage for retrenchment in public
sector pensions by contrasting 'gold-plated' schemes with dwindling (in
coverage and generosity, for all but top echelons of management) private
sector pensions.
Best, Kendra.
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Subject: Wisconsin's Ties to Labor Fray as Its Economy Shifts
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February 21, 2011
Wisconsin's Ties to Labor Fray as Its Economy Shifts By A. G. SULZBERGER and
MONICA DAVEY JANESVILLE, Wis. - Rich Hahan worked at the General Motors
plant here until it closed about two years ago. He moved to Detroit to take
another G.M. job, while his wife and children stayed here, but then the
automaker cut more jobs. So Mr. Hahan, 50, found himself back in Janesville,
collecting unemployment for a time, and watching as the city's industrial
base seemed to crumble away.
Among the top five employers here are the county, the schools and the city.
And that was enough to make Mr. Hahan, a union man from a union town, an
unlikely supporter of Gov. Scott Walker's sweeping proposal to cut the
benefits and collective-bargaining rights of public workers in Wisconsin, a
plan that has set off a firestorm of debate and protests in the state
Capitol. He said he still believes in unions, but he thinks those in the
public sector lead to wasteful spending because of their lavish benefits and
endless negotiations.
"Something needs to be done," he said, "and quickly."
Across Wisconsin, residents like Mr. Hahan have fumed in recent years as
tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs have vanished, and as some of the
state's best-known corporations have pressured workers to accept benefit
cuts.
Wisconsin's financial problems are not as dire as those of many other
states. But a simmering resentment over those lost jobs and lost benefits in
private industry - combined with this state's history of highly polarized
politics - may explain why Wisconsin, once a pioneer in supporting organized
labor, has set off a controversial debate that is spreading to other states
over public workers, unions and budget woes.
There are deeply divided opinions and shifting allegiances over whether
unions are helping or hurting people who have been caught in the recent
economic squeeze. And union workers themselves, being pitted against one
another, are finding it hard to feel sympathy or offer solidarity, with
their own jobs lost, and their benefits and pensions cut back or cut off.
"Everyone else needs to pinch pennies and give more money to health
insurance companies and pay for their own retirement," said Cindy Kuehn, as
she left Jim and Judy's Food Market in Palmyra. "It's about time the buck
stops."
In Madison, the capital, which has become the focus of protests, many state
workers and students at the University of Wisconsin predictably oppose the
proposed cuts.
But away from Madison, many people said that public workers needed to share
in the sacrifice that their own families have been forced to make.
The effort to weaken bargaining rights for public-sector unions was
particularly divisive, with some people questioning the need to tackle such
a fundamental issue to solve the state's budget problems.
But more often the conversation turned to the proposals to increase public
workers' contributions to their pensions and health care, and on these
issues people said they were less sympathetic, and often grew flushed and
emotional telling stories of their own pay cuts and financial worries.
Here in Janesville, a city of about 60,000 people an hour's drive from
Madison, Crystal Watkins, a preschool teacher at a Lutheran church, said she
was paid less than public school teachers and got fewer benefits. "I don't
have any of that," she said. "But I'm there every day because I love the
kids."
In Palmyra, a small village bounded by farmland and forests, MaryKay Horter
remembered how her husband's Chevy dealership of 30 years had teetered on
the brink of closing after General Motors declared bankruptcy, which she
blamed on unions.
Ms. Horter said she was forced to work more hours as an occupational
therapist, but had not seen a raise or any retirement contributions from her
employer for the last two years. All told, her family's income has dropped
by about a third.
"I don't get to bargain in my job, either," she said.
And in nearby Whitewater, a scenic working-class city of 15,000 that is home
to a public university, Dave Bergman, the owner of a bar, was tending it
himself on Sunday. He has been forced to cut staff and work seven days a
week himself.
"There are a lot of people out of work right now that would take a job
without a union," Mr. Bergman said.
By some measures, Wisconsin, a state of 5.6 million people, has not suffered
as much as other Midwestern states in the recession, according to Abdur
Chowdhury, an economist at Marquette University.
Its unemployment rate, 7.5 percent in December, is lower than the nation's.
But a significant percentage of jobs lost in Wisconsin during the recession
were in manufacturing, and this is a state where the proportion of the work
force in manufacturing is among the nation's highest.
Meanwhile, some of the state's well-known companies - Harley-Davidson,
Kohler, Mercury Marine - have sought concessions from their workers in
recent months.
Already, this battle over public workers has changed the tone in a state
that prides itself on Midwestern civility. A growing number of homemade
bumper stickers are popping up with messages like "Fire Them - Democrats
Too."
Among the state's political leaders, the partisan gulf seems to have widened
further. Traditionally, the state is nearly evenly split between Republicans
and Democrats (along with a third group of independents) - making it a
perennial battleground in presidential elections, with margins of victory
that have sometimes come down to a matter of a few tenths of 1 percent.
Wisconsin is the state that gave birth to government unions in the 1950s,
but also to Joseph McCarthy, who railed against people he accused of being
Communists.
"The Republicans are really Republicans here, and the Democrats are really
Democrats, so the candidates who come out of primaries reflect that," said
Ken Goldstein, a political scientist from the University of Wisconsin.
Two years after the state elected President Obama by a wide margin, it
elected conservative Republicans - some of them supported by Tea Party
groups - to the state legislature, the United Senate and to the governor's
office in November.
The flip has emboldened Governor Walker, the new Republican governor who has
proposed the cuts to benefits and bargaining rights, arguing that he
desperately needs to bridge a state budget deficit expected to reach $3.6
billion for the coming two-year budget. It has outraged Democrats, who,
lacking votes, have resorted to procedural tactics. And it has left the
voices of moderates seemingly muted.
Union leaders have said they would accept the financial terms of Mr.
Walker's proposal. The more controversial provisions, though, would strip
public employees of collective-bargaining rights.
.
In Whitewater, Ben Penwell, a lawyer whose wife is a public employee, said
he saw no reason to strip away workers' bargaining rights if they had agreed
to benefit cuts.
"They're willing to do what's necessary fiscally without giving up rights in
the future," he said.
And Pat Wellnitz, working in his accounting office on Sunday, wondered why
such bargaining provisions were needed if the real problem was simply saving
money.
"That's pretty drastic even for a staunch Republican," he said.
But others suggested that unions had perhaps had outlived their usefulness.
Carrie Fox, who works at a billboard advertising company, said she hoped
that the battle would encourage other governors to rein in
public- and private-sector unions.
"I know there was a point for unions back in the day because people were
being abused," she said. "But now there's workers' rights; there's laws that
protect us."
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