And here I thought Wisconsin was in the USA as opposed to China. Go figure.
Walker wants to remove all collective bargaining rights, except for salary, for roughly 175,000 public employees starting July 1. Any requests for a salary increase higher than the consumer price index would have to be approved by referendum.Remember when Wisconsin used to have solid Democrats with solid values? How did this transition to this happen? Once again, we're seeing yet another GOP governor who is blaming the public service unions for the financial problems the country is facing. How can a middle class that has struggled for years be responsible for such an enormous economic collapse? How sad that everyone except the guilty are being punished. If the GOP loved law and order so much, they'd throw the book at the bankers. But then who would finance their campaigns?
Starting April 1, Walker wants to force state employees to contribute 5.8 percent of their salaries to cover pension costs and more than double their health insurance contributions. That would generate $30 million this fiscal year. Currently, most public workers don't contribute anything to their pensions.
Walker said Friday that he updated emergency plans and alerted the National Guard just in case they are needed to ensure state services aren't interrupted. His plan would remove collective bargaining rights for prison guards, but it would exempt local police and firefighters and the state patrol.
