Wisconsin Unions Suddenly Very, Very Willing To Negotiate Pay & Benefits Down (But Wait Until You Read the Reason)

Kristen from POWIP writes that recently Sauk County, WI, negotiated a deal with five different unions.

The local unions conceded to the county the powers to...

Implement a 0% pay increase each year

Hire and fire at will in the face of economic difficulty

Change or even abolish pay classifications

Deetermine type and level of healthcare coverage offered

Increase healthcare contribution levels over time

Set the level of pension contributions

Woah! Suddenly the unions are so reasonable it hurts, huh? When I was tipped about this post, I was confused, because reading this, I thought: My God, that's more than reasonable. I mean, they're pretty much giving the county everything it could want.

So... unions are the good guys, maybe?

Well, maybe, but not here.

The unions negotiated a contract for their members that gives their members nothing.

But, it is technically a contract that can be passed quickly.

Which means for the next 33 months, operating under this contract, while getting nothing from their union reps, union members will... retain the privilege of continuing to pay union dues.

What's the difference between the deal negotiated here and what they could have received from a Walker-regime county? Well, the Walker-regime county probably would have given them more... while the union members also weren't forced to donate to the union.

So the union bosses get to keep their phoney-baloney jobs, the members get doodly-squat.

Dan Collins writes:

[W]hatever the unions may say about rights to collective bargaining, they only thing that they’re concerned about, when push comes to shove, is that the state grant them the service of collecting their dues from them directly from the state’s employees. The employees must be in the unions as a condition of their employment, and must grant the unions the right to disburse political contributions ostensibly on their behalf but really without their consent to Democrats almost exclusively.

posted by Ace at 06:51 PM

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