Remember all the fuss about Wisconsin's attempts to rein in out-of-control public sector unions? Well, guess what's coming out in the wash?
In the past, Kaukauna's agreement with the teachers union required the school district to purchase health insurance coverage from something called WEA Trust -- a company created by the Wisconsin teachers union. "It was in the collective bargaining agreement that we could only negotiate with them," says Arnoldussen. "Well, you know what happens when you can only negotiate with one vendor." This year, WEA Trust told Kaukauna that it would face a significant increase in premiums.
Now, the collective bargaining agreement is gone, and the school district is free to shop around for coverage. And all of a sudden, WEA Trust has changed its position. "With these changes, the schools could go out for bids, and lo and behold, WEA Trust said, 'We can match the lowest bid,'" says Republican state Rep. Jim Steineke, who represents the area and supports the Walker changes. At least for the moment, Kaukauna is staying with WEA Trust, but saving substantial amounts of money.
There's more at the link.
Oh, yeah . . . as long as the union can dictate and demand a closed shop and exclusive access for their own figurehead companies, they'll screw the ratepayers and taxpayers six ways from Sunday. Take that power away from them, and suddenly it's a whole new (and much cheaper) ball game! Go read the rest of the article. That's not the only benefit coming down the pike. In all, they'll save the Kaukauna school district one and a half million bucks in the coming financial year.
Racine County is finding similar benefits.
Last June, the county took Racine inmates out of their jail cells and put them behind lawn movers. They were cutting the grass in areas that the county executive says were neglected, due to budget cuts. Local unions filed a grievance saying work like that should be done by union members.
A judge agreed, but now with the new collective bargaining rules in effect, that's the kind of thing the unions can no longer negotiate. That means the county is putting the inmates back to work and adding to their to-do list.
Racine County Executive James Ladwig said,"We're gonna have them do landscaping at county buildings, have them pick up trash on the roads. So we can use some of the county personnel to do difficult tasks, such as putting in a parking lot at the park."
Again, more at the link. I love it! Let the inmates do the menial, unskilled labor, and use the more expensive union labor to do more difficult, more demanding work that justifies their higher salaries.
I'm not a union-basher: I've been a member of a public sector union myself, and found it to be of great benefit and real value during a difficult time at work. However, the attitudes, selfishness and loutish behavior of the Wisconsin public sector unions appears to have been beyond the pale. Congratulations to Governor Walker and the Wisconsin legislature for sticking to their guns and ramming through this legislation. May other states follow their example!
Peter
7 comments:
Unions once protected workers from greedy employers, and then they became too powerful, and of course corrupt. Now workers, and everybody else, need to be protected from greedy unions. Union workers, who are also taxpayers, are being screwed twice by this system.
Unions shouldn't be broken; they should be monitored by their own fully informed membership.
Like that'll ever happen!
Ah truth, how liberating! :-)
Monitored by their own? Who monitors the monitors? :) This is where it always starts. It's like the USSR Peoples people building their Dachaus in sunny Georgia!
Unions are basically Monopolies or at least they try to be. If left unchecked and given a full monopoly, they get out of hand real fast. Unions are no different than big business today.
MechAg94
Yes! Monitored by their own. Most union members aren't greedy parasites, aiming to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. My guess is that very few teachers knew the ramifications of that particular rule. If they did, why would they approve of it? They could still get insurance without it, so it didn't really benefit them as workers. It benefited corrupt union administrators and their cronies, who have no qualms about killing the goose, because there are plenty of other geese. If given a real choice *by the union*, I suspect a majority of members would vote against it. No doubt it was a small, innocuous-looking detail in a large package.
Union members are not generally stupid, but unions ask them to act like they are. If they knew that half of what the unions do for them, is actually what the unions do TO them, they would vote for better leadership. Kind of like congress. Not inherently bad, just poorly monitored and totally out of control.
When growing up I saw the results of longshoremen's unions and as an adult I see the crap the UAW has caused, so I'm predisposed to wish ill to unions. However, I know some of the stuff local UPS drivers have to put up with from (mis)management and what their union has done to protect them, so I have a problem blanketing all unions with my dark clouds. Not sure what the solution is, but unions certainly bear watching, if not actual control.
That's not all, Peter.
In Milwaukee County, the people who cut the grass in County parks are unionized. Under the contracts, even if these people are laid off seasonally, they accrue full-year seniority (and pensions) for their work.
See, if you're not Union, you don't know how to cut the grass. /sarcasm
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