WISCONSIN’S SCOTT WALKER HAS BIG LABOR REELING …
|| By RICK MANNING || The Washington Post recently published a front-page article entitled “(Scott) Walker’s anti-union law has labor reeling in Wisconsin” that should be must reading for every Republican governor in the nation.
It is significant not because of the bleating and plaintive cries of those union leaders who are trying to organize in the face of public employees having a choice of whether to send dues in or not. No, it is significant because these union leaders have discovered that once their members are no longer compelled to pay for their services, they choose to spend their money in different, more personally relevant ways.
The Post reports that, “The state branch of the National Education Association [NEA], once 100,000 strong, has seen its membership drop by a third. The American Federation of Teachers, which organized in the college system, saw a 50 percent decline. The 70,000-person membership in the state employees union has fallen by 70 percent.”
When the totals are added up, in the Wisconsin NEA and the state employees union alone, 83,000 former union members, or 48 percent of the membership, have chosen to opt out when given the choice.
The situation has gotten so dire for the state American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) affiliate that they have instituted a significant cut in dues payments in an attempt to make their product more attractive to those who have rejected it.
The Post follows with their analysis of the political impact of the choice, writing, “The decline is politically significant in Wisconsin, a presidential battleground where the unions have played a central role in Democrats’ get-out-the-vote drives.”
But even in their attempt to equate the consequences to the political situation, the Post misses the most important point of all. In 2014 alone, AFSCME made almost $91 million in campaign contributions nationwide, with 99 percent of those contributions going to Democrats or left-leaning candidates according to OpenSecrets.org.
That number would have likely been even higher if not for the loss of 49,000 members in Wisconsin, which costs AFSCME as much as $7.3 million each year based upon the standard AFSCME $12.45 per capita rate for full-time employees.
The question for the Republican governors of the 20 states, other than Wisconsin, which are controlled by Republican state legislatures, is why they haven’t enacted similar changes in their states?
(To continue reading this piece, press the “Read More …” icon below).
Rick Manning is president of Americans for Limited Government. Follow him on Twitter @RManning957. This piece (reprinted with permission) originally appeared on The Hill.
11 comments
Liberal-tarians HATE any Republican who does what they claim they want. It ends the need for them.
Actually us small “l” libertarians do not hate any rino republicrat … We love ‘em to death.
But those are not the Republicans doing what FITS claims he wants done. About every move FITS makes leads to the election of Democrats…
Mmmm … I was under the impression He only voted once per election … My bad.
Why is WI’s economy in the shitter then?
They voted for it.
Contrary to what the Huffington Post, The Democrat Underground, The New York Times says about the Wisconsin economy, it is not in the shitter. Walker has done a decent job in Wisconsin, check it out. And yes, the unions are pissed and spewing crap, that’s what needs to go in the shitter.
http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.wi.htm
“Walker says that “just last month our reforms helped create 8,400 new jobs.” Not quite. As a graphic in the ad makes clear, Walker is only speaking of private-sector jobs. The state’s gain in total employment for September was actually a paltry 300 jobs. The governor is glossing over big drops in local government jobs.
Walker also says, “Wisconsin now ranks in the top four states in the Midwest for private-sector job growth.” It’s true that Wisconsin ranks fourth among the 10 Midwestern states he lists in his ad in job gains over the most recent 12 months, but it ranks fifth (in both private and total jobs) among the 12 states that make up the “Midwest” under the U.S. Census Bureau’s definition. Walker omits Missouri and Kansas.
Midwestern Job Gains Walker’s Full TermThe fact is that over Walker’s full term in office, which began Jan. 3, 2011, the state’s job gains have been well below the national average, and rank (in percentage terms) only ninth among all 12 Midwestern states.
Our calculations are based on seasonally adjusted figures for total nonfarm employment from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Employment Survey, which is the most timely and most commonly used measure of employment at the state and national levels. It is also the source cited by Walker’s ad to support his “top four” claim.
And what those figures show is that as of September, the most recent figures available and the last that will be released before Election Day, the state has gained 4.3 percent in total employment since Walker took office. Meanwhile, the United States as a whole has gained 6.6 percent during the same period.
We’ll note once again that elected officials have only limited influence over the broad economic forces that drive the economy, and frequently claim more credit or receive more blame than they really deserve.
But Walker made a campaign promise in 2010 that if elected he would create 250,000 jobs during his four-year term, and he repeated that pledge when he was inaugurated. So far the state has added less than half that many — 118,700.
Most Recent 12 Months
Recent Midwestern Job GainsTo be sure, the state’s economy has picked up steam in the most recent 12 months, as has the national economy as a whole. But even during this period, Wisconsin is still below the national average, and ranks fifth among all 12 Midwestern states.
Our calculations put the state’s gain in total employment at 1.5 percent since September of last year. During the same period, the U.S. as a whole gained 1.9 percent.
So Walker is correct when he says in his ad that the state is “not last” — but it’s only in the “top four” among the 10 states Walker uses for his comparison.
In Walker’s defense, the state’s unemployment rate improved in September to 5.5 percent, which is slightly better than the national average of 5.9 percent. Wisconsin is currently tied with Virginia for the 17th lowest jobless rate among all 50 states.
But it’s also true that despite the gains under Walker, nearly 23,000 fewer people were employed in September than at Wisconsin’s high point, which was June 2007. Unlike the country as a whole, the state has yet to regain all the jobs lost during and after the Great Recession of 2007-2009.
So the state’s economic performance under Walker is neither as good as he would have voters believe, or as bad as his Democratic critics were still claiming as recently as Oct. 13 in an ad saying Wisconsin job growth under Walker is “dead last in the Midwest.” As we’ve seen, it’s not.”
You Check it.
So Wisconsin created 8400 private sector jobs and eliminated 8100 public sector jobs in September. WAY TO GO WALKER!!
Mmmmm … Just because Wisconsin leads the nation in employment per capita and new job creation does not mean … Oh wait!
Non Common Core math …
South Carolina population:
In 1994 = 4.1 Million
In 2014 = 4.8 Million … a 24% increase over 20 years.
South Carolina government size (county and state):
In 1994 = 135,000 combined
In 2014 = 340,000 combined … a 150% increase over 20 years.
Dough!