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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=astridjb@comcast.net href="mailto:astridjb@comcast.net">Astrid Berkson</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=centralILJwJ@yahoogroups.com
href="mailto:centralILJwJ@yahoogroups.com">JWJ C-U</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, January 02, 2011 1:06 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [CentralILJwJ] public unions</DIV></DIV>
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<H1><A title="t r u t h o u t" href="http://www.truth-out.org/"><BR></A></H1>
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<P class=date>SUNDAY 2 JANUARY 2011</P></DIV></DIV>
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<H3>Throwing Public Unions Under the Bus </H3>
<P class=article_date>Sunday 02 January 2011</P><A
href="http://www.truth-out.org/throwing-public-unions-under-bus66362?print"
target=_blank>
<P class=article_source>by: Shamus Cooke, t r u t h o u t | News
Analysis</P></A>
<P class=alignright><IMG alt="Throwing Public Unions Under the Bus "
src="cid:002801cbaabf$3204c540$6501a8c0@yourze8cxvr8tt"><BR><SPAN
class=photo_source>"Teachers unions are being twice targeted, having suffered
under Obama's nefarious Race to the Top program."(Photo: <A
href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/flutterbudget/5288420969/"
target=_blank>Flutterbudgęt</A>)</SPAN> </P>
<DIV class=article_content>
<P class=rteleft>The stage is set and the main actors in Congress and in the
corporate establishment are ready to perform after rehearsing behind closed
doors for the coming assault on organized labor's most powerful sector: public
workers.</P>
<P class=rteleft>The final preparations were smoothed out in Obama's tax
"compromise" with the Republicans, which gave details of the drama's first act.
The tax plan purposely did not include a critical element for state funding,
called the Build America Bonds program (BAB), which allows recession-sunk states
to easily borrow money from the federal government. In the face of enormous
deficits, the states would be left to drown. Reuters blogger James Pethokoukis
<A
href="http://blogs.reuters.com/james-pethokoukis/2010/12/07/secret-gop-plan-push-states-to-declare-bankruptcy-and-smash-unions/"
target=_blank>explains</A>:</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P class=rteleft>Congressional Republicans [and Democrats] appear to be
quietly but methodically executing a plan that would a) avoid a federal
bailout of spendthrift states and b) cripple public employee unions by pushing
cash-strapped states such as California and Illinois to declare bankruptcy.
This may be the biggest political battle in Washington, my Capitol Hill
sources tell me, of 2011. </P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P class=rteleft>Public employee unions would be crippled by bankruptcy because
union contracts are notoriously easy to shred in the court system, where
"nonpartisan" judges always decide against unions.</P>
<P class=rteleft>To further ensure that states will become bankrupt, yet another
law was recently proposed that, if approved, will keep money out of states'
pockets by making it harder for states to sell public bonds. This law demands
that states use overly strict accounting methods when reporting their debts to
public workers' retirement accounts, so that the state's "credit worthiness"
will shrivel. (Reagan used the same trick to destroy the pensions offered for
private-sector workers.)</P>
<P class=rteleft>Two birds are killed with one stone: public employees will find
their pensions under further attack, while states will be refused credit because
of the new accounting methods. The New York Times <A
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/business/10norris.html?_r=1&hp"
target=_blank>explains</A>:</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P class=rteleft>The bill gives local governments a choice: they can report
[pension obligations] the way the [Congressional] members want them to report,
or they can give up the ability to issue tax-exempt bonds. That is, of course,
no choice at all.</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P class=rteleft>and:</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P class=rteleft>In the end, I suspect ways will be found to abrogate some
pension promises. But even if that does not happen, the trend away from
defined-benefit pensions is likely to affect most younger public employees, as
it already has their counterparts in the private sector. The retirement safety
net will thus become a little more frayed.</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P class=rteleft>In summary, pensions for state workers are on the cutting
board, to be replaced by the 401(k) scam, while state bankruptcy will "abrogate"
[abolish] union contracts. But as it stands now, states cannot legally declare
bankruptcy. This minor obstacle is being handled quickly for showtime, as
Pethokoukis explains:</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P class=rteleft>Some Republicans hope the shock of the newly revealed [state]
debt totals will grease the way towards explicitly permitting states to
declare bankruptcy. Indeed, legislation amending federal bankruptcy law is
currently being prepared by congressional Republicans.</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P class=rteleft>The current Congress and President Obama are intentionally
creating a nationwide anti-union atmosphere. The Democrats' silence over the
above issues is, in fact, a signal of approval. In the same way that Obama
announced a federal pay freeze for federal workers, federal actions towards
labor quickly set the tone for how states deal with labor. Right-wing forces are
consequently given the green light, and Democratic and Republican state
representatives will do their best to implement their own anti-labor laws to
ingratiate themselves to the feds in the hopes of promotion. The feds act as a
music conductor and the states respond as an orchestra.</P>
<P class=rteleft>This dynamic is similar to the one under Democratic president
Harry Truman, who began his own anti-labor presidency by presiding over a flurry
of anti-union legislation, which quickly opened the gates to Senator Joseph
McCarthy and other right-wing fanatics, who performed anti-worker deeds under
the grateful eyes of a Democratic president.</P>
<P class=rteleft>Public workers are being targeted because they are the
strongest sector of the national labor movement and their strength is
incompatible with the agenda of the political-corporate establishment: making
working people pay for the bank bailouts and two foreign wars.</P>
<P class=rteleft>The recession has already weakened public employee unions;
unknown thousands of workers have already lost their jobs due to the states
budget crises, which will be peaking in many states in the coming years. Public
union membership is being decimated while workers are becoming demoralized due
to lack of action or alternatives offered by union leadership. Teachers' unions
are being twice targeted, having already suffered under Obama's nefarious Race
to the Top program.</P>
<P class=rteleft>Public workers cannot be spectators in this unfolding drama.
They must learn to act collectively. Unions must educate their membership about
the gravity of the coming assault. Anti-union attacks must be resisted while
alternatives are proposed; state funding must be increased by raising taxes on
the rich and the corporations. If public employee unions are busted, the rest of
the labor movement will be targeted next – but it will be too weak to defend
itself. <BR> </P>
<P><EM><BR>This work by <SPAN>Truthout</SPAN> is licensed under a <A
href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/" rel=license>Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License</A>.</EM> </P>
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<H6><SPAN></SPAN> </H6><BR>
<DIV id=legaltext>
<P class=rteleft>Shamus Cooke is a social service worker, trade unionist, and
writer for<A href="http://www.workerscompass.org" target=_blank> Workers
Action</A>. He can be reached at <A href="http://shamuscooke@gmail.com"
target=_blank>shamuscooke@gmail.com</A>.</P></DIV><SPAN></SPAN>
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