Page 64 - Union Busting News Today

In 1981, ronald reagan fired 15,000 air traffic controllers for walking off the job and striking. but those were federal public service workers, and whether you agree or not with how they were treated, those were strikes. wisconsin is a different story. walkers actions are ostensibly driven by the states budget crisis and what he thinks are unfair and outdated privileges that wisconsin public service workers enjoy. is he right? well, unions were crucial to the building of americas middle class b...

Keep them from coming again every year from here on out. >> what about you, youre a state employee? >> no, im not. >> youre supporting. >> im supporting all of the citizens of wisconsin. >> reporter: whats the point youre trying to make. >> that this is a budget repair bill and youre not repairing the budget by taking away peoples collective bargaining rights. the budget by taking away our ability to sell our own public utilities. thats part of this bill, thats not-- . >> reporter: the public ut...

Gets underway today, thanks, martha? martha: wisconsin lawmakers are not the only ones who flew the coop, 35 democratic members of the indiana house bolted the hoosier state, gone up to illinois, and seems to be the pattern and despite republican governor mitch daniels dropping his support for a union busting bill. listen to this: >> they are going to hit the road, they picked the right state and these people who spent indiana broke a few years ago and we have been cleaning up after them since a...

Husband is the republican leader of the wisconsin state senate. ill ask him if hes ready to compromise to safe his wifes job. >> whats happening in wisconsin -- >> this is what democracy looks like. >> thousands stand in the streets of madison, wisconsin as the governor stands by his ultimatum. unions lose bargaining rights or state workers lose jobs. >> what about these pink slips that the governor is threatening to send out? >> if there isnt a vote, youll have to start laying off as many as 50...

As 50 to 100 state workers. >> its all about union busting, plain and simple. >> this is an effort to end collective bargaining as we know it. >> union workers agree to benefit cuts, but the governor still wants to take away their bargaining rights. and the wisconsin 14 are holding their ground. wherever that is. >> wisconsins 14 state democratic senators, well, they remain in illinois. >> police are on their way back to get them to work. >> why did the sergeant at arms end up sending the police...

Because the local units of government have got just as serious a financial problem as the state government. and the only way for the localnds of government, the city, the county, the school districts will be able to perform is to have these give backs and be able to ask the unions he local level to give back, as well. and without this bill, the governor does not believe intha be able to get the kind of concessions that the local units will need in order to support their ongoing governing proposa...

Opportunity for unions at the state as well as the holocal leo negotiate anything. and hes still propose to go allow the unions to negotiate for wages. >> weve seen a string of republican governors across a number of mid western states try to put forth similar bills saying there will be no corre collective bargaining. so this doesnt seem to be connected to the effort to balance a budget, it seems to it be an ideological effort to eliminate the right to collective bargaining. i think its hard not...

>> greta: they dont want it. they think it is union busting and they realize they are not covered by your bill. they just dont want it. >> in terms of that statement, no, absolutely not. for us it is all about balancing the budget. and making sure that local governments have the long term sustainability to do the reason we face a 3.6 billion dollar deficit is because previous governors, have used short term fixes to push us to the problem we have today. we have to make a commitment to ensure tha...

Wisconsin state workers are calling for the largest day of demonstrations in the states history today. and just in few hours, the state assembly plans to vote on the governors budget bill. jim hoffa, the president of the teamsters union got a heros welcome when he arrived to show his solidarity with workers fighting the bill. >> lets face it. this is a conspiracy. right to work has been introduced in 13 states simultaneously. is this a coincidence? this is the most blatant attack on workers righ...

Start living within our means. >> this battle is about the havent of our state in the long run. we have to make changes now in order to save the state in the future. >> i think this economic crisis was created by wall street. i think it is a false pretense for union busting and depressing the wages of all workers, not just public workers. >> without wall street there would be no taxes, none of us to pay taxes to pay your salary. we need business in order to keep going. >> im unemployed i have no...