Battle Lines Are Drawn

There is a battle being fought in Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker is trying to destroy the Unions by taking away the workers fundamental right to Collectively Bargain. Over the past few weeks over 100k workers have gathered in Madison, Wisconsin to let their voices be heard. They are telling Walker that in no way they will they concede the right to sit down at a table and talk. Walker is saying that there is a budget crisis that people need to make concessions; the Unions have offered to pay into their pensions to pay a portion of their health insurance to help narrow the gap. The workers are doing their parts, but that isn’t enough for the dictator that is impersonating a Governor. He has made it no secret he wants to destroy the public workers union. He wants to take away the numbers by restricting members from being able to pay union dues. He wants members to vote to keep the union every year. Why? What does this have to do with the budget? The fact of the matter is it doesn’t, by implementing these laws it will put a serious blow to the unions. The public workers will no longer have the strength in numbers, without the numbers the unions are weak. It takes people united to make a voice, without that voice a dictator will have all the power. When one person has all the power the system of checks and balances that our great nation was founded on is no longer effective. Scott Walker likens himself to a modern day Reagan, but he needs a history lesson because before he was President, when he was about Scott Walkers age Ronald Reagan was not only a member of a Union, but he was the President of The Screen Actors Guild. Now I am not going to sit here and pretend that Reagan was a friend of the working man, he did a lot to help create the disparity of wealth that we see today. However the facts are the facts Ronald Reagan got his start as a union man. I guess Walker didn’t realize that when he compared himself to him.

I am not against cutting back during a fiscal crisis, but it should be everyone cutting back, not just the workers. We have been cutting back for a long time anytime there is a crunch who feels it? The Koch Brothers? The Waltons? No they have their billions to fall back on and if they feel that they are starting to hurt, they just cut wages and benefits. The standard of living is going up in the United States while the medium income is going down. Walker says by having the public workers give back everything they worked so hard to earn, while he gives breaks to the wealthiest individuals in the country in hopes they will bring new jobs. Well I have news for him those wealthy individuals became wealthy by not providing a living wage to their employees. They may come in build a new Wal-Mart and create 200 jobs in a small town, but what person will be able to provide for a family at $300 a week? It’s about more than creating jobs; it’s about creating good paying jobs that provide health care and retirement to its workers. I am not saying anything that people don’t already know. Most people even realize that it is wrong what is going on. Current polls show that 61% of Americans are against what Scott Walker is trying to do to his citizens. Walker will tell you this benefits the taxpayers, WHAT HE FAILS TO MENTION IS THAT THE PEOPLE IN THE CAPITOL MARCHING IN THE STREETS ARE THE TAXPAYERS. How does this benefit them? Threatening to lay them off, threatening to take away their means of living how does this help the taxpayers? It doesn’t, it takes a warped mind to even think that by taking away a person livelihood helps them. The workers have made numerous concessions already and they are ready to give more. They just want to be able to negotiate what they earn. There is nothing wrong with that.

So who does benefit from Walker’s plan and the similar plans proposed in other states? First and foremost the GOP, it's all political. AFSCME and CSEA are among the largest donors to the Democratic Party, by taking away the power of these two unions the Democrats will have less money coming in. Without that money it makes it difficult for the Democrats to run campaigns and get elected to office. Without the Democrats in the way the Republicans can push through any agenda they have. Those agendas more time then not benefit the wealthiest 1% of the United States. The same wealthy that donate the money to the Republican Party, the wealthy that own the businesses that will take over the Government agencies after the unions are broken and privatize them. This will just add to the disparity of wealth in this Country. The companies like Koch Industries will go through a procedure of collective bargaining the same right that is being taken from the workers to buy the rights to provide the Government Services for pennies on the dollar then employ workers for lower wages and make billions from it. With the workers getting less money, they will not be able to drive up the market. These companies will then scream poverty because of the poor market as they always do and receive even more tax breaks from the GOP. Meanwhile the workers will struggle along trying to make ends meet fighting for the scraps that are provided by the ruling class. This is what they want to do create two classes of people the wealthy and everyone else. The United States Government is not a business, it’s not a publicly traded company designed to make profits for the wealthy. It’s here to serve and protect the masses, if the middle class goes democracy as we know it does too.

The only way this will not happen is if we show a United Front. We need to show the Government that 300 million are much stronger than a few thousand, that millions of workers union or not are stronger than a few thousand. It used to be a guy started a company hired a few guys to work for him and share the slice of the pie, now millions struggle for the crumbs while that pie is hoarded by a few. If a business wants a tax break they should have to earn it, they should have to show a comparable number of workers making a living wage and having benefits provided for them in order to get it. They should have to show this every year in order to keep it, if the company fails to do and is making an absorbent profit from those breaking their backs then they should not only lose their tax break but they should be fined as well. Tax breaks for the rich should come with conditions that benefit everyone. If they don’t then the disparity just gets larger and the middle class disappears. Scott Walker either is blind to this or he just doesn’t care because he wants power. It is up to us the people to keep up the fight if we stay together nothing will stop us.