In Illinois there is a gubernatorial race between Incumbent Pat Quinn and 1%er Bruce Rauner. Rauner, perpetually states his low expectations for his success by letting everyone know his role model is Scott Walker.
Rauner said: "We may have to go through rough times. We may have to do
what Ronald Reagan did with the air traffic controllers. Sort of have to
do a do-over and shut things down for a little while. That's what we're
gonna do."
To all of our friends, neighbors, family, acquaintances, and other public workers who decided to take part in our democracy and emailed your elected representative during the Scott Walker caused protests.
LOCK YOUR DOORS
DO NOT ANSWER YOUR TELEPHONE
MONITOR YOUR CHILDREN
CHANGE YOUR EMAIL
GET YOUR RESUME READY
Your life is going to be very complicated very soon.
In his upcoming book, he re-tells of a time that he cracked his staff up by reading the "Top Ten Ways to tell if you Might be a Member of a public sector union":
10.) You take a week off to protest in Wisconsin and your office runs better.
9.) On a snow day when they say “non-essential” people should stay home you know who they mean.
8.) You get paid
twice as much as a private sector person doing the same job but make up
the difference by doing half as much work.
7.) It takes longer to fire you than the average killer spends on death row.
6.) The worse you do your job, the more your boss avoids you.
5.) You think the French are working themselves to death.
4.) You know by having a copy of the Holy Koran on your desk your job is 100% safe.
3.) You spend more time at protest marches than at church.
2.) You have a Democratic congressman’s lips permanently attached to your butt.
1.) You pay more in union dues than you do for your healthcare insurance.
At some point, you would think that all of his lies would catch up to him and the good people of WI, would have had enough!
Right?
“The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know they're lying, they know
we know they're lying, but they keep lying to us, and we keep
pretending to believe them.”
―
Elena Gorokhova,
A Mountain of Crumbs
What
are the city's top issues? "We will continue to make sure that we
preserve the water that has been awarded us by the ADWR (Arizona
Department of Water Resources)," Kuykendall said, adding that the city
would also work to "respect and honor the commitment" to the Verde
River, and the "obligations to the people of the Verde."
Kuykendall also cited continued growth of the economy as a top priority. "We want to be a part of job creation," he said.
In addition, he said, he want to ensure "Prescott will always have the quality of life component, the neighborhood quality."
Andrew Ashcraft, a 29-year-old member of the Granite Mountain
Hotshots, died beside 18 of his comrades when a wildfire engulfed
them on June 30. The elite firefighters from
Prescott, Ariz., were battling a wild-land blaze near Yarnell,
which was sparked by a lightning strike. The fire quickly grew
into an inferno that destroyed hundreds of homes and covered more
than 2,000 acres.
Only one member of the 20-person Hotshot crew survived the blaze,
and the families of the 19 victims were promised a half-million
dollars or more in government benefits and private donations. The
city promised all families a one-time payment of $328,618 and
lifetime survivor benefits.
But now the city of Prescott is retracting its promise, claiming
that 13 of the deceased firefighters were seasonal employees,
thus making their families ineligible for survivor benefits –
including health insurance, a life insurance payment, and monthly
lifetime survivor benefits that could amount to several million
dollars in the long run.
Juliann Ashcraft, whose husband died fighting the blaze, has been
told that she will not receive the benefits that she was
initially promised. The city of Prescott told her that full
family survivor benefits will only be awarded to the families of
full-time employees. The city claims that Mr. Ashcraft was a
seasonal employee, despite the fact that he worked 40-hour weeks
and earned a full-time salary.
Not ONLY did they renig on their promise to take care of their local heroes who gave their lives for their community they were extremely cold about it!
“As shocked as I was that my husband went to work and never
came home, I’m equally shocked in how the city has treated our
family since then,” she told CBS News. “…I said to [city
officials], ‘My husband was a full-time employee, he went to work
full-time for you.’ And their response to me was, ‘Perhaps there
was a communication issue in your marriage
Once again, the rest of America has to step up and pay the bills for the "fiscally conservative" republicans in charge of a Government.
For now, Mrs. Ashcraft will feed her family using private
donations she received after her husband’s death.
“Quite literally, my bills are being paid by the good people
of the world who are giving donations, because the city of
Prescott isn’t doing anything for us,” she said. “Now I
have four kids and myself, and I don’t know what I’m going to
do.”
This is how Arizona treats their public workers, who they apparently think of their families as "takers" and "love them" so much they are going to make sure they are not reliant on benefits and health insurance paid for by the taxpayers(those are reserved for the politicians)!
At least they can justify it by it "being legal"(where have we heard that):
Deborah Pfingston, the mother of deceased firefighter Andrew
Ashcraft, told AP that city officials initially promised to
retroactively reclassify the seasonal, temporary employees as
permanent ones, in order to be able to provide the survivor
benefits. But now, the same city officials claim they cannot
posthumously reclassify the deceased men.
“The city has fully complied with all of the laws and
employment policies that direct survivor benefits,” the city
said in a statement sent to CBS News.
If you think for a minute that the Wisconsin republican contingent of Scott Walker, Robin Vos, Scott Fitzgerald et al. would not do this exact same thing to our public workers, if given the chance - I pray you never find out(because i hate to say I told you so)!
The Journal Sentinel says Walker likened his
public union philosophy to that of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, saying the
former president felt "that there wasn't a need for collective
bargaining in the public sector "because the government is the people."
Walker
says if Detroit were in Wisconsin, Detroit wouldn't be declaring
bankruptcy. And if Chicago were in Wisconsin, Mayor Rahm Emmanuel would
be successful with his school reforms.
Contentious legislation passed in Wisconsin in 2011 repealed collective bargaining for most public employees
Apparently in Walker's fantasy land, public workers making a living wage was more costly to Detroit than the outsourcing of millions of jobs.
Two-and-a-half years after mostly sparing police officers and
firefighters, Gov. Scott Walker said this week he is open to the idea of
limiting their ability to collectively bargain.
Such a move would undercut the few unions where he has found support.
The unions for Milwaukee officers and firefighters, for example, were
among those that endorsed Walker in 2010 and in the 2012 attempt to
recall him from office.
In an era where politicians like Ron Johnson and Paul Ryan refuse to talk to anyone but the extreme right, and politicians like Rebecca Kleefisch and Paul Ryan refuse to debate their opponent, the era of transparency is eroding., This is a time when we need our media the most. Unfortunately, Gannetts media latest series attacking public workers under the ruse of more information to the public, is a wolf in sheep's clothing! I asked to speak to reporter Eric Litke about this series and, after he reviewed this blog, was turned down by editor Dan Flannery.
Unfortunately Flannery starts out on a false basis, so lets help him correct it via an expansive Watchdog reporting effort from CogDis WI:
1. First they say they are getting salary information from all public workers because "we the taxpayers" are their employers!(Litke even used the term Boss: " We obviously aren't going to print addresses and
phone numbers, but basic info like identities and salaries should be
available to us like it would any boss.").
CD: That premise on its own is INCORRECT. Do we really think that we are the employers of the local math teacher? The law school professor at UW-Madison? the snowplow driver? Custodian at the Capitol? Am I in Madison the "Boss" of the person who works buildings and ground at UW- Stout? Of course not and this false premise is what has caused much division in this state.
I would not think that I needed to explain this to someone who has had 27 years experience in the newspaper industry but apparently I do. There is either a chain of command or there is chaos. " We the taxpayers" are the "boss" of the local elected representatives(say school board). The School Board is then in turn, the "boss" of the local administration, who is then the "boss" of the teaching staff.
The term Boss means in this context: a. An employer or a supervisor or b. One who makes decisions or exercises authority. Does Gannett really think that taxpayers do that with public employees or should? In our Constitutionally Limited democratic republic, we have a system of checks and balances in the government that is supposed to be in charge of making these decisions in a line flow basis. It is truly unfortunate that what passes as media did not understand that.
2. They say they have included all public employees: The result is a collection of more than 250,000 names, covering every Wisconsin public
employee earning more than $25,000 in the most recent available fiscal
year. The listing includes state, federal and U.S. Postal Service
employees, as well as those who work in Wisconsin’s 72 counties; 91
cities, towns or villages with a population of 10,000 or more; 26
University of Wisconsin campuses; 16 technical colleges and 424 public school districts.
CD: See who is noticeably missing? Elected officials and their staff of course, No sense in letting people know exactly how much money and how many staffers their elected officials have. These are the people who the taxpayers are, in theory, the Boss of! It might blow some of the arguments that the right has been using the last two years....now back to focusing on the kindergarten teachers...
3. Every Wisconsin public
employee earning more than $25,000 in the most recent available fiscal
year.
That is purely and simply because public workers making less than $25.000/yr do not fit the "public workers are overpaid" meme. When the general public wokers, who you know are doing an honorable job serving the public on a daily basis, then you find out they are not even making $25,000/yr, it really blows holes in the public workers are paid to much meme.
4. "We do point out pay differences between one area of the public sector Vs. another comparable area. That is our responsibility."
Again what is missing is education, years of education, extra credits, job descriptions, class sizes, classes taught, personnel reviews etc...(all of which are available via public records the same way the limited information they obtained and shared). They also fail to explain where they came up with their numbers for benefits costs.
5. How much do the reporters publishing public workers salaries make?
Eric Litke:
Paul:
I figured this question would come. :-) The simple answer is that I'm
not a public employee, and the general public has no more right to know
what I make than they do any other private worker. Public employees work
for the taxpayers, so there is a direct taxpayer interest in what they
are paid, since it's our money.
The answer of course is mind your own business, because the fact that advertising rates, subscription rates, the prices we have to pay at establishments that advertise their products in the paper, classified advertising rates, taxes they pay, deductions they take, etc... all are related to what Gannett pays their employees.
6. Since public workers have been demonized over the last two year, you know that people will use these numbers to harass and attack. Do you feel a little bad about that at all? Eric Litke: preese:
We're here to educate and inform. If people use this data to make
unfair, inflammatory statements, it doesn't seem fair to hold us
accountable for that, does it? Gannett is washing their hands of all responsibility for any consequences that come up from this online database. Which I am assuming includes if someone is trying to hide from a past abusive partner or spouse. We should also keep in mind that when "Verify the recall" put up a database of people who signed the petition to recall Scott Walker, it was Gannett themselves that used the information to harass their own employees!
If you are a subscriber, I would also highly recommend, calling up Customer Service and let them know that you would like to cancel your subscription:
For customer service call: 1-877-424-5639 (toll free).
Hours are Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything. Except what
is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having
tradesman-like habits, supplies their demands. ~Oscar Wilde
However, amongst all of the numbers, one has really stood out with me and I have a hard time digesting it. It is this one:
But voters in union households who weren't union members themselves split almost evenly. As the Washington Postnotes,
Barrett won those voters 51 percent to 48 percent. That's a
disappointing number for Democrats and labor. If they wanted to recall
Walker, unions needed massive support from the rank-and-file and their
spouses. That didn't happen Tuesday.
Just to be clear, in households where one spouse is in the union and one is not, the non union spouse voted for Scott Walker half of the time. No wonder the divorce rate in WI is up! While it shows that Scott Walker's "divide and conquer" strategy was so successful it applied to individual households. It also amazes me that in these households, a spouse would be so selfish to think that their life partner would be overpaid and under worked? If your spouse thinks so little of you, is that really someone you want to spend your life with?
In full disclosure, my wife is a school social worker in one of the most politically engaged schools in Madison. Many teachers, who are from overpaid, and are not the "haves of society" no matter what Scott Walker has to say:
On Wednesday morning, the day after the recall election, while republicans were gloating, and gloating, and gloating and even gloating from out of state, while still licking their wounds over all of the hard work they had done for the past 16 months working on the recall, had to deal with a crisis situation.
The staff(the 'haves" who have had their salary cut significantly with more to come) were forced into a code red situation, along with their fellow persecuted public workers and "haves", the local police department, worked together to thwart a local gang act of serious violence.
While the right wing who has demonized public workers this past year, were gloating and the local newspaper was whining about recalls and democracy in action, the state workers that they have spent massive amounts of time demonizing were busy making our community a better place. ALL going above and beyond their job descriptions to do so ( More disclosure, I have a teacher certification and no where in my classes did we ever learn about how to deal with serious gang violence).
While the community has no idea what the vast majority of public workers that they have spent the time demonizing, they should know how impossible it would be to live without what they do.
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