The whole story of Gov. Scott Walker's past performance with unions
Examiner.com
Quote:
Last night Rachel Maddow revealed that Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) has a reputation for using a budget crisis to bust up unions while in power.
Over the last week Walker has tried to push through a bill that would not only require public employees in unions to pay more for their pensions and health plans, but also to permanently give up their collective bargaining rights.
The unions have agreed to the financial parts of the plan, but refuse to give up their collective bargaining rights in the future.
Walker has denied that he has any motive in breaking up the unions, but has refused to compromise on the collective bargaining rights issue.
As Maddow illustrated, Walker has a past which involves using a “budget crisis” to get rid of a unions.
Before he was elected Governor last fall Walker served a Milwaukee County Executive. While in that position Walker attempted to fire union security guards and replace them with private contractors from a firm in the United Kingdom called G4S Wackenhut.
The County Board then overrode Walker’s decision, but he went ahead with the move anyway under justification of a budget “emergency.”
Later, an independent arbitrator determined that no real “emergency” existed in the country, and ordered the reinstatement of the union security guards who were fired.
In addition, as Maddow points out, the hiring of G4S Wackenhut turned out to save much less money than Walker had predicted.
With the ordered reinstatement, Walker’s move will end up costing the county about half-a-million dollars.
Finally, and perhaps most damning, Wackenhut was subsequently involved in a scandal involving raunchy pictures taken of some of their personnel hired by the State Department in Afghanistan. In Milwaukee County Wackenhut ended up hiring a man with a criminal record as the security chief in charge of the county courthouse.
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Let's see Walker's history (which is pretty much exactly what he is trying to do on a larger scale right now):
1. Faked a budget crisis
2. Used the fake budget crisis as an excuse to fire union members
3. Was overruled by the legislative branch of government, Walker ignored it
4. Privatized previously public positions, with a non-American firm no less
5. Found to have violated the law by firing (no real budget crises, no ability to fire)
6. Fired employees reinstated, with back pay.
7. Wackenhut has contract, so they must be paid, too. Even the person with the criminal record they put in charge of security at the courthouse.
8. Cost for Walker's massive overreach and screwup: about $500,000 |
