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Townhall...
Gov. Walker’s
Legislation Has Unions Caving Already
By Kyle Olson
Apparently Gov. Scott Walker knew exactly what he was doing.
Before he signed the bill limiting collective bargaining privileges,
teachers unions throughout the state were slow to respond to calls for
salary and benefit concessions.
They believed their members should be held harmless during a period of
necessary cost-cutting. They didn’t seem to care that Wisconsin schools
were operating with multi-million dollar deficits that were forcing the
layoffs of younger teachers and the cancellation of student programs.
Their only answer was to raise taxes at a time when few people could
afford it. They didn’t want to sacrifice anything, despite the fact
that schools spend about 80 percent of their budgets on labor costs.
But now, with Walker’s legislation set to become law once it clears
legal hurdles, the unions are suddenly coming to their senses. They are
jumping at the chance to extend their collective bargaining agreements,
in exchange for meaningful concessions that will help schools survive
the financial crisis.
In Madison, the teachers union has suddenly agreed to a wage freeze and
increases in health insurance and pension contributions. The
concessions will save the district an estimated $15 million next year,
which would almost make up for the expected cuts in state aid.
In Oshkosh, the union has agreed to a wage freeze, increased
contributions toward benefits and a change in the employee insurance
carrier, which will save the district more than $5 million per year.
In the Slinger district, the union has agreed to commit 5.8 percent of
teacher pay to pension costs and increase contributions toward health
care costs. The concessions will save the district about $1.3 million
per year. What are the unions gaining by accepting concessions at the
last possible minute? Plenty.
They are salvaging things like automatic annual salary increases for
teachers, a generous number of paid sick and personal days off,
reimbursement for unused sick days, salary and benefits for union
officials who do not teach, retirement bonuses, overage pay for
teachers with a few extra students, and many other items.
Those contractual perks would have gone by the wayside if local
collective bargaining agreements had been allowed to expire. Under the
new law, the unions will not have the power to negotiate for many of
the items listed in current contracts.
So the unions will save some time-honored perks and schools will save a
lot of money. This type of compromise would not have occurred without
pressure from Gov. Walker and his supporters in the legislature.
Perhaps the governor knew exactly what he was doing by creating a
crisis and forcing the unions to face financial reality. Nothing else
seemed to be working and schools were drowning in deficits.
Ironically, the loss of collective bargaining privileges would not have
been necessary if the unions would have come to their senses months ago
and started offering meaningful concessions. They lost most of their
privileges by remaining stubborn for too long.
Read it at Townhall
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