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03.08.2011 0

Wisconsin Faces Layoffs After Democrats Flee

Wisconsin Labor Protests

By Adam Bitely –

The public employee union fueled absence of Wisconsin State Senate Democrats has caused a complete stall on important budgetary matters facing the legislature. As a result, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has been forced to begin immediately laying off state employees. Governor Walker announced last Friday that the layoff notices would be immediately delivered to 1,500 state employees saving the state $30 million.

These layoffs did not have to happen. The layoffs were forced upon Governor Walker. He was left with few options after Senate Democrats chose to go “missing” for weeks on end.

This abdication of responsibility by the Senate Democrats exposes the true motives behind the powerful public-sector unions in the Wisconsin budget battle. Big Labor and their Senate Democrat pawns have shown that this is about political power and the bank accounts of the unions and not about the state employees they represent. The unions, after all, are claiming to promote state employees best interests.

Even though Senate Democrats announced on Sunday that they are considering a return to Wisconsin in the not-too-distant future, the Democrats and their union masters have already abandoned those that they claim to be fighting for. Rather than come to the table and reach a resolution on the fiscal crisis that Wisconsin faces, these 14 Democrat charlatans that flew the coop would rather cause state employees to be out of a job than to risk the ire of the public employee unions.

Where is the union demanding that these 14 Democrats return to prevent the layoffs that these Wisconsin employees face? Are the unions and Democrats really looking out for the best interests of these 1,500 employees and tens of thousands of others?

What irony the unions and Democrats face as they continue to hold out.

The bloat of government in Wisconsin and in many other states has been allowed to fester for decades. This unprecedented growth of government spending at state levels has resulted in powerful public sector unions that have profited off of the taxpayers. In turn, the unions spend their massive taxpayer-funded war chests electing and buying off left-wing politicians to do their bidding inside of state legislatures.

When access to the taxpayer dime is threatened, the union throws a fit and shuts down the legislature until someone screams “uncle!” And the union doesn’t want to be the one saying that.

And when the Senate Democrats return to Wisconsin, they will not end their fight to keep the power in the hands of Big Labor. According to the Wall Street Journal, several public-sector unions have stated that they have agreed to the fiscal concessions inside of Governor Walker’s plan, but they will not budge on Walker’s proposed ending of collective bargaining rights.

Part of Governor Walker’s plan calls for state employees to vote annually to certify the union. Currently, the union never has to have a certification vote. Big Labor is scared that they won’t be able to win annual certification votes. After all, why would anyone want to be part of an organization that shanghai’s your paycheck to pay for the sort of representation they are currently getting?

Big Labor claims that they will come to the table on fiscal issues, but when it comes to curbing the power that the labor unions hold over the state employees, they won’t give an inch. The Democrats and Unions have made their position clear. They are on the side of keeping power and raiding the taxpayer, and are against anything that stands in the way of that. Wisconsin state employees better watch their backs; this group has already sold out 1,500 of them.

Adam Bitely is the Editor-in-Chief of NetRightDaily.com. You can follow Adam on Twitter at @AdamBitely.

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