A Capitol Weekend in Wisconsin
Among the librarians turning out in Madison to support workers' rights are: (front row, from left) Carrie Gostomski, Kim Pittman, Alison Gehred, Ellen Barksdale Jacks, and Richard Douglas Wambold.
PrintOn February 26, several dozen librarians brought library-themed picket signs to the Wisconsin Capitol Building in Madison to show solidarity with protesters entering their third week of demonstrations opposing Gov. Scott Walker’s Budget Repair Bill, which includes the permanent abolishment of most collective-bargaining rights for the state’s public-sector employees.
“Librarians fight for everyone’s rights,” read the sign carried by Carrie Gostomski (left), while Ellen Barksdale Jacks (center) cautions “Please do not shoosh me. Librarians will not be silenced.”
The group, organized by University of Wisconsin at Madison library school student Omar Poler, may have constituted a more visible library contingent than the individual information professionals who have been joining the protesters for days, according to Wisconsin library organizations.
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A Capitol Weekend in Wisconsin
Honestly, numbers concerning contributions to health insurance and pensions are important, but there is a larger issue involved. Simply put, collective bargaining is badly compromised when any governor is potentially faced with having to negotiate conditions of compensation and employment with an organization whose political donations could have helped put him or her into office. It’s pretty a circular situation when employees of a state government are also employers of the elected officials to a degree so far beyond that of being voters.
Great News
The Governor has finally driven off the protestors after 17 disrupting days. Also the wayward Democrats are being hunted down, lastly if the bill is not able to be called due to lack of a quorum - the Governor will bravely begin laying-off public sector workers!!
A voice of reason. THERE IS
A voice of reason. THERE IS NO MONEY!
Republican Overreaching
It has become increasingly apparent that Walker and his fellow Republicans have overreached in their efforts to eviscerate unions in Wisconsin. He’s no closer to getting his legislation passed, and public opinon in Wisconsin has decisively turned against him.
Wisconsin
Oh Praise the Lord. Thank you, Governor, for standing your ground. May we expect both you and Governor Christie to run for the highest offices in the land? It would be a welcomed relief to have some no-nonsense, plain-speaking leaders for a change instead of the mushmouths we currently have in Washington.
Public Workers Unions
I am both a retired Federal librarian and a currently-employed librarian in an nonprofit organization. As a Fed, I was not unionized, paid (and continue to pay) 30% of the premiums for my health insurance for what would be considered, I guess, a “Cadillac plan”, contributed 7.5% of my salary to a defined-benfit pension which is indexed for inflation , and could retire after 30 years (worked 35 years). I might say also that I was paid far and above the revailing rate most librarians on the outside made. Added to that was a job so secure, a dynamite blast won’t have been able to move my butt had I been a non-performer.
In the non-profit world, things are quite bit different. If I took health insurance, my premiums would be something like $20.00/month (I do take the dental portion for me and my partner for a total of $8.00/month). Employer matches first 5% of my contribution to the 401(k) comparable investment vehicle. There is no pension, and employees serve “at will”. What took some getting used to is the reality of having to prove my worth to the organization in order to continue working in it. That last, to me, is a very good thing.
Like all issues, what is happening in Madison and in other areas of the country is very nuanced and has more to do with scenario 1 above than with the second. The popular perception is that state/local government workers are protected by statutes/regulations similar to those under which Federal employees operate. It would be enlightening to know how many actually are. And from what I can glean, most government workers get a good deal on health insurance and pension contributions.
What I do know is that I am at the top of the food chain (although to hear the whines of Feds, you would think we were getting crumbs!), and I suspect so are so many state and local workers, especially those who have those rarest of the rare: PENSIONS!”.
I am no fan of the teachers’ unions, and I absolutely adore Michelle Rhee. Those unions have strong-armed jurisdictions, supported the status quo, carved seniority as THE basis of teacher retention, stymied the establishment of charter schools—all at the expense of providing good education to the only ones who matter in this (duh, the kids), and contributed hideous amounts to election campaigns (read, overwhelmingly Democrats).
Finally, while the individual government worker is not responsible for the fiscal state of so many states, the inflated promises made to government workers, especially about pensions, has contributed to the huge unfunded pension liabilities in my home state of Illinois, among others.
Follow the Money
I was curious about the comment that “hideous amounts” were donated to election campaigns by educator unions so I thought I’d look into this. So far I’ve found Follow the Money to be an excellent resource, allowing for drill-down searching of donations in politics by state, by industry, by specific companies, and by many other factors of the searcher’s choosing. I thought it would be interesting to compare how much teachers’ unions donated to either party in comparison to a few other industries. In 2010,
A total (all contributions) of $1,207,470,494 were made to D, and $1,404,778,651 donatations were made to R
Teachers’ unions donated $28,533,749 to D while they donated $2,501,096 to R, (which should be no surprise as there is some affinity between D platform and the pure concept of the purpose of unions. No doubt that is open to debate.)
Health insurance companies donated $13,301,122 to D and $20,802,386 to R
Health industry (broad category) $51,955,484 to D, and $62,563,724 to R
and so on.
This is information to get lost in. Enjoy digging, or, if you’re like me, be appalled at how much money goes into promoting politicians of any flavor in the first place. Such is the nature of US politics, and it seems it will stay this way for some time. Campaign finance reform… now that’s another huge issue for another time, another place.
look again
The post by Ellen is a misdirection meant to make the unions look bi-partison - don’t belive the hype the unions donated over $400 million to the Obama campaign in 2008 . http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122592993592603103.html
Not Sympathetic
My husband is a Federal library employee and does not have collective bargaining rights. As a private school librarian with a MLIS and years of experience I am often denegrated by education unions. These protestors do not speak for me or my husband. Sorry, but the state elected officials and union employees need to get back to work and the imported protestors need to go home.
The idea that protestors are
The idea that protestors are imported is mistaken. So is the idea that there will be any benefits from tearing down me and my fellow Wisconsin library workers.
What?
Who’s tearing you down? Instead the previous poster commented on her being torn down. When public sector collective bargaining is taking place, who represents the taxpayers? Generally governors and state reps have no skin in the game. The funding to pay bad teachers doesn’t come out of their budgets. School systems are forced to pay non-working teachers while they slog through the tenure system. Sorry, no one is tearing you down, just asking that everyone pull their weight.
Who is tearing us down? Walker that is who.
As one of the SLIS students and one of the protesters: Walker’s budget slashes the University budget to the point that the University Library system at UW Madison is looking at a 12-17% cut over the next two years - it also elimanates a requirement that municipal library funding levels be maintained minimally at the average of the prior three years. Without researching I would guess that there will be a similiar cut across the State Public University Library System. As a future librarian I am a lot more concerned about having a library job at all, rather than what my compensation will be. As we all know library jobs are already very tight and the “graying of the profession” has not yieled the librarian and information professional shortage that was projected 5-10 years ago. This is about more than unions and collective bargaining - we are out there protesting because of many things. This budget hurts my patrons (formerly Madison Public Library employee - currently a student employee on campus) - especially my low income ones, my friends, my nieghbors - as well as people on Badgercare & Medicaid, as well as doing environmental damage by lifting regulations and destroying state organizations that help reduce our energy use. Go ahead and argue about the nuisances of unions and collective bargaining - I am more concerned about the devistation to my community, - the state where I was born-, and my planet if we continue with the sort of ideology put forward in this bill and budget - that puts corporate concerns above environmental and community concerns.
Nuisances
That was supposed to be nuances - but in a strange way nuisances kinda works as well.
bleak future - you bet
Ok so when the Sate is facing a $3.6 billion budget - this is the time to insist on unrealistic benefits? Hopefully you don’t get what you wish for - the result will be a diminishing work force of public employees ) including librarians) that won the battle of the benefits fight - but lost the war of having a future.
3.6 Billion- misrepresented
This link leads to the best description I have seen about how a state budget is made and where the 3.6 billion number comes from…it is not a deficit…it has been misrepresented…check it out. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/23/949035/-A-Primer-on-the-Wiscons…
Did I say anything about
Did I say anything about benefits? The answer to that is no in case you don’t want to reread my initial comment. Libraries just took a huge hit, don’t tell me that they will be diminished, under this bill and budget they already are. Here’s the statement from the WLA (Wisconsin Library Association) -
opposition to budget: http://wlaweb.blogspot.com/2011/03/proposed-budget-cuts-shared-revenue.html
opposition to bill: http://wlaweb.blogspot.com/2011/02/wla-states-opposition-to-budget-repai…
There are other ways to handle budget shortfalls - taxes for one. But oh no, we can’t tax people to meet the needs of education and public services for some reason I don’t understand at all.
I believe what I discussed was the cuts to schools and environmental regulations - not benefits. Please read the bill and the budget and then tell me again this is only about collective bargaining.
wrong fight
These students should be supporting the reform proposed by the Governor - once we eliminate the bloated pension/health insurance benefits for public employees the budget will be balanced and funding for library services and grants will be stabilized and perhaps increased. If we follow the path of the protestors - there will be fewer and fewer public sector workers as they dig their heels in for the fight for unreralistic benefit packages.
Naive in the extreme
It is niave in the extreme to think that reducing pension benefits and eliminating the bargaining rights of public sector workers is going to result in balanced budgets and funding for libraries. The individuals who support the elimination of public union rights are not remotely interested in allocating monies for the support of instititions as “socialist” as public libraries (where public funds are used to purchase materials that then become public property available for the use of all, regardless of personal income). Moreover, currently the private sector has to compete with the public sector for employees. If the bargaining rights of public workers are eliminated, there will without doubt be less pressure on private sector employers to offer competitive wages/benefits to prospective employees. Reducing pension benefits and eliminating bargaining rights in the public sector will not level the playing field—private sector wages and benefits will simply experience further erosion. Moreover, this will result in a reduced tax base, leading to further cuts in public services. It’s a race to the bottom.
wages 101
Wages are a reflection of the economy in general - the biggest factors that affect the direction of wages are productivity and inflation - as they both go up the job market increases thus creating more demand for workers. Employers are then obliged to pay more per hour to workes in the form of wages and benefits. The reduction of bloated benefits packages to public sector workers will have no affect whatsoever on the general trend in wages. However the reduction in bloated benefits will have a huge impact on the health of State budgets. Think of it as compound interest in reverse once you begin to rein in the runaway cost of pension/healthcare costs - the benefits go up each year as the obligation go down.
Productivity and Inflation
Productivity does not guarantee growth in the job market. Productivity is a measure of output of goods and services with respect to their input costs (including, among other things, employee wages). Increased productivity is great for employment ifyou have a customer base that can take advantage of those reduced costs. However, if your customer base is increasingly composed of those who have been “excessed” by improved technologies, business process “reengineering”, outsourcing to 3rdworld labor markets, etc.—all resulting in increased productivity—then you will eventually have a serious demand problem. In the last couple of decades, unusually large credit lines were extended to consumers (as well as corporate borrowers) to address this growing contradiction in a host of marketplaces. Eventually, the borrowers couldn’t make good on their debts. We know how that story has played out in the last few years. It has decidedly notbeen good for the job market.
To claim that inflation is good for job growth is also far too simplistic. Inflation can increase short-term demand for goods and services but high rates of inflation are known to discourage long-term investment. Extremely high rates are economically disastrous.
Misinformed
I’ll go one or two steps further than anonymous and Fay and list my LAST name. The fact is that all those who are being affected by this budget reform bill do NOT have bloated pension/health insurance and/or have accepted lower salaries in order to receive higher pension/health insurance contributions. My librarians’ salary levels are about $10,000 lower than the national average JUST for salary. They already pay 6.5% contribution toward their health insurance. Even if you add in what the library pays toward their pension and health insurance it still is lower than the national average JUST for salary. And my Circulation Clerks who make less than $10 an hour are losing nearly 6% of their salary. Is that right/fair? I think it is wrong for people to generalize about all the workers in such a diverse and varied group of employees. I think it is even more wrong that people are singling out a few anomalies and pointing to them and saying it is the average. Not to mention that the contributions for health insurance and pension for the police and fire fighters are quite a bit higher than that of teachers, librarians, other other non-safety public workers and yet they are exempted. Even though the Police & Fire Fighters are exempt and at risk of losing that exemption they are taking the side of the public workers. Finally, do either you anonymous or Fay work in a library or in the public sector? I have to think that the answer is no and then I wonder what you are doing making comments on the online version of a professional journal article.
Proud Library Employee
I do indeed work in a public library; in fact I have over 20 years experience - unfortunately the much touted intellectual freedom espoused by our profession only extends to those who tow the liberal progressive line. Hence the anonymous posts.
Agreed
Agree with you totally anonymous. They are young and easily swayed by their library school instructors (I myself having just graduated less than a year ago but older and not so easily swayed).
Anonymous
I agree with anonymous but in some ways I disagree with the second anonymous. I have worked in libraries all my life. I have seen card catalogs come and go. I have seen laser discs replaced with vhs and vhs replaced with dvd and I am confident that within a few years all this yelling and screaming will not matter because it will be over and the library will be quiet again. Or I will retire. Or I will be forced to retire.
Young, maybe. Easily Swayed, not so much.
As a current library student in Madison, I do believe that everyone does have a right to express their opinions and beliefs, including those who truly, however strange I think it is, believe that cutting public employees rights will somehow help libraries. But do not say that those students who organized this event, who have been at the capital most days, are just there because of what our library professors say. I know all of the people pictured, and I consider them not only exceptionaly smart and independent minded people, but I also know that this is something they came up with themselves. Professors, at least in my classes, have discussed it in passing but by the time this march took place had said nothing of their personal feelings on the matter. Give us future librarains some credit. If we were swayed that easily, we would speak rather poorly for the future of the profession.
Bloated compensation packages... Really?
So… How many public librarians do you know with bloated compensation packages? And consider in the amount of education required Please, I’d like to know where I should move to! Furthermore, all unions involved conceded to contributions weeks ago, so the debate has not been over compensation for quite some time.
Please read the bill to be informed: http://legis.wisconsin.gov/JR1SB-11.pdf to know what is in the bill - primary source all the way.
I also suggest keeping this in mind:
“According to the analysis, state government workers earn an average of 11.4 percent less than private-sector workers of similar education and work experience and local government workers earn 12.0 percent less. Due to the greater benefits received by public sector workers, the gap narrows when these benefits are factored in, to 6.8 percent and 7.4 percent, respectively.” (read the entire piece at http://reason.org/news/show/public-sector-private-sector-salary) But of course, as librarians, we should continue to do the research. I’m not finished, yet. Are you?
Public workers make More !
Federal employees earn higher average salaries than private-sector workers in more than eight out of 10 occupations. Overall, federal workers earned an average salary of $67,691 in 2008 for occupations that exist both in government and the private sector, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The average pay for the same mix of jobs in the private sector was $60,046 in 2008, the most recent data available.Source USA Today 3/8/2010http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-04-federal-pay_N.htm So the protesters are defending the right to be over paid and still have pension/health benefits that are way more generous than the private sector - all while the state is $3.6 Billion in the Red. I can hear it now - “no justice - no peace” Give me a break !!!
details
The proposed plan simply require workers to pay their fair share “Governor Walker’s budget repair bill strikes a fair balance—asking public employees to make a modest 5.8% pension contribution, which is about the national average, and 12.6% health insurance contribution, which is about half the national average.”As for collective bargaining – the bill would only limit the union’s ability to engage in collective bargaining when it comes to benefits. The unions could still engage in collective bargaining for wages.
we could bargain for wage increases only UP to cost of living
This is great! We can ask for wages that keep up with increased cost of living—or LESS of course. Oh, thank you so much for allowing me to perhaps keep up with inflation (but probably not, I personally haven’t had a raise equal to the cost of living increase in 16 years. In fact I make FAR less now than I did a decade ago, ajusted for rates of inflation, according to http://www.opm.gov/retire/annuity/cola/colalist.asp and http://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/colaseries.html). So public workers can beg for wages that keep us under the COLA increases. And nothing else. Talk about a race to the bottom. Thank you so much for allowing us the right to bargain for not even keeping up with inflation. My sarcasm refelcts my frustration here. The budget deficit in WI, where I’ve lived for 17 years, can be dealt with by a combination of increasing pension/insurance rates from the public sector, increased taxation of corporations and the 1-5% of the wealthiest citizens, and a progressive system of fees such as increased vehicle registration on very expensive cars (a person making $18,000/year with a $1000 junker shouldn’t pay the same registration fees as the person making $180,000 with a $30,000 car). In other words, EVERYONE tightens their belt and chips in, not just middle class public employees.Pubic sector workers have already conceeded the benefit buy-in increases, despite the fact that many of them are unsure how they’ll make their house payments now, and despite the fact that they have collectively bargained for good benefits while accepting wage cuts. The benefits many public sector workers get (not me, mind!) are in fact deferred wages, agreed to in response to fiscal crises.I’ve been to protests in Madison, Horicon, Beaver Dam, and Juneau. I live here. And I can tell you that a) if people out of state are protesting in solidarity, thank you! and b) I don’t really see those out-of-staters, I see my neighbors. Regardless, why would it be a sin for someone in another state to stand with the public workers in WI? This is a national issue.
reality
All that you say may be true - but bear in mind the rest of the State is suffering under 7% unemployement and over 20% of homes are underwater. Couple that with the $3.6 billion dollars budget defeicit and you start seeing why public emplyees need to pick -up the slack and pay a fair share of their benefits. So sorry you have to put a little skin in the game as they say.
working people pitted against working people
I don’t know why working people are so ready to speak out against a living wage (and basic health care) for other working people. Why don’t they get incensed about the low tax rates the wealthy make? What about corporate subsidies? David Koch, Koch Industries oil billionaire, and key contributer to Gov. Walker’s campaign, is laughing all the way to the bank. Why does the budget always have to be balanced on the backs of the middle class? It’s sad that so many people swallow the Republican & Tea Party propaganda hook, line & sicker. And finally: the unions already made wage & benefit concessions: they gave up the money: Gov. Walker just wants to decimate unions. Anyone watch the recent PBS show about the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire? Those were the good old ‘pre-union’ days, weren’t they?
election results
Sorry to inform you that those who as you put it “swallow the Republican & Tea Party propaganda hook, line & sicker” have every right to believe waht they do - they also spoke loudly at the last election - the result was a huge victory for the Republicans - you need a reality check.
Walker's Bill
I have seen quite a few Republicans at the protest rallies in Madison demanding Walker stop this bill. Despite what the media is trying to make this out to be, this is more of a class war than a clash of political parties. Walker is attacking public workers when statistics show that the private sector makes more than public workers do. This is a manufactured crisis as the budget was actually in a pretty good place before Walker stepped in. And although collective bargaining is the huge issue on the table, this bill will also cut funds for recycling, public transport, and Medicare. Look at who is most affected by this bill: teachers, nurses, the elderly, and the poor. Who benefits the most? Check out the kickbacks the Koch brother/oil industry is getting from Walker. Why support the rich getting richer? Wake up—there is a reason so many people are protesting. I am a librarian (15 years) who is not in a union, but I know I reap benefits from the unions—they negotiate the deals that have repercussions for everyone.
straw man
Attacking the rich - not that is a hoot - The “Rich” are the fiolks who own small businesses - they are responsible for the vasy majority of all new jobs created ( according to the Small Business Administration ) http://www.inc.com/news/articles/200708/data.html. Yet somehow it make sens to villify the very folks who will keep the economy chugging along which means that more people are able to pay their sales/property/income taxes that fund libraries !!!
Hmm
Small businesses don’t create jobs just because they get a tax break. They create jobs when business is going so well that they can’t handle the work load with existing staff. For many small businesses, business doesn’t improve when middle class workers have less money to spend. There are certainly small business owners that do not support this bill. Some are giving discounts to state workers who show their state ID. Others are making public statements against the bill. Some are joining the rallies to show their support. We’re all in this together.
people have spoken
We are indeed all in this together - and the way all of us get a voice is through elections. Based on the results of the November election by my count the protestors are in the minority; after many years of “progressive” democratic majorities - it is time to let the Governor try his way. The beauty of the system is that you will have another chance to change things at the next election.