He’s a preacher’s son, a perpetual optimist, and in a nod to the “Imported from Wisconsin” team he rides a Harley-Davidson Road King.
I’m talking about Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker who pledged a “return to frugality in government.”
Harley motorcycles and government frugality are two things I can rally behind, but just 6-weeks into his term, the badger state protesters, mostly public-sector workers have seized the same building and are comparing the governor to Hitler and Darth Vader.
The trigger? A bill which would reduce most public-sector workers of their union rights and pare back their benefits. The protesters interpreted “frugality” as code for “union busting” and erupted into dueling rallies and slogan chants.
In my overly basic description, unions have two sides. One is the great positive influence on democracy of people banding together for equal and fair treatment by employers. The other is the misuse of that power to force too many concessions from employers, or become unreasonable about the union making concessions when economic conditions have changed. In fact, watching the teachers demonstrate in Wisconsin I wonder how all these people obtained college degrees because a 6th grader understands that if you have $50 in the bank, you can’t withdraw $500. Can they spell bankruptcy, deficit, or foreclosure? And if your taxes are increased (suggested by legislatures who like gov. welfare programs and want someone else to pay for them), will you have more money or less to spend?
“Frugal” may describe Gov. Walker, but for many Americans we’re in ‘frugal fatigue’ fearing a job loss any day, coping with rising health care costs and hoping for any opportunity to break the economic gridlock and return to the good ‘ol days of 2005.
Take Harley-Davidson who was on a high-speed-train to utter collapse. They had to reduce labor costs and gain worker flexibility to remain competitive in the new economy. They stated it would move operations from Milwaukee to Kansas City if it did not get a new union contract with lots of worker concessions. They also had threatened to move operations from York to Shelbyville, Ky., if it could not get a contract in York. The company never blinked and I don’t think it was an empty threat of playing one location against another, and the reality was they have the capability of moving if they want too — anytime. The company wasn’t expecting much and didn’t get any pushback from the unions given the dismal job market and in the past 22 months, Harley-Davidson has negotiated competitive labor contracts with the unions, exited non-core brands, expanded internationally, rebuilt its balance sheet, and addressed the scarcity value of the brand.
Will there be fewer people employed at $35.00 an hour to manufacture a H-D motorcycle? Yes, but this wasn’t some proud attempt at “union busting” by the company management. It was about survival of the company and for the remaining few people employed it was about work or do without!
So, for all the Wisconsin fans and Wisconsonites in these troubling times – for the love of the Super Bowl champions, Bucky the badger and of course, the beer (Pabst, Schiltz, Miller and Blatz) – can we all just agree and get united to pitch in a bit more on health care and retirement benefits like the rest of us in the non-public, non-union job sectors and break the gridlock?!
Photo courtesy of WI., collective bargaining rights protestors.
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