Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Amending the Walker Plan

OK, so here's an amendment to the Walker plan suggested by a couple of (R) types.

[It] would strip public employees of their ability to collectively bargain on wages, pensions and health care costs through 2013 before reinstating those rights,

[It] calls for including firefighters, police, state patrol and state inspectors in the proposed changes to wages, health care and pensions

[It] also calls for requiring employees to contribute between 7 percent and 8 percent of their salaries to their pension costs through the end of 2013, when they could begin to bargain those payments again

[It] also includes Walker’s cap on limiting public employee wage increases to the consumer price index, but would end it Dec. 31, 2013.

The amendment would also remove provisions Walker proposed to force unions to hold recertification votes each year and the provision to prohibit public employers from deducting union dues from employee paychecks

Those last two elements should not be allowed by Walker. I agree with the first, including ALL public employees; the rest are basically trade-offs--more concessions now for less restrictions later.

One wonders how Wanggard and Schultz came up with these specific proposals.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ummmhh...actually, one wonders how Scooter could be so tone deaf to launch war on one of the pillars of the middle class. All to trim the deficit by less than one percent over the next 10 years.

Now THAT'S change we can believe in!

TerryN said...

Just how the eff is asking public employees to share the same pain the private sector has endured, "war on one of the pillars of the middle class"?

Is he laying off anyone? What's a better idea?

neomom said...

If public union employees are the only middle class left in Wisconsin, then the state is already lost.

Anonymous said...

Why cops and firefighters are whined about, I don't know. Their jobs are tons more dangerous and difficult than some secretary in the DNR or a teacher.