Page 558 - Ed Schultz News Today

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And theyre firefighters and theyre social workers and theyre police officers. you know, they make a lot of sacrifices and make a big contribution. and i think its important not to vilify them or to suggest that somehow all these budget problems are due to public employees. >> ed, does wisconsin need to hear president obama say more? >> i think the president was speaking there in generic terms about how he believes in the concept of unions and how valuable these people are to the operating of the...

Where despite democrats fleeing the state, state is going to vote today on that controversial bill to strip state workers of their collective bargaining rights. tens of thousands of people are at the state capitol building right now, and schools are shut down for a third day in several districts, because of the teacher wide sickout. even the head of the afl-cio richard trumka is expected to show up at the protests. the democrats who fled the state yesterday in order to postpone the vote are sayi...

Mr. rizzer, great to have you with us tonight. i want you to give us your thoughts at this hour as you see this unfold, fred. >> thanks, ed. you know, wisconsins a great state. weve got a great liberal tradition of service by our state and public employees. you know, we were the first state to adopt and implement social security back in the early 1900s. we were one of the first states to adopt and implement collective bargaining for state employees back in the 1950s. and i was happy to be part o...

Latest updates on this topic.

Latest updates on this topic.

Show here, ed. this is an issue this hits home for you in a big way. >> well, it is. i think that this fight has been brewing for a long time. its just that it propped up so fast and so furiously here in madison, wisconsin, and the pushback from the people, the protests are passionate. they are not going to go away. they will get bigger before theres any resolution. as time goes on, you would think that they would lose their resolve, that they would say, well, i guess that this is just the way i...

Have the time to study this bill because its only been out just for the last few days. the governor is trying to ram this through in had a short amount of time because hes afraid that once people find out what is actually in this bill, besides collective bargaining that strips away collective bargaining rights from public employees, but it also hurts senior citizens, the elderly and the disabled and other folks, and i think once people start really finding out what is included in this bill, ther...

Jay carney for the white house says that the president understood the need for states to cut spending, but this does not need to be an assault on collective bargaining rights of public workers. i want to play what governor walkers saying to defend his actions or this proposal. this is what he said. >> were asking for a 5.8% contribution to the pension system. when it comes to the health care premium contribution, were asking for over 12.5%, half of the national average. half of the national aver...

Senator schumer, senator durbin, they have been ominously silent on this because many liberals in this country and workers and middle-class americans think this is ground zero for 2012, that this is standing up for workers in america, and if they cant stand up here and if the democrats cant be vocal about it, when are they going to do it? >> ed, i think the proof that this is about union busting is what we just heard from senator taylor. senator taylor said that the democrats in the senate are p...