Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Wisconsin Protests Governor Walker's "Budget Bill" 2-26-11
Saturday, February 26, 2011
A message from The Association of University of Wisconsin Professionals
Let's call for Walker's resignation. I believe we need to show leadership in the current controversy which threatens the integrity of the state of Wisconsin, including state institutions such as the UW System. I believe that Scott Walker has demonstrated very clearly that he is unfit to continue to hold office in Wisconsin. This is why I suggest that we *join the call for his resignation*. State Senator Tim Carpenter is among the leaders who have already gone on record demanding that Walker resign. (This, of course, is only the beginning. When, in 1973, citizens and prominent Americans started demanding that Nixon resign, very few people thought that he would eventually be forced to do so). Many of us are building the foundation for a recall campaign, though official signature gathering can't begin until the fall. By the way, Walker has come under serious criticism from Madison's mayor and Madison's chief of police. Also, there is now an ongoing investigation of his conduct, in terms of possible violations of state ethics statutes.
In his first weeks in office Walker has already betrayed the citizens of Wisconsin, and I believe that he has violated the oath of office he took when he became governor (see the text of the oath - pasted below). Specifically, he has not "faithfully" and "impartially" discharged the duties of his office. On the contrary, he has broken faith with the citizens of Wisconsin by prostituting himself to the billionaire Koch brothers of Koch Industries, Inc., based in Wichita, Kansas (and, of course, other powerful, out-of-state corporate interests).
Walker has revealed his total lack of impartiality in the sense that he is clearly favoring out-of-state corporate special interests over the interests of Wisconsin citizens. Most "non-connected" Wisconsin citizens generally can't get through to speak to Walker, and yet he has proven to be eager and very available when calls come in from billionaire special interests, his sugar daddies. Do we have a "smoking gun" to prove this? Yes, we do! As many of you know, this is the "smoking gun": Ian Murphy of the website Buffalo Beast called, claiming to be Walker's sugar daddy David Koch, and Walker took the call and spoke with "David Koch" for approximately 20 minutes. The transcript of this conversation (full text available athttp://www.ibtimes.com/articles/115601/20110223/ian-murphy-david-koch-scott-walker-conversation-full-text-transcript.htm) reveals to be very Nixonesque, only worse. He is even more corrupt and, apparently, more open about his inclination toward dirty tricks, even if they would likely spark violence among a crowd of innocent, non-violent Wisconsites. Yes, he admits that he contemplated the option of sending hired goons ("troublemakers") into the demonstrations, and he decided not to for narrow political reasons, NOT AS A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE (this comes through clearly in the transcript). He also reveals a devious plan to trick Senate Democrats into returning to Wisconsin with a phony offer to sit down and talk (again, check it out in the transcript).
Walker acknowledges that there are sweetheart elements (for Koch Industries) embedded in the bill and that Koch Industries has a "vested interest" in passing this bill (the most obvious thing is the provision that would allow an expedited selling off, probably at bargain basement prices, of our state power plants to commercial interests like Koch Industries). He acknowledges it by saying "That's just it." He also eagerly welcomes the idea of receiving a lucrative gift (a deluxe vacation gift paid for by his sugar daddy, "David Koch") as a reward for ramming through the bill that would strip Wisconsinites of their collective bargaining rights. Again, all these points come through clearly in the transcript. PLEASE READ THE TRANSCRIPT.
At the very least, we should be stimulating a more vigorous discussion of what's going on in Madison, especially what's going on in the corrupt Walker Administration.
We should also do whatever we can (calls, letters, faxes, emails, text messages) to get Obama to fulfill his campaign promise to put on his "comfortable shoes" and stand with us on the frontline of a labor campaign to protect our collective bargaining rights. The 2008 campaign footage of his specific promise to us on this point has been playing a lot lately on MSNBC. We should be asking: why won't Obama "step up" and show his solidarity? His brief comment a week ago to a network affiliate is NO SUBSTITUTE for a trip (NOW!) to Wisconsin to stand with us in this struggle.
Please come to Madison (the Capitol) on Saturday (tomorrow) and bring friends and family. It will be a big day in this whole campaign! Check into possibilities of busses from your communities as well as carpooling. We really need a big turnout!
And please pass this message along to your colleagues and friends and relatives, and let me and others now your opinion(s) on what's going on and what our strategy should be.
In solidarity,
Mark
meinsho@yahoo.com
608-574-4802 (cell)
********************************
Oath of office:
The Actual Wisconsin Oath of Office Public Servants in Wisconsin are Required to Take
Wisconsin Statute EB-154 (6/86).
"I, (official's name), having been elected or appointed to the office of (title) swear (or affirm) that I will support the constitution of the United States and the constitution of the State of Wisconsin, and will FAITHFULLY and IMPARTIALLY discharge the duties of said office to the best of my ability. So help me God." (emphasis added)
Friday, February 25, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Top Five: Why Wisconsin Matters to You (Bill Scher)
Thousands are rallying in Wisconsin and across the nation to oppose conservative governors who are attacking the collective bargaining rights of our civil servants. And the people in the streets are not just public sector union members.
Why? Why are so many who are not part of a union so committed to protecting the role of organized workers in our government and our economy?
1. Weak Economies Need More Demand: Our economy is struggling and our state budgets are distressed because increased unemployment and falling home prices have reduced economic demand.Weakening the ability of any workers to negotiate fair pay and secure retirements will only weaken demand further, hurting the overall economy.
2. Strong Standards Strengthen The Middle Class. When public sector workers can negotiate for fair pay, healthy workplaces and secure retirements, that puts pressure on private sector CEOs to do the same, or else they risk losing talent to the public sector. Making public sector work less inviting does nothing to make private sector jobs pay better. We need to raise the bar, not lower it.
3. Decent Government Pay Means Decent Government: Most everyone wants our federal, state and local governments to function effectively. That means being able to attract skilled, productive workers with fair pay, healthy workplaces and secure retirements, all of which will be lost if public workers can no longer bargain for their compensation packages.
4. Public Employees Are Not The Problem: Study after study shows the public employees do not receive extravagant compensation, and that the problems with state public pension systems are largely overblown. State budgets are reeling from an economic recession caused by reckless Wall Street speculators, top end tax cuts and corporate tax avoidance. The projected shortfalls in public retirement benefits derive mostly from skyrocketing health care costs thanks to private insurers, and poorly performing pension investments thanks to deregulated Wall Street firms.
Furthermore, civil servants in Wisconsin and elsewhere have repeatedly said they are willing to make concessions regarding pay and benefits. Unlike conservative corporate executives, they have proven their willingness to share the sacrifices. What we can't negotiate is their right to negotiate.
5. Scapegoating Lets The Culprits Get Away: Right-wing billionaires like the Koch brothers are pumping millions into a nationwide effort to break the public employee unions. Why would they bother? Because if they can get most people to blame public employees for the nation's economic ills, they won't hold irresponsible corporations accountable and force the ultra-rich to make any sacrifices, such as higher taxes and tougher regulations.
Now that you know why the assault on public employee unions affects us all, what can we do about it?
Sign The Petition: The AFL-CIO has a petition supporting fair pay and worker rights, to be delivered to all 50 state legislatures
Attend A Rally: SEIU and Jobs With Justice both have compiled lists of rallies taking place all across the country this week.
Share This Blog Post: Share with your friends, neighbors and colleagues the reasons why we all should care about the attack on our civil servants.
This is a critical moment in our nation's history. Will we be a nation where workers can thrive, or where workers are nickel and dimed? Will we have a vibrant economy that works for all, or will we have a stagnant economy that serves the few?
Now's the time to stand up.
Posted on Campaign for America's Future (February 22, 2011 - 3:14pm ET)
UWP Employees Invited to Sign Joint Letter (below)
An Open Letter to the People of the State of Wisconsin from Concerned Employees of the State of Wisconsin/University of Wisconsin-System:
The last six months, candidates for public office and elected officials have made statements defining State employees as overpaid and overcompensated in their benefits (including retirement plans), thus making State employees the scapegoat for the economic crisis the State of Wisconsin currently faces. A small group of State employees who have dedicated their careers to providing quality service to the citizens of Wisconsin feel it is time to clarify the facts and provide perspective.
Governor Walker has an interesting perspective on his dedicated band of state employees. "You are not going to hear me degrade state and local employees in the public sector," Walker said. "But we can no longer live in a society where the public employees are the haves and taxpayers who foot the bills are the have-nots." (Walker looks at showdown with state employee unions, Lee Bergquist and Jason Stein, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 12/7/10)
Let’s talk about what we HAVE done:
1. All State employees HAVE paid taxes. We pay sales tax, income tax, property tax, all the same taxes everyone else pays. We help to ‘foot the bills’.
2. We HAVE gone without a cost of living increase as long as most state employees can remember (including one person who has worked with the state in a clerical position for nearly 40 years).
3. We HAVE an annual salary that is approximately 5% less than what we would receive in the private sector (8-12% for University of Wisconsin-System non-classified staff and faculty).
4. We HAVE given up salary increases in the past in trade for not contributing to our pension, a fact we have never seen mentioned in any coverage regarding our retirement system.
5. We HAVE taken 8 furlough days per year equivalent to a three percent pay reduction for the past two years.
6. We HAVE given up a 2% legislatively approved salary increase from the 2007-2009 biennia, which has not been restored.
7. A large number of us HAVE been asked to provide services at an increased rate – additional duties, overload, expectation of working more than 40 hours per week, coverage for other staff during furlough days – with no additional remuneration.
8. After adding the reductions to benefits directed by the currently proposed Budget Repair Bill for Fiscal Year 2011, State employees will HAVE endured an approximate 15% reduction in income.
But what is most important is that we HAVE given good service to the State of Wisconsin! Here is a short list of some of the services we HAVE provided:
We educate your children at all levels including universities
We clean your buildings at all state-run facilities
We maintain those same buildings to protect your tax dollar investment
We maintain the infrastructure of our highways and places of public domain
We offer people with disabilities a chance at full employment
We provide health care for many who would have no other options
We insure the health and safety of our citizens
We uphold the laws governing Wisconsin
We plan for the future
We provide valuable research addressing great concerns
To provide these services, we HAVE had to make many countless, undocumented sacrifices that are seldom reported. We HAVE kept our doors open while we stagger furlough days so there is no noticeable interruption in the service we provide. Many, many state employees HAVE to work more than one job to make ends meet. Our colleagues HAVE had to retire before they had planned as they watch their annual salaries shrink. Many State employees HAVE had to sell their homes to make ends meet. We are just like YOU.
The future does not look much better. There are many who will HAVE to leave public service when these new cuts come into place. There are thousands that will stay and HAVE to take on another job – in some cases, another 20-30 hours per week – in order to continue providing the service they see as vital to the welfare of the people. There is real concern that our entry level classified staff will HAVE an annual salary dangerously close to the poverty line.
We are dedicated to the people of this state, welcoming its visitors and promoting the great way of life Wisconsin has to offer. Please consider how state workers HAVE contributed to the high quality of life in this state that has kept our doors "open for business".
Poll: Majority oppose stripping government workers' bargaining rights
A USA Today/Gallup survey released Wednesday indicates that 61 percent of the public would oppose a move in their state to pass a bill that would take away some of the collective bargaining rights of union government workers, with one in three saying they'd support such a move.
email comment to The New York Times
But there's another way to frame the situation: "Look at those unionized workers who STILL have the goodies that your parents and grandparents took for granted. Taking away their benefits won't help you one bit. Instead, you should organize and fight the greedheads who took your benefits away."
pdxtran
Minneapolis
February 23rd, 2011
2:38 am
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
NEW YORK TIMES (2-21-11): Billionaire Brothers’ Money Plays Role in Wisconsin Dispute
By ERIC LIPTON
WASHINGTON — Among the thousands of demonstrators who jammed the Wisconsin State Capitol grounds this weekend was a well-financed advocate from Washington who was there to voice praise for cutting state spending by slashing union benefits and bargaining rights.
The visitor, Tim Phillips, the president of Americans for Prosperity, told a large group of counterprotesters who had gathered Saturday at one edge of what otherwise was a mostly union crowd that the cuts were not only necessary, but they also represented the start of a much-needed nationwide move to slash public-sector union benefits.
“We are going to bring fiscal sanity back to this great nation,” he said.
What Mr. Phillips did not mention was that his Virginia-based nonprofit group, whose budget surged to $40 million in 2010 from $7 million three years ago, was createdand financed in part by the secretive billionaire brothers Charles G. and David H. Koch.
State records also show that Koch Industries, their energy and consumer products conglomerate based in Wichita, Kan., was one of the biggest contributors to the election campaign of Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a Republican who has championed the proposed cuts.
Even before the new governor was sworn in last month, executives from the Koch-backed group had worked behind the scenes to try to encourage a union showdown, Mr. Phillips said in an interview on Monday.
State governments have gone into the red, he said, in part because of the excessively generous pay and benefits that unions have been able to negotiate for teachers, police, firefighters and other state and local employees.
“We thought it was important to do,” Mr. Phillips said, adding that his group is already working with activists and state officials in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania to urge them to take similar steps to curtail union benefits or give public employees the power to opt out of unions entirely.
To union leaders and liberal activists in Washington, this intervention in Wisconsin is proof of the expanding role played by nonprofit groups with murky ties to wealthy corporate executives as they push a decidedly conservative agenda.
“The Koch brothers are the poster children of the effort by multinational corporate America to try to redefine the rights and values of American citizens,” said Representative Gwen Moore, Democrat of Wisconsin, who joined with others in the union protests.
A spokesman for Koch Industries, as well as Mr. Phillips, scoffed at that accusation. The companies owned by Koch (pronounced Coke) — which include the Georgia-Pacific Corporation and the Koch Pipeline Company — have no direct stake in the union debate, they said. The company has about 3,000 employees in Wisconsin, including workers at a toilet paper factory and gasoline supply terminals. The pending legislation would not directly affect its bottom line.
“A balanced budget will benefit Koch Industries and its thousands of employees in Wisconsin no more and no less than the rest of the state’s private-sector workers and employers,” said Jeff Schoepke, a Koch Industries lobbyist in Wisconsin. “This is a dispute between public-sector unions and democratically elected officials over how best to serve the public interest.”
Certainly, the Koch brothers have long used their wallets to promote fiscal conservatism and combat regulation, another Koch Industries spokesman said Monday.
But the push to curtail union benefits in Wisconsin has been backed by many conservative groups that have no Koch connection, Mr. Phillips noted.
Americans for Prosperity came to Wisconsin more than five years ago and has thousands of members, he said. The state chapter organized buses on Saturday for hundreds of Wisconsin residents to go to the Capitol to support the governor’s proposals.
“This is a Wisconsin movement,” said Fred Luber, chief executive of the Supersteel Products Corporation in Milwaukee, who serves on Americans for Prosperity’s Wisconsin state advisory board. “Obviously, Washington is interested in this. But it is up to us to do.”
Political activism is high on the list of priorities for Charles Koch, who in a letter last September to other business leaders and conservatives explained that he saw no other choice.
“If not us, who? If not now, when?” said the letter, which invited other conservatives to a retreat in January in Rancho Mirage, Calif. “It is up to us to combat what is now the greatest assault on American freedom and prosperity in our lifetimes.”
Campaign finance records in Washington show that donations by Koch Industries and its employees climbed to a total of $2 million in the last election cycle, twice as much as a decade ago, with 92 percent of that money going to Republicans. Donations in state government races — like in Wisconsin — have also surged in recent years, records show.
But the most aggressive expansion of the Koch brothers’ effort to influence public policy has come through the Americans for Prosperity, which runs both a charitable foundation and a grass-roots-activists group. Mr. Phillips serves as president of both branches, and David Koch is chairman of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation.
The grass-roots-activists wing of the organization today has chapters in 32 states, including Wisconsin, and an e-mail list of 1.6 million supporters, said Mary Ellen Burke, a spokeswoman. She would not say how much of last year’s $40 million budget came from the Koch family, but nationwide donations have come in from 70,000 members, she said, offering it as proof that it has wide support.
The organization has taken up a range of topics, including combating the health care law, environmental regulations and spending by state and federal governments. The effort to impose limits on public labor unions has been a particular focus in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, all states with Republican governors, Mr. Phillips said, adding that he expects new proposals to emerge soon in some of those states to limit union power.
To Bob Edgar, a former House Democrat who is now president of Common Cause, a liberal group that has been critical of what it sees as the rising influence of corporate interests in American politics, the Koch brothers are using their money to create a façade of grass-roots support for their favorite causes.
“This is a dangerous moment in America history,” Mr. Edgar said. “It is not that these folks don’t have a right to participate in politics. But they are moving democracy into the control of more wealthy corporate hands.”
During a demonstration outside the Wisconsin Capitol Monday, one protester made a similar point, holding a sign saying: “Gov. Walker: Kick the Koch Habit.”
But Mr. Phillips and members of his group and other conservative activists, not surprisingly, see it very differently.
Just as unions organize to fight for their priorities, conservatives are entitled to a voice of their own.
“This is a watershed moment in Wisconsin,” Mr. Phillips said. “For the last two decades, government unions have used their power to drive pensions and benefits and salaries well beyond anything that can be sustained. We are just trying to change that.”
PIZZA: fuel for democratic action!
If you want to donate "mac-n-cheez" pizzas from Ian's Pizza to the protesters in Madison, WI Call the number is (608) 257-9248!
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: Wednesday, February 23, Main Place
A group of professors at the University of Wisconsin Parkside will lead a group read of Thoreau's Civil Disobedience on Wednesday in Main Place at Noon. The event is also designed to rally support against the attack to collectively bargain.
Governor Scott Walker has introduced a measure which will cut our staff and faculty thousands of dollars in their pay, health care pensions, the university's budget, AND OUR RIGHT TO COLLECTIVELY BARGAIN!!!
This is about more than just money. It's about our rights.
The largest demonstration at the Wisconsin Capitol EVER was conducted on Saturday, with over 70,000 people.
ALL STUDENTS rally at 12 PM in Main Place.
Hear from faculty leaders about this bill, what it means for our lives, and learn about civil disobedience.
This proposal by Governor Walker will cripple our University and the future of our State.
If we are defeated, this will ripple effect on our country.
Rally and Protest against Wisconsin's Budget Repair Bill! - 12 PM- IN SUPPORT OF YOUR FACULTY & STAFF.
WALK OUTS DO NOT SUPPORT YOUR FACULTY & STAFF!
INVITE ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS!!!
Note: This is not officially endorsed by the Parkside Student Government.
University of Wisconsin - Parkside Classified Staff Committee Statement on the proposed Special Session Bill 11-Budget Repair Bill
Whereas, the UW-Parkside classified staff are willing to do our part to reduce state expenditures as evidenced by our high compliance on a voluntary basis with the current biennium’s furloughs which result in a 3% pay cut, and
Whereas, the Special Session Bill 11 will force classified staff employees to contribute 5.8% of their salaries to cover retirement contributions and more than double their health insurance contribution, and
Whereas, most of the classified staff employee salaries are already lower than those of comparable private sector positions, and
Whereas, many of the classified staff salaries are at the bottom of the pay scale causing a greater than average impact of these increases, and
Whereas, the Special Session Bill 11 will effectively remove all collective bargaining rights, and
Whereas, the Special Session Bill 11 will end over 50 years of labor-employer relations that has helped produce an outstanding and efficient workforce, and
Whereas, the classified staff at UW-Parkside stands in support of both the UW-Parkside faculty resolution and the UW-Parkside Academic Staff statement, and
Therefore be it resolved that the Classified Staff Committee of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside strongly opposes the Special Session Bill 11 and pledges that we will do everything in our power to inform our communities of the adverse effects that divestment in education will have on UW-Parkside students, employees, community members and the regional economy.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Roseann Mason's week at the Capitol
In solidarity, Roseann
Budget Repair Bill: Part of a Larger Strategy to Push Market-Driven Health Care
Republicans support free market health care. Some have suggested this is accomplished through high-deductible health care plan and individuals using health savings accounts. In our case this can be accomplished through our ERA/flex-spending accounts.
With collective bargaining limited to wages only, the Walker administration can radically change the insurance plan. The high-deductible plan creates additional cost savings for the budget, and shifts the cost to the employees.
A trifecta of sorts for Walker. He reduces the cost to taxpayers, makes government employee insurance plans look more like many small business plans, and advances the conservative ideology of what market-driven health care reform should look like.
(anonymous UW-Parkside employee)
Ed Conrad's Testimony
"Just finished digging through old W-2s, Employee Benefit statements and other pieces of paper. Looked at all of the information from 2001 through 2010. In those 10 years, total compensation (wages, pretax dollars, and benefits) increased a whopping 27.64% . This translates to a 2.35% per year increase compounded over 10 years.
"by comparison, my wife who works in the private sector (and deserves every penny she earns) saw an increase in her total compensation of 81.83% in that same 10 years. That's a 6.16% annual increase compounded over 10 years.
"Forbes magazine reports that the Koch brothers (two of Walker's "sponsors") paid themselves "an extra $11 billion of income from their company last year. I'm not sure what percent increase that is for them over the past 10 years.
I'M SO ASHAMED OF MYSELF FOR BEING SO GREEDY!!"
Mary Lenard's Testimony
Here’s the truth: UW salaries are already so low compared to other universities that we now have problems hiring qualified faculty. For my position, I lived in poverty for seven years of graduate school to qualify for a job I love. I work hard to prepare and constantly improve my classes, help students, and support the university’s programs. It hurts and alarms me to hear Walker’s supporters demean us as parasites who live off the taxpayers. Not only are we also taxpayers who contribute our fair share to state revenues, our real salaries are much, much lower than the inflated figures the conservative media has been ranting about. They ignore how the benefits exist to compensate for non-competitive salaries.
Walker’s budget will make us unable to hire and retain the faculty and staff for the quality education we offer. UW-Parkside enables young people to stay close to home, pay a reasonable price for higher education, and become more successful and productive citizens. Let’s please try to preserve that opportunity for them.
Nat Godley Reporting
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Rally report from Nat Godley
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone, powered by CREDO Mobile.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Molly Beecher's Testimony
I have worked for the U of W at Parkside for ten years, first as a student, then as an LTE, and five now as a full-time “police services associate” in the police department. I am responsible for many things here, including the answering of a 911 emergency line.
I love my job, my co-workers, and UW-Parkside, where I graduated with a BA in 2002. I am a faithful and conscientious employee. I deal with the Parkside community every single day, from seven in the morning until three in the afternoon, without a lunch break, smoke break, or any other sort of break. Sometimes I barely have a free moment to use the restroom (let’s be honest here).
I would not work here if I didn’t love what I do and love the UW. I have made it through the pay freeze and the 3% furlough cut with barely anything to spare once basic – and necessary - bills are paid. I would be willing to give up a little more to help out, if I wasn’t paid nearly 5% less than this “private sector” than seems to enjoy vilifying public workers as over-paid and lazy.
I would be 100% supportive of my union meeting you to discuss these things, but there has been no discussion, nor requests for discussion. We’re being told – not asked – to “do our part” as if we haven’t been “doing our part” already. What you are asking from us could very well cause me and the thousands of other Wisconsin workers in the same situation as I am to end up applying for public assistance and possibly even losing our homes. How will that be helping this “budget crisis”, if there even is one?
This insistence that state workers are over-paid, lazy, and undeserving of union representation is a terrible insult to me and all of my hard-working, taxpaying fellow employees. Much attention is being placed on K-12 teachers, but public servants are also campus police officers, administrative assistants, custodians, corrections workers, snowplow drivers, and more. I make less than $30k a year, but I am overpaid and entitled? No. I am a dedicated Wisconsin employee who doesn't want to see this state move backwards fifty years in the space of a single vote.
We are taxpayers, too. We work these jobs because we love and believe in them, and not for the money.
Rachel Lofton's Testimony
My name is Rachel Lofton and I am a student at UW-Parkside. I was recently informed about the bill that Governor Scott Walker is trying to pass. This bill is going to affect all state workers, including teachers. For as long as I can remember, I've had the desire to become a school teacher. In 2009, I enrolled at UW-Parkside knowing that soon my dreams will finally come true. I am a strong believer in education and I preach to my children each day about how important education is and how they need to learn how to appreciate knowledge. What am I supposed to tell them now? How can I look my children in the eyes and explain to them that our government does not value our education? As a student, I am concerned because this decision that is being made within any real thought will soon trickle down and affect me and my children as students. As a future teacher, I am outraged because this same decision will limit the support of my own family. It is sad when we depend on teachers to educate us and our children but they are so poorly compensated. Governor Walker, you are destroying our future by taking from our teachers.
THANKS TO OUR DEMOCRATIC SENATORS!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
THE WASHINGTON POST
Obama: Wisconsin budget fight seems like 'an assault on unions'
During an interview with TMJ4 of Milwaukee that aired Thursday, President Obama weighed in on the rapidly escalating brouhaha over Gov. Scott Walker's (R-Wis.) proposal to strip public-sector employees of collective-bargaining rights.
Obama said that while some measures, such as pay freezes for those employees, are "the right thing to do" to combat budget shortfalls, "some of what I've heard coming out of Wisconsin, where you're just making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain generally, seems like an assault on unions." He added that "it's important not to vilify" public workers.
Tens of thousands of state workers and their supporters have turned out at the Wisconsin State Capitol since Tuesday to protest the governor's proposal. Walker wants to help shore up the state's projected two-year, $3.6 billion budget shortfall by increasing public employees' costs for pensions and health-care coverage. Firefighters and police are exempt from the measure.
On Thursday, state Democratic senators left the Capitol to deny Republicans -- who control the state legislature -- a quorum to vote on the governor's bill. The bill is expected to pass.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
UW-PARKSIDE FACULTY/STAFF ANNOUNCE ALL-DAY "TEACH-IN" FEB 17
Tomorrow (Thursday, February 17, 2011), all faculty and staff are invited to devote part or all of their classes to a frank discussion of the state budget crisis. Students who do not wish to participate in these activities will not be penalized. This is not a subtraction from our educational mission, but truly an important (and necessary) addition for a campus that refers to itself as "the engaged university."
8:00 am TEACH-IN begins across campus
1:00 pm TEACH-IN continues across campus
Whereas, UW‐Parkside academic staff are willing to do our part to reduce
state expenditures, as evidenced by our high compliance on a voluntary
basis with the current biennium's furloughs which result in a 3% pay
cut, and
Whereas, UW‐Parkside academic staff incurred a 2% pay cut with the
rescission of a salary increase in 2009 to alleviate state budget
shortfalls, and
Whereas, a 5.8% pay cut for retirement contributions and more than
doubling the amount UW‐Parkside academic staff pay for health insurance
will result in at least an additional 7% pay reduction for UW‐Parkside
academic staff and
Whereas, this additional pay cut would be implemented before the end of
the mandated furloughs, resulting in a reduction of more than 10% per
paycheck for some employees, and
Whereas, UW‐Parkside academic staff salaries are already lower than
those of our academic peers and comparable private sector,and
Whereas, SB‐11 would make the recruitment and retention of excellent
UW‐Parkside academic staff more difficult and threaten UW‐Parkside’s
ability to serve its first generation students and as an exceptional
educational institution in Southeastern Wisconsin, and
Whereas, SB‐11 would end over 50 years of state‐union relations that
have helped produce an outstanding workforce, and
Whereas, SB‐11 would end the right of academic staff to collectively
bargain, and
Now therefore be it resolved that the Academic Staff Committee of the
University of Wisconsin‐Parkside opposes Special Session SB‐11 and
pledges that we will do everything in our power to inform our
communities of the adverse effects divestment in education will have on
UW-Parkside students, employers, community members, and the regional
economy.
Passed unanimously, 2/16/2011
At the Capitol: Government for Sale?
Sylvia Beyer's Testimony
My name is Sylvia Beyer. I am a full professor and chair of the Psychology Department at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.
My mother has an 8th grade education. My father grew up in East Germany and was forced to leave school at the age of 14 because his father refused to join the Communist party. After having to work as a coal miner, he fled to West Germany at 16 with only the clothes on his back and leaving his family behind. He was searching for a better life. He accomplished this and lifted his family out of very modest circumstances because he received a FREE university education in West Germany. The way to rise out of poverty is through education. I am very proud of my own excellent and free university education in Germany.
Governor Walker, one reason that after the ruins of World War II Germany became one of the most powerful economies was due to its investment in education! Cutting education spending and the income of those who work in education (including all the support staff) undermines economic progress.
I have a passion for my work. I love what I am able to do in the classroom, my first-rate research that involves my students, and I take my responsibilities in my department and for the university very seriously.
Your proposed actions will not extinguish my passion, but they will hurt my students and those who have worked tirelessly for the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.
Your actions are also likely to lead to an exodus of the most talented and hard-working state employees. This will leave us all much poorer, both emotionally and financially. This is not something you should aspire to. In fact, it’s something Wisconsin cannot afford to let happen.
Testimony from Herbert Colston
I thus find it deeply insulting for our current Governor, who went to a private university (and didn’t finish), to spin our public compensation as somehow being better than the private sector (that is simply a lie), while refusing to consider raising taxes on the wealthy (that is simply unfair). What is worse is that this strategy is further undermining the public higher ed. engine that drove 20th century economic and human progress in the United States. That is simply stupid.
All of this is of course coupled with no negotiation, no time for democratic debate, a virtual illegalization of public workers’ means of recourse, and a threat of the National Guard if we don’t like it.
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Herbert L. Colston, Ph.D.
Professor
Psychology Department
University of Wisconsin-Parkside
Kenosha, WI, USA 53141-2000
