You know...I understand to some degree the glee shown by commentators like Michelle Malkin (see here and here) while engaging in ritual Republican union bashing concerning the goings on here in Wisconsin. I share the mistrust of the SEIU, and I am aware that it is the intransigence of the teachers unions over the years which has contributed to the Republican way of thinking that "you simply cannot reason with these people." I get it.
However, that is not all that is going on here in Wisconsin. A lot of the people protesting down in Madison are non-unionized university employees; people who have not had a raise of any kind in 6+ years and who have had a 3% reduction in pay the last two years; and who are being threatened with a permanent 13% to 20% reduction in take home pay by Walker now. These are not "fat cats living off the public teet." These are people making less than $25,000 a year. Given that Walker wants to make real raises illegal in the future (no raise could be greater than the rise in the CPI, and you won't get even the CPI raise every year), these workers are doomed to fall ever further behind.
I personally won't be affected by Walker's proposals since I'm an adjunct and, being serf-like already, I don't get any benefits. It just seems to me Walker wants to institute a solution upon the backs of people who were not the cause of the budget problem in the first place. Sure, go after backroom union deals and shady "retirement" packages, and the like. But people making $24,000 a year? Grad students who are living on Kraft Mac & Cheese and ramen noodles?
There is such a thing as too much collateral damage. Walker's nuclear response is a pretty damn clear example of that fact.
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