Local Union Head Watches Wisconsin

(Savannah, GA) Brett Hulme says he doesn't have to be in Wisconsin right now to have concerns about what he thinks is a union busting attempt by the governor there, Scott Walker.  

Early Friday morning, the Wisconsin Assembly passed a Republican bill that would strip most public workers of their collective bargaining rights.  (Democratic senators in Wisconsin have left the state to avoid a vote in the senate.)

In Wisconsin, Governor Walker says the concessions in wages and benefits are needed in an effort to grapple with a budget deficit in the billions.

As president of the Savannah Regional Central Labor Council, which represents about 7,500 area union members, Hulme says Wisconsin pubic employees have agreed to concessions in wages and benefits. "But this bill does more, it strips them of their rights to stand together," he says. 

Hulme says other states are also stepping on the bandwagon to take collective bargaining away from public employees. "Most people forget they have a 40 hour work week and safe conditions in their workplace, thanks to unions," Hulme says. "What's going on in Wisconsin is a lot more than trying to balance the budget," he says.

Hulme spent Wednesday and Thursday in Atlanta, rallying with other union members at the Georgia Statehouse.  (There were also rallies to support Wisconsin's governor by the way. One woman interviewed by an Atlanta television station said "I have never been in favor of unioins and think they're killing the country." )

But Hulme sees it differently.  Although Georiga is a "right to work" state, which means people do not have to join a union. Hulme says those that do join, pay dues and bargain  end up helping everyone else.  "We negotiate wages, benefits and conditions of employment."

States across the country are facing unprecedented budget shortfalls. Alan Essig, the executive director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute in Atlanta says what has happened has been unprecedented, i.e. "the worst downturn since the Great Depression."  Essig says his organization is non-partisan and non-profit and has analyzed Georgia's budget.  "In Georgia, there's been a severe fiscal crisis, revenues have dropped almost 15 percent since the recession started in 2009," he says.

While Essig says every state is different in terms of its problems and how it structures its pay and pensions for example. He also says many states that don't have collective bargaining also have budget shortfalls. "States like Texas for example, that do not have collective bargaining, have serious fiscal problems." Essig says for the most part, what is happening is the result of a drop in revenue for most states, not an expenditure issue.

Hulme says he's amazed that some people (newly elected republican govenors in particular) seem to be successfully blaming labor unions for the budget crisis instead of the financial institutions that actually caused it.

"What I find odd is that we, the taxpayers bailed out Wall street which was really the start of this economic downturn," he says.  "Now workers are being asked to give up wages and make other concessions but that's still not enough, they have to be stripped of all protections."

The fight in Wisconsin is not over and Hulme promises he'll be watching and waiting.