Reader, did you watch the incredibly excellent PBS show called “ZOOM?” Do you remember a feature called “Fannee Doolee”? If not – I’m sorry for your childhood – but it’s a word game that goes like this:
Fannee Doolee likes sleeping, but doesn’t like resting.
Fannee Doolee likes luggage, but doesn’t like suitcases.
Fannee Doolee likes soccer, but doesn’t like hockey.
Why do you think that is? I won’t spoil the answer for you, but I do have a sort of Fannee Doolee of my own. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker likes business, but doesn’t like workers. Why do you think that is?
I’ll explain. Walker recently proposed legislation that, amongst a variety of harmful-to-the-workers policy changes, would effectively kill or seriously injure collective bargaining rights for public employees who happened to be union members.
Should this legislation pass, it would limit or remove the ability of these workers to negotiate with their employer – the state. Workers employed by Wisconsin would no longer be able to go to their union, if necessary, to fight for a fair work-week, training, better pay, overtime, and so forth.
These changes were allegedly proposed due to state budget deficits, and so from some media sources, the story has been “state fights back against greedy workers.” I believe this cannot be true.
These employees are not on strike because they just want more money to line their mansions in suburban Madison. They are on strike because they want to protect their right to occasionally talk to the people employing them and maintain fair and livable working conditions. An individual is easy to replace and so has little bargaining power – all of the workers bargaining together are much more difficult to replace, so the employer has more reason to negotiate and make concessions.
Eliminating this right has nothing to do with repairing the budget. You don’t save money by making it impossible for workers to negotiate with management.
The unions have been willing to concede the financial elements of this budget bill, so long as they retain bargaining rights. That said, Walker is clearly willing to ruin his state to “save” it, recently unveiling the full horror of his budget proposal in which state aid to schools is reduced by 843 MILLION DOLLARS. He promises 250,000 private sector jobs over the next four years, but I’d be willing to bet he’s not counting on Wisconsin schoolchildren to apply for any of them.
That same budget reduction also prevents local officials from raising property taxes to deal with that shortfall. So, I guess it never rains, but it pours down anti-education, anti-union (anti-working class) budget bills.
The media has had a bit of fun drawing parallels between protests here in America and protests in the Middle East. Fannee Doolee likes the freedom of democracy but isn’t so much a fan of unions, I suppose. The scary thing, though, is that in terms of, well, terms – there’s a bit of a connection. Mubarak ruled his country by declaring a 30-year-long “state of emergency,” which basically gave him carte blanche to run roughshod over his people. Walker declared a budget crisis, which gives him the excuse to smash state unions. You can get people to agree to crazy things by claiming to be in a state of crisis. Our own news media has been making it seem as though protestors on both sides of the issue have been turning out in equal numbers. I talked to one Maia Perez, who happens to hail from the chilly state, and informs me that, according to the Madison Police, a recent protest drew 70,000-100,000 people demonstrating against the bill and roughly 2,000-4,000 for it.
“Having been there,” she wrote, “I think even that [2000-4000] is overly generous.” Egyptian state media suggested similar things before everything fell apart.
I’m not suggesting that Wisconsinites overthrow Scott Walker, but I am suggesting that it is vital for not only those in Wisconsin but workers across the nation that this bill is shut down. I applaud those currently occupying the state capitol and the Democratic state politicians who are trying to hold up the vote by leaving the state.
We cannot allow bargaining rights to fall in one state, or else we might see them disappear piece by piece across the country. We cannot allow a governor – in the name of smaller, cheaper government – to cut down on the rights of the workers.
Those of us not in Wisconsin need to be sure that we are getting the story from reliable sources, and if a similar bill comes to our own state, we must urge our politicians to vote it down. For if we lose bargaining rights in one state, it will signal grave danger for unions – and workers – nationwide. Should workers nationwide lose these bargaining rights, our collective welfare – all Americans – will be at risk. If Fannee Doolee has her priorities in order, she’ll like collective bargaining rights but not union busters.
Noah Berman is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences.
