Total Recall: Taming of the Union Shrew

In the La Crosse area, the "Recall Election of 2011" begins next week with the primary contest between Jennifer (Jen to her friends) Shilling and James Smith, a protest candidate supported by Republicans.  The winner takes on (the Prince of Darkness) Senator Dan Kapanke, a two-term Republican and local businessman.

Why the recall?

Just in case you've been under a rock somewhere, the recall effort is in response to Democrats who are fighting mad at the Republican-controlled legislature in Madison for passing a budget repair bill that includes changes to collective bargaining by public employee unions.  As a result, they want to throw out anyone responsible for voting for it, which by the way, balances the Wisconsin state budget.

Here's what the union-backed Democrats are mad about:

.  employees must pay at least 12.6% of the average cost of annual health insurance premiums
.  5.8 % of employee salaries goes toward their pension plans.

Changes to their collective bargaining include:
.  total wage increases for union members cannot exceed inflation
.  contracts are limited to one year
.  employee units are required to take annual votes to remain certification as a union
.  employers are prohibited from collecting union dues
.  employee units are not required to pay union dues

In addition, the repair bill prevents limited term employees from being eligible for health care and pension benefits.  It also allows appointing agencies to terminate any employee who is absent for 3 days without approval, or who participates in an organized effort to stop or slow work during a state of emergency.  Finally, the bill restructures Wisconsin's debt, increases revenue to Medicaid to cover a $153 million deficit and $22 million to address state prison budget shortfalls.

What did he do wrong?

Sounds pretty heartless and devastating, doesn't it?  Seriously, these people need to get a real job, then they might have something to complain about.

So does this sound like something worthy of recalls?  Typically, recalls are designed to remove people from office who had engaged in unacceptable behavior, not just because you disagree with their vote.  Recalls are not very common in Wisconsin.  In fact, there have only been four attempted recalls in our state's history.  Recalls were in 1932, 1990, 1996 and 2003 (two of which failed).  So it's really historic that there are nine recalls on this summer's docket.  And there's already efforts being made to recall Governor Walker later next year.

The answer to my earlier question -- why the recalls? -- is because public employee unions, specifically their powerful leaders and tag-along members, have much to lose if they are removed from the bargaining table.  Through union-negotiated contracts, they have used our children and schools to pad their pockets with nice working conditions, pay and benefits.  When challenged, they threatened to remove athletic and music programs because they didn't have the money.  Seriously -- we all know that the majority of school cost is in benefits, not extra-curricular programs!  Teachers claimed they were getting paid less than their private sector counterparts, despite many in my son's school earning more than $67,000 for nine months of work.  "Save the children!" they cried, all the while taking more taxpayer money for special education, more teachers, longer vacations, and low out-of-pocket health insurance.

While schools have benefited mightily from collective bargaining, other public employees have done quite well through contracts that encourage waste, fraud, and union abuse.  For example, union contracts have allowed some city employees to benefit from higher salaries through overtime, sick days and vacation pay (a Madison bus driver earned over $159,000 due to a clause in his contract that awarded him overtime pay).  In another example, a Wausau, WI school was forced to hire a paid, union crossing guard when it was discovered that an 86-year-old volunteer crossing guard didn't have proper liability insurance.  To hell with school budgets, they need to follow union orders.

Common in all collective bargaining contracts is the control by unions to set the pay, working conditions, alternative choices and cost for health care and pensions.  These monopolies have allowed unions to benefit through higher cost and control of the bargaining process.

And they protect themselves by electing powerful union bosses and school board members who support existing collective bargaining contracts.  Not only do they get to make the rules, they also get to vote on them.  And until Governor Walker and Republicans like Kapanke put their foot down on reckless spending -- unions got their way.  And like all bullies, when they were threatened, they got in our face and shouted us down to put things back in order.

Photo courtesy of Huffington Post

One of the reasons Democrats are so eager to have these recalls is because they are afraid Walker's plan could be successful.

An example of this is what's happened in the Kaukauna Area School District.  Unlike many school districts who scrambled to extend existing union contracts, the Kaukauna school board waited.  As a result, they have been able to renegotiate contracts (without fear of union threats) resulting in higher contribution rates to pension and benefit packages.  Immediately, the district had enough cash to reduce class size and provide merit pay to teachers.  What was projected as a $400,000 budget shortfall before Walker's budget bill passed, has turned into a $1.5 million surplus overnight.

Another example of the savings now available to state jurisdictions can be found in the city of Racine, Wisconsin.  County officials, unfettered by union claims of jurisdiction over certain menial-labor tasks, have put jail inmates to work performing landscaping and maintenance.  Since they don't have to pay high-earning union employees to do the work, the county now has new ways to save money.  (Six months earlier, a similar effort was crushed by a judge who ruled in favor of union complaints that having inmates work around the county courthouse violated a union contract.)

A final example is in the Hartland-Lakeside School district, which for years was required to purchase health insurance for their employees through the (Wisconsin Education Association) WEA Trust.  The WEA Trust was charging the school district significantly higher rates than available through the open market.  Changing to a different insurance company,however, was prohibited by the union leaders, because then the WEA Trust would lose the money that came with the insurance.  Governor Walker's law (removing collective bargaining) has changed that.  So now, freed from the expensive WEA Trust deal, the school district has changed insurers -- resulting in savings of about $690,000 in 2011-2012.

The new law also has the potential to improve labor discussions between teachers, city employees and public employee administrators.  When it comes time to sit down at the table to discuss contracts, administrators will now be able to openly discuss benefits and merit pay with all employees, not just a small group of teachers and union directors, who controlled what their members could and could not hear, much less decide.

It is truly amazing that some many people don't see the benefits of what is happening in Wisconsin.  National organizations supporting these unions are putting everything they have into making sure it's portrayed as bad for the working, middle-class family.  When in reality it's the best thing to happen since many of them got their first public employee paycheck.

That's why these recall elections are so important.  If the public employee unions bosses and their whiny, controlling members are successful in getting their people back in Madison, the union gravy train will continue down the tracks.  Leading us and future generations over the cliff to financial bankruptcy.

The recall battle begins on July 12th.