Union Battle In Wisconsin: America's Revolution

The American Heartland's Jasmine moment.

Madison, Wisconsin is starting to resemble the Mideast more than the Midwest, to paraphrase the New York Times.

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We can take that analogy further and say that the union battle gripping the state capital may be the Tunisia of American politics this year sparking national forces as other state take on public unions. The nation's Jasmine Revolution.

The dispute is simple: the Republican governor and Republican-controlled state legislature want to cut union pension and health care costs (by mandating higher contributions from workers) and scrape collective bargaining rights. The pretext is balancing the budget. The unions have agreed to a compromise: they will concede to the raising the contribution cap, but oppose the effort to strip them from their right to organize and press for benefits in the future.

It seems reasonable enough. The budget is in deficit at a time of declining tax receipts and the unions have agreed to cut costs which will allow for the budget gap to the closed. But even though the governor has gotten his budget cut deal he still insists on scraping collective bargaining rights. That is unreasonable. Collective bargaining is a basic right for all workers. Unions often abuse it with, say, closed-shop acts. But that does not mean that the basic right of unionization and collective negotiation should be voided.

But despite the union's concession and agreement to compromise which would satisfy the declared objective of balancing the budget, the governor still insists on his proposal of ending collective bargaining. One has to ask why? Why would a governor who claims that his goal is solely monetary and after being offered a political compromise would still insist on the draconian prohibition of future union negotiating?

Because the real Republican goal here is not simply economics it is destroying the unions. I am no cheerleader for American unions, long corrupt and decadent and proponents of unconstitutional legislation, but to support what the Republicans are doing is itself an affront. Unions vote heavily Democratic and weaker unions means weaker grass-roots support for a key liberal constituency. And would undermine Democratic potency at the polls. Which is exactly what Republicans wants, naturally. But it is beyond winning elections but also Republican service of a corporatist agenda to undermine the working class in America.

That is why Madison is so important. This anti-workers rights effort needs to be stopped there so as to not gain momentum and discourage other right-wing governors.

Let it be the Tunis and Cairo in the heartland of America where working people took a stand in the name of their rights against their governor, incidentally named Walker, who instead took a walk elsewhere a la Ben Ali and Mubarak.