"The 97-union South Central Federation of Labor of Wisconsin is laying groundwork for a general strike if Gov. Scott Walker succeeds in enacting legislation that would strip most bargaining rights from most public employee unions."
In other words Wisconsin would face a Greece type shut down. No trash pickup, no school, no driver license renewal . Supposedly the unions are contacting their European counterparts for advice on pulling of this bold stroke.
Under this plan the state would be brought to it's knees and forced to accept the unions' demands. But would it? Probably the reason the United States has never seen a general strike is the fact that the unions do not have the power to pull one off. What if after the initial shock of the population adjusted and decided that many of the "essential services" they were paying for were not that essential after all. Maybe, now that all the stray dogs are gone, they really don't need the animal control people. Sure libraries are nice but less than 10% of the population uses them. Contract that service out with someone who will offer ebooks. No food stamps? Too bad but again this does not affect that many people. No one to read the water meters; charge a flat rate for all residential customers.
Unlike Europe where the unions face a largely centralized adversary these unions would face an array of governmental bodies; state, county, municipal, maybe township and local school districts that are capable of acting independently.
Winning the strike in liberal Madison is not the same as winning a statewide strike.
There are plenty of programs that local governments engage in that have minimal public utility and minimal public support. If the taxpayers are given the option to fund only the programs that have wide public appeal a general strike could be suicide for the labor movement.
No comments:
Post a Comment