By Kyle Allen
Opinion Editor
Over the course of recent months, newly elected Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has spearheaded legislation significantly reducing the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions. The bill represents a malicious attack on the basic rights afforded to labor in this country.
Walker supported the reduction of collective-bargaining rights for public employee unions in a budget-repair bill to reduce spending and get the state government out of debt.
However, this bill is unlike legislation in states with large budget deficits like California, New York and Michigan in that its intrinsic goal is to strip unions of their rights.
California Gov. Jerry Brown, for example, has said he will use public pressure and the threat of layoffs to the state’s expenditures on employee salaries but will not attack unions’ collective bargaining rights.
This type of approach respects the authority of a union to bargain for its members for better benefits, working conditions, wages and any issue that it feels impacts its members.
State governments must not follow Wisconsin’s lead and attempt to circumvent the rights of labor in an attempt to balance their budgets.
The principle behind collective bargaining is that the process eventually results in an agreement that balances the interests of both the employer and the union.
Although the employer (in this case, the government) may feel that it is overpaying its workers, it should not remedy this by destroying workers’ rights.
The Wisconsin government must respect the legitimacy of labor unions and resolve its disagreements through more effective bargaining.
The bill limits a public employee’s union’s right to collectively bargain to base wages and bars them from bargaining for benefits that unions are traditionally instrumental in providing such as health benefits, pensions, vacation time and working hours.
Without unions, the national eight-hour day would not exist and employers would have no pressure to give health-care benefits or create a better working environment for their employees.
Barring unions from bargaining for these historically integral parts of union policies is unjust and dangerous.
States struggling with skyrocketing expenses should follow the lead of states like California and New York that have committed to working with unions to solve their respective budget crises.
States must not follow Walker’s lead and solve temporary budget shortfalls by sacrificing labor rights essential to the experience of the American worker.
The bill is an irresponsible attack on America’s labor movement and unnecessarily chips away at the rights that have provided Americans with consistently safer and better working environments.
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