No class in WI as teachers protest union-busting governor

[Salodin]

wages at cost of living? Wtf, do they check your bills and pay like, that exact amount? wtf plow. lol

On a larger scale, yes this is what they're doing.

[guartz]

Alrighty then. You guys get down with your bad selves.

[archibaldcrane]

The bill does say "inflation", not "COLA - Cost of Living Allowance" - however either figure would've essentially meant the same thing.

And since Guartz has no idea what COLA is, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_living

[guartz]

The bill does say "inflation", not "COLA - Cost of Living Allowance" - however either figure would've essentially meant the same thing.

And since Guartz has no idea what COLA is, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_living

Bah, I know what it is. You think I'm from Australia? I was just mocking the poor fellow for saying that wages are capped at COLA.

[aurik]

After being thoroughly discredited again, I have nothing to add to this topic so instead I will just nitpick

o, ok

[Acturus]

Interesting, if timely, NYT OP-ED post:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/op...07krugman.html

Degrees and Dollars
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: March 6, 2011

It is a truth universally acknowledged that education is the key to economic success. Everyone knows that the jobs of the future will require ever higher levels of skill. That’s why, in an appearance Friday with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, President Obama declared that “If we want more good news on the jobs front then we’ve got to make more investments in education.”

But what everyone knows is wrong.

The day after the Obama-Bush event, The Times published an article about the growing use of software to perform legal research. Computers, it turns out, can quickly analyze millions of documents, cheaply performing a task that used to require armies of lawyers and paralegals. In this case, then, technological progress is actually reducing the demand for highly educated workers.

And legal research isn’t an isolated example. As the article points out, software has also been replacing engineers in such tasks as chip design. More broadly, the idea that modern technology eliminates only menial jobs, that well-educated workers are clear winners, may dominate popular discussion, but it’s actually decades out of date.

The fact is that since 1990 or so the U.S. job market has been characterized not by a general rise in the demand for skill, but by “hollowing out”: both high-wage and low-wage employment have grown rapidly, but medium-wage jobs — the kinds of jobs we count on to support a strong middle class — have lagged behind. And the hole in the middle has been getting wider: many of the high-wage occupations that grew rapidly in the 1990s have seen much slower growth recently, even as growth in low-wage employment has accelerated.

Why is this happening? The belief that education is becoming ever more important rests on the plausible-sounding notion that advances in technology increase job opportunities for those who work with information — loosely speaking, that computers help those who work with their minds, while hurting those who work with their hands.

Some years ago, however, the economists David Autor, Frank Levy and Richard Murnane argued that this was the wrong way to think about it. Computers, they pointed out, excel at routine tasks, “cognitive and manual tasks that can be accomplished by following explicit rules.” Therefore, any routine task — a category that includes many white-collar, nonmanual jobs — is in the firing line. Conversely, jobs that can’t be carried out by following explicit rules — a category that includes many kinds of manual labor, from truck drivers to janitors — will tend to grow even in the face of technological progress.

And here’s the thing: Most of the manual labor still being done in our economy seems to be of the kind that’s hard to automate. Notably, with production workers in manufacturing down to about 6 percent of U.S. employment, there aren’t many assembly-line jobs left to lose. Meanwhile, quite a lot of white-collar work currently carried out by well-educated, relatively well-paid workers may soon be computerized. Roombas are cute, but robot janitors are a long way off; computerized legal research and computer-aided medical diagnosis are already here.

And then there’s globalization. Once, only manufacturing workers needed to worry about competition from overseas, but the combination of computers and telecommunications has made it possible to provide many services at long range. And research by my Princeton colleagues Alan Blinder and Alan Krueger suggests that high-wage jobs performed by highly educated workers are, if anything, more “offshorable” than jobs done by low-paid, less-educated workers. If they’re right, growing international trade in services will further hollow out the U.S. job market.

So what does all this say about policy?

Yes, we need to fix American education. In particular, the inequalities Americans face at the starting line — bright children from poor families are less likely to finish college than much less able children of the affluent — aren’t just an outrage; they represent a huge waste of the nation’s human potential.

But there are things education can’t do. In particular, the notion that putting more kids through college can restore the middle-class society we used to have is wishful thinking. It’s no longer true that having a college degree guarantees that you’ll get a good job, and it’s becoming less true with each passing decade.

So if we want a society of broadly shared prosperity, education isn’t the answer — we’ll have to go about building that society directly. We need to restore the bargaining power that labor has lost over the last 30 years, so that ordinary workers as well as superstars have the power to bargain for good wages. We need to guarantee the essentials, above all health care, to every citizen.

What we can’t do is get where we need to go just by giving workers college degrees, which may be no more than tickets to jobs that don’t exist or don’t pay middle-class wages.

[Demosthenes11]

that is a great article

[archibaldcrane]

The thing is, automation of tasks using more efficient computers and/or machinery isn't a bad thing, it amounts directly towards humans, as a whole, getting more production out of less labor.

The problem is that the benefits of that production aren't shared by humanity, they are collected by those at the top. And since those at the top don't even pay as much of their income in taxes as those in the upper-middle class, they don't even "give back" what they should when they increase their income via automation.

We should be pushing for greater standards of living for ourselves as a society - working fewer hours for better pay. The economy keeps growing at a rate faster than the population, but due to income polarization, those who aren't on the top don't get any of the benefits of the expanding economy, the efficiency of automation, etc. etc.

No matter what role you play in creating wealth for the country, you only get to benefit if you're on top.

[Melena]

Since they can no longer bargain on benefits, i'm waiting for the bidding on official insurance carriers for the state to begin. Incoming huge co-pays with stupidly large deductibles and caps on coverage for everyone not a firefighter/police officer.

[Plow]

Bah, I know what it is. You think I'm from Australia? I was just mocking the poor fellow for saying that wages are capped at COLA.

protip: inflation is an increase in the cost of living

[Dalek]

Bill Gates on state budgets and education.

[Melchiah]

Didn't see this posted yet.



1:35 is the key point.

Can someone PM me a quick run down of how to properly embed video, or a link to such information? I'm unable to figure it out on my own.

[Athas]

Quick question, but I remember seeing a Daily Show clip in which Fox showed a poll that was 60/30 agreeing/disagreeing with Walker then later that day had to admit they had that backwards but I can’t seem to find it, does anyone have a link offhand?

[The Blackrose]

Got a phone call from my mother this afternoon, looks like the "passing" of the bill has put her job in jeopardy. Luckily she gets health insurance through my father's military benefits.

Also, the farmers were in Madison this weekend.

EDIT: Warning - Turn volume down slightly, someone decided it was awesome to scream into the camera.

[Kurokikaze]

My ears hurt now... unnecessary amount of cheering from the person holding the camera (or someone nearby).

All in all a very passionate speech. I just wish this was the president rallying the middle class together against the right and its corporate buddies. The guy has the biggest megaphone in the country - if he says it like that people will listen.

[Kuya]

But that would be so indecent if he were to do that.

[Talint]

Got a phone call from my mother this afternoon, looks like the "passing" of the bill has put her job in jeopardy. Luckily she gets health insurance through my father's military benefits.

So much for the bill's passage being able to "save people's jobs".

[archibaldcrane]

My mom (who works at UW-Madison Hospital) said that a lot of the part time low level employees there are taking serious hits to their pay, begging her for more shifts/flex time so they don't have to pay as much for child care, etc.

[Plow]

Quick question, but I remember seeing a Daily Show clip in which Fox showed a poll that was 60/30 agreeing/disagreeing with Walker then later that day had to admit they had that backwards but I can’t seem to find it, does anyone have a link offhand?

don't have a link but this whole time I've been finding it more and more hilarious how the thread title starts out with "No class in Wisconsin"

[Acturus]

I read this, liked reading it, and then did a doubletake at the source:

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/...-lives-better/

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Watching Uproar Over Wisconsin Protests, It's Time to Remember How Unions Make Our Lives Better
By Sally Kohn

Published March 10, 2011

If you’re cheering on Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s decision to destroy both democracy and working families by ramming through anti-union legislation backed by big business, shame on you! I’m sick of unions being vilified by conservative commentators and voters alike who, in fact, have very directly and tangibly benefited from unionization.

In the 1920s, before the peak of the union movement, income inequality and wealth distribution in America reached dangerous proportions. Incomes for the nation as a whole were barely keeping pace with inflation while incomes for the top 1% of Americans skyrocketed up seventy-five percent. Unions, along with a host of New Deal era accomplishments, helped drastically turn this tide.

In 1955, when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) was formed, Republican President Eisenhower praised the newly combined labor federation and unions in general for achieving economic prosperity for all.

It was widely accepted that following an era in which the robber barons recklessly abused workers in order to extract maximum wealth, unions were the way working class Americans could fight back together for rights, benefits and fair wages.

Which is why big business -- and big business-backed politicians like Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker -- have worked so hard to destroy unions ever since. Do you really think big business gives a damn about “our economy” or “your jobs”? Come on. They care about their bottom line. That’s what businesses do. Unions care about workers.

Unions raise the wages of workers by roughly 20% and raise total compensation, including both wage and benefits after union dues are deducted, by twenty-eight percent. The effect is even greater for low- and middle-wage workers and those without a college degree.

Unionized workers are significantly more likely than non-union workers to get paid leave, employer-provided health insurance and employer-provided pension plans (in fact, up to 54% more likely). And unionized workers receive 26% more vacation time and 14% more paid leave.

What’s not to like about that?

But here’s the kicker: Even if you’re not in a union, unions help you. There’s an old bumper sticker that reads, “Like your weekend? Thank a union!” A bigger bumper sticker might read, “Like your weekend, your 40-hour work week, your workers compensation program, your employee benefits, your minimum wage, your safety standards on the job? Thank a union.”

But that’s not all.

Unions set a standard that even non-unionized workplaces have to follow. For example, a high school graduate who works in a field that is only 25% unionized earns 5% more than similar workers in less unionized industries. Wouldn’t you take a 5% raise right now?

And no, workers who get good salaries and benefits aren’t taking money out of your pocket. They’re taking it from CEO salaries and bonuses. The top five big banks on Wall Street set aside $89.54 billion for bonuses last year --- only a 2.8% decline from the previous year, even though profits were down four percent. In other words, even with lower profits, big business across the country can afford to pay executives a small fortune. They can easily afford to pay decent wage and benefits to average workers.

The same is true for public sector employees. States across the country have been slashing wages and benefits for teachers and other public servants in order to give obscene tax breaks to big business and the super-rich. Note that in Wisconsin, 60% of corporations making more than $1 million per year in revenues pay zero taxes. Zero.

Anti-union oligarchs literally want to take money from working people and put it in the pockets of the super-rich. If you’re against that, find a union and join it.

For the record, unions primarily target large industries and employers so the “this hurts small business” argument is nothing but a distraction. Plus, if a small business is paying such abysmal wages that the unionization of the industry pushes the small business to also raise pay, good --- they shouldn’t have been so low in the first place.

And also for the record, many of the talking heads who rail against unions are, in fact, union members. Most every television and radio show host, for instance, belongs to the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. They may resent having to be in structures to which they’re so ideologically opposed, but the fact is that their good wages and benefits and working conditions were won and are preserved by their union.

And when these same talking heads suggest that we don’t need unions to level the economic playing field, that plenty of poor people grow up to be rich, most of the examples they cite are union members, too.

Baseball players who rose from the ghetto to the major league? It wasn’t until they unionized that baseball players got rich.

Actors? Unionized, including recent Oscar winner actress Natalie Portman who thanked the Screen Actors Guild union for making sure she got an education and was protected as a child actor.

Anti-union policies hurt all workers. The average worker in a so-called “Right-to-Work” state that hinders unionization makes $5,538 per year less than workers in free bargaining states. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, workplace death rates are 52.9% higher in “Right-to-Work” states than free bargaining states. “Right-to-Work” states have higher rates of poverty, higher infant mortality rates and lower percentages of residents with health insurance.

This is simple. The vast majority of Americans think it’s wrong that 400 obscenely rich people hold more wealth and power than the assets of 155 million ordinary Americans combined. Why? Because it is wrong.
Such monstrous inequality and lack of opportunity for ordinary Americans is not a sign that capitalism is broken but a sign that our economy and politics have been rigged to work for the very few at the top. And since the same few rich people and big businesses at the top make most of the political contributions in our country, politicians are woefully skittish to challenge their greed.

And that's why the final reason to thank a union, the organized voice -- and yes, political money, too -- large enough to stand up to the otherwise-unchecked disastrous power of big businesses that care nothing about you or our economy and care only about their profit. That’s not what America is about.

That's why we let people vote to join unions, to stand up together for working Americans and to fulfill the vision of freedom and equality for which our nation was founded. -- Just like we let people vote anti-democratic, anti-working families politicians out of office.

Sally Kohn is a community organizer and political commentator. She is the Founder and Chief Education Officer of the Movement Vision Lab.

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