Protests in Wisconsin Shows Peoples' Anger to Governor Walker's Budget Measures

In the past week since the fall of the Mubarak Regime in Egypt protests have been springing up against governments in the Middle East and in Wisconsin. The uprisings in Middle East come from anger of autocratic rule, but the protests in Wisconsin about state governments taking away unions to produce collective bargaining agreements.

Collective bargaining defined by the Legal Information Institute from Cornell Law School states, " Collective bargaining consists of negotiations between an employer and a group of employees so as to determine the conditions of employment. The result of collective bargaining procedures is a collective agreement. Employees are often represented in bargaining by a union or other labor organization." The benefits of this are that individual workers join together to gain a better deal, and management is able to work more efficiency by listening to one voice instead of many. Overall, a win win situation for both sides.

In times of economic prosperity, collective bargaining groups do not reap the financial compensation that is awarded to the private sector counterparts, but receive a better benefits package instead. The problem that occurs in times of hardship,the recession, groups that collectively bargain seem to have a better situation than private individuals due to the agreements made previously. A real world  example would be if someone would buy a hundred gallons of gas at 2 dollars a gallon, and could reap the 2 dollar price even if the price rose to 3 dollars a gallon. People who did not lock in the price would be upset  of the benefits received by the person who locked in the price. Now if the price went down to a dollar the person paying two dollars a gallon is still stuck with the price unless he renegotiates, and would only get it dropped to 1.50 instead of the dollar. The person with the gas contact would not have to worry about the market fluctuations, but might might not get the best deal all of the time.   In a time of economic distress and high unemployment people see Unions as a target.

Now to the issues in Wisconsin and their budget fight. The problem lies with a 137 million dollar shortfall that needs to be paid by July 1st. Governor Scott Walker's plan to cover this shortfall is to not allow collective bargaining by public unions except for pay, and that could not rise higher than the Consumer Price Index. If this arrangement would be passed by the Wisconsin State Legislature, public unions would not be able to collectively bargain for their benefit packages. Walker is quoted in an ABC News article by saying,"If we don't do this, there will be layoffs. By July 1, when the next budget starts, we'll have to have layoffs of 5,500 state workers plus a similar number of county and city workers."

The issue that arose from this is how did this 137 million dollar deficit form? Some sources argue, such as Ezra Klein from the Washington Post, that a majority of this deficit came from actions done by Walker in a Special Session of the Legislature in December.  The Wisconsin Fiscal Bureau stated that earlier estimates put the state budget at a 120 million dollars in black, until the December session with the passage of  health savings account, tax cuts for new and relocated businesses, and tax exclusion for new employees. This helped cause the 137 million dollar shortfall. According to Brian Beutler from Talking Points Memo, states it best, " public workers are being asked to pick up the tab for this agenda."

So what is being done to prevent this bill from passing? First is that the Wisconsin Democrats in the Senate have fled Wisconsin to Illinois. By doing this, the Wisconsin State Senate only has 19 members. This makes the Senate one member short from making a quorum. Without a quorum, the Wisconsin State Senate cannot take up any legislative business. Therefore the Wisconsin State Senate is suspended indefinitely, until the Democrats come back. This is a major win for opponents of the bill because when the bill passes the Wisconsin State House it cannot be taken up by the Senate.

In addition to the flight of the Senate Democrats, Union members and students from the University of Wisconsin Madison have also started protests, teach ins, and walk outs.  These protests have been very successful in the amount of people that have came to them.  The average protest numbers at the capital have ranged from 15,000 to 30,000 people and the estimate today was at 40,000 people. At first it was more Union members, but then increased with students and citizens as the week progressed. Even with all of the protesters in Madison the Police report that it has been very peaceful assembly. Teachers throughout the state have been doing their part at all academic levels. Other than protesting teachers have been informing the public of the plan and calling in sick. In Madison school had been cancelled since Tuesday due to the protests and now in Milwaukee school was cancelled today due to the absence of teachers.

The protesters have made their case clear and they are supported by various groups. The most obvious group have been key Democrats such as former Senator Russ Fiengold, Senator Dick Durbin, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and President Barack Obama. The Superbowl Champions the Green Bay Packers have also weighed in and are supporting the protests. Other support has also came protesters in Egypt.  Overall, many different groups of people are supporting protesters.

Supporters of Walker are coming to his aid. Many political commentators such as Glenn Beck, Mike Huckabee, and Joe Scarborough are supporting Walker's proposal. In addition to these political commentators Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Speaker of the House John Boehner have also supported Walker's bill. Not to be outdone by protests,  Red State announced that  Andrew Breitbart  is staging a counter protest on Saturday in support of Governor Walker, and against those"union thugs and clue less college students." Unlike the current protests, which are a large majority of Wisconsinites, the proposed Brietbart/ Tea Party Patriot counter protest will look more like an astroturf protest because of the busing in of out of state protesters.

Granted now both sides by Saturday will have outside influence, and the nation has now taken notice. It will really depend on how both sides handle themselves. The pro-Union side has made overtures to Governor Walker to reach a settlement, but Walker has not responded except for staying the course. Wisconsin Union leaders have done the right thing by fighting for their rights. Governor Walker could have prevented this crisis by not allowing the tax breaks in December or meeting with leaders in January to find common ground in working on a compromise, but his brash ideology brought upon these protests and disruptions. 

Overall, the Unions are doing what they are suppose to do, protecting their workers rights. No one should complain that the protests are unnecessary. Protests are part of democracy. When the Tea Party shows up with their heroes to support Governor Walker lets hope that the peaceful protests will continue, and hope that they will not act in the way of Mubarak protesters in Egypt and cause a violent confrontation. For democracy to work the best it needs to be done in a peaceful and respectful manner, and we hope these issues are resolved peacefully and that both sides are content with the outcome.