The Republican takeover of Wisconsin's Governorship and Legislature, and the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives have created a pincer attack against the worker's of our country aimed at decreasing the cost of labor. Below are the pending actions in Congress and Wisconsin that could impact all of us if enacted. Careful examination of these pending Republican Wisconsin and Federal Budget actions that benefit the wealthy and harm all middle class working families, union or not, blue or white collar, lower level management and middle management is becoming a corporate driven juggernaut that if successful will permanently reduce the economic status of all workers. Benefits for all will decline, not just for union workers. If you care about you future economic viability get informed and join the opposition to actions by Governor Walker and Republican legislators in Wisconsin where the public unions have already agreed to all monetary and benefit reductions. Congressman Boehner and the Republican/Tea Party
members of Congress are attacking workers and giving tax reductions to Corporations and to the top 2% of US tax payers. These inequities must be defeated for the sake of all American workers and their children.
I have never been a member of any union, however, for most of my professional career I was a high level, well paid, manager and V.P., responsible for managing both non-union and union groups of dedicated workers. I know first hand that the wages and benefits negotiated by unions are beneficial for non-union worker as well. Management must give their non-union workers at least the same benefits and exempt wages that comparable union workers get or they will lose their ability to attract qualified non-union employees. The real reason behind union busting is to eventually reduce benefits and wages for all employees, except the elite executive management ranks, and who often make many millions in perks, bonuses, and stock options, in addition to those who do nothing but juggle and sell financial instruments for millions of dollars in compensation. These are the same "elite" individuals who were responsible for the recent financial collapse and the steep decline in home values and retirement investments, that mainly hurt the middle class who were dedicated corporate workers.
The time has clearly arrived for the middle class workers to reject the Republican tactics to diminish the real workers in the USA at the expense of elevating even higher the economic benefits to Corporations and the wealthiest individuals.
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Congressional Republican Pending Legislation would:
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*Give $19 billion in from our taxes to subsidies the oil and gas Corporation that is the most profitable industry in the world. Many avoid taxes in the USA.
*Cut 44% for the Consumer Financial Product Bureau to police the big banks, mortgage and credit card companies and guard against deceptive practices.This Bureau monitors actions that could cause another greed-induced financial meltdown.
*Give $500 billion in tax loopholes that permit companies to ship their profits overseas and hide them in offshore tax havens—including 83 of the top 100 publicly traded companies. This allows more corporations to avoid all US taxes while the middle class continue to pay for what corporations don't pay.
*Eliminate funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission to track and inform the public about dangerous products, thereby allowing unsafe products to be used by infants, children, and all of us.
*Spend $185 billion in orders for obsolete military equipment that the Defense Department and Pentagon do not want creating additional long term deficits.
*Cut $88.4 million for food safety inspectors who ensure that the nation’s egg, poultry, and meat supply is safe and wholesome rendering all food less safe.
*Give $1 billion for trade associations for multinational corporations to market their products overseas, thus a giveaway to corporations that often pay no taxes in the USA.
*Decrease Pell Grants to enable students to get help paying for college by $5.7 billion.
*Increase by $34 billion Homeland Security contracts that have been plagued with waste, abuse and mismanagement going back to 2001.
*Eliminate all funding for high-speed rail. This will make us even more dependent on foreign oil as gasoline prices skyrocket.
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Wisconsin Gov. Walker and Republican Legislators "Budget Repair Bill" Will:
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*Limit the right to collectively bargain for all employees who are not public safety employees(general employees) to the subject of base wages limited to bargaining
over a percentage of total base wages increase that is no greater than the percentage
change in the consumer price index. This bill also prohibits municipal employers
from collectively bargaining with municipal general employees in matters that are
not permitted under MERA.
*Require an annual certification election of the labor organization that represents each collective bargaining unit containing general employees beginning in April 2011 regardless of existing contracts.
*Eliminate the collective bargaining rights of University of Wisconsin (UW) System employees,
employees of the UW Hospitals and Clinics Authority, and certain home care and child care providers to bargain over wages, hours, and
conditions of employment.
*Require that the employee required contribution rate for general participating employees and for elected and executive participating employees must equal one−half of all actuarially required contributions, as determined by the Employee Trust Funds Board. For protective occupation employees, the bill provides that the employee required contribution rate must equal the percentage of earnings paid by general participating employees.
*Require that an employer (local municipality) may not pay any of the employee required contributions under the WRS pension or under an employee retirement system of a first class city or a county having a population of 500,000 or more.
*Under current law, state employees become participating employees in the
WRS if they are expected to work at least one−third of what is considered full−time
employment by the Department of Employee Trust Funds (DETF) and have an
expected duration of employment of one year or more. If a state employee becomes
a WRS participating employee, the employee is also entitled to receive health
insurance under the Group Insurance Board (GIB) program. A current group of state
employees are appointed to state positions as limited term appointments in the state
civil service, which are provisional appointments or appointments for less than 1,044
hours per year. This bill prohibits limited term appointments from participating in
the WRS, as well as prohibits these employees from receiving health insurance under
the GIB program.
*Require the Secretary of Administration, the director of the Office
of State Employee Relations (OSER), and the secretary of employee trust funds to
study the WRS. The study must specifically address establishing a defined
contribution plan as an option for WRS participating employees; establishing
different vesting periods for employer contributions and eligibility for WRS
retirement benefits; modifying the supplemental health insurance premium credit
program for state employees; and permitting participating employees to not make
employee required contributions under the WRS and limiting retirement benefits for
these employees to a money purchase annuity. Under the bill, no later than June 30,
2012, the secretary of administration, the director of OSER, and the secretary of
employee trust funds must report their findings and recommendations to the
governor.
*Require that the state pay less than 88 percent of the average premium cost of plans offered in the tier with the lowest employee premium instead of 80%, thereby shifting nearly 10% more cost to the union worker.
*Require beginning in April 2011 that state employees, as well as employees of public authorities created by the state,who work more than 1,565 hours a year shall pay $84 a month for individual coverage and $208 a month for family coverage for health care coverage under any plan offered in the tier with the lowest employee premium cost; $122 a month for individual
coverage and $307 a month for family coverage for health care coverage under any
plan offered in the tier with the next lowest employee premium cost; and $226 a
month for individual coverage and $567 a month for family coverage for health care
coverage under any plan offered in the tier with the highest employee premium cost.
UW System graduate assistants and teaching assistants must pay half of these premium costs.
*Increase co-payments by state workers for their health care coverage plans for the 2012 calendar year and may require health risk assessments ( for existing health problems)for state employees and participation in wellness or disease management programs.
*Require the Secretary of Employee Trust Funds (appointed by the Governor) to allocate $28,000,000,from reserve accounts established in the public employee trust fund for group health
and pharmacy benefits for state employees, to reduce employer costs for providing
group health insurance for state employees for the period beginning on July 1, 2011,
and ending on December 31, 2011, thereby increasing health care premiums and co-pays and decreasing coverage for union workers.
*Require that the State Attorney General designee for health care benefits contracts must be an attorney (not a medical professional).
*Authorize any state agency to discharge any state employee who fails to report to work as scheduled for any three unexcused working days during a state of emergency or who participates in a strike, work stoppage,sit−down, stay−in, slowdown, or other concerted activities to interrupt the of operations or services of state government, including specifically purported mass resignations or sick calls. Under the bill, engaging in any of these actions constitutes
just cause for discharge.
*Give authority to all State agencies to reassign an employee in a career executive position to a career executive position in any state agency if the appointing authority in the state
agency to which the employee is to be reassigned approves of the reassignment. This bill increases the number of unclassified division administrators by 35 FTE positions thus giving the Governor more administrative power and political influence in all agencies directed by Governor appointed Secretaries.
*Give the Governor the authority to determine how all state owned and operated heating, cooling, and power plants (that were constructed by the state form WI and Federal taxes) to provide heating, cooling, and power to determines the method of operation of these plants and to delegate this authority to any other state agency that has managing authority for a plant. This bill permits the Governor to sell or contract for the operation of any such plant. The bill exempts such sales and contracts from the requirement for approval of the Public Service Commission.
*Eliminate the UW Hospitals and Clinics Board from entering into a contractual services agreement with the UW Hospitals and Clinics Authority to provide the services of state employees who are in clerical, blue collar and nonbuilding trades, building trades crafts, security and
public safety, and technical collective bargaining units. The bill also transfers all
employees of the UW Hospitals and Clinics Board to the UW Hospitals and Clinics, thereby putting them under the Governors control.
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I apologize fro the poor layout--it was out of my control--seems that Google blogs had a hiccup that was not correctable.!
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