Pinks and Packers

Recent developments in Wisconsin serve to illustrate the longstanding grievances between labor, corporations  and the state that intervenes on behalf of either. The protests in Wisconsin are a microcosm of the sorted history of organized labor in America; an example that contains all the elements of the greater whole, namely class warfare, political intrigue, worker's rights, and plutocratic control.

What is clear in the media narrative of the Wisconsin case is that the fiscal deficit needs resolution, what is not clear is why the Governor has refused the compromise offered by the union to cut pension and welfare benefits, which is what Governor Walker's bill ostensibly seeks to legislate.

I can only deduce then that real goals of Governor Walker, and the republican legislature that is eager to push through his agenda, are not merely the bullet points he reiterates in the media, but that one of his primary objectives is the dissolution of organized labor in Wisconsin. And all the evidence points in this direction. There is no clear need to end collective bargaining rights as a response to a fiscal crisis, a fiscal crisis that, as mentioned previously, unions agreed to make concessions for. Nor is it a proximate or logical step in a supposed fiscal crisis to change the organization of the union in such a way that they would need to hold a yearly vote in order to stay organized. President Obama's own statement "seems like more of an assault on unions" rings particularly true, as the union Gov. Walker is attempting to dismantle constitutes one of his largest political opponents. The situation would seem to indicate that Gov. Walker is exploiting a budget crisis for political ends.

What is even more questionable is whether this fiscal crisis actually exists or whether it was contrived as a means to an end, as sheer "budgetary gamesmanship". The Wisconsin Fiscal Bureau, in a memo written on the 30th of January stated that Wisconsin will end its fiscal year with a gross balance of 121 million dollars. Hardly a deficit. An article entitled "Walker Gins Up 'Crisis' to Reward Cronies" from Madison.Com puts it succinctly:

[Walker] has proposed a $137 million budget “repair” bill that he intends to use as a vehicle to:
1. Undermine the long-established collective bargaining rights of public employee unions, which have for 80 years been the strongest advocates for programs that serve the great mass of Wisconsinites, as opposed to wealthy elites and corporate special interests. As Racine’s Democratic state Rep. Cory Mason says, the governor’s bill is designed not with the purpose of getting the state’s finances in order but as “an assault on Wisconsin’s working families and political payback against unions who didn’t support Gov. Walker.”
2. Pay for schemes that redirect state tax dollars to wealthy individuals and corporate interests that have been sources of campaign funding for Walker’s fellow Republicans and special-interest campaigns on their behalf. As Madison’s Democratic state Rep. Brett Hulsey notes, the governor and legislators aligned with him have over the past month given away special-interest favors to every lobby group that came asking, creating zero jobs in the process “but increasing the deficit by more than $100 million.”

 But Representative Hulsey's figure of over 100 million is a little generous in its vagueness, the figure is actually around 140 million as reported by One Wisconsin Now as they stated:

Walker is refusing to provide full accounting of how much in additional costs his "scoop and toss" scheme would cost taxpayers down the road. Since his inauguration in early January, Walker has approved $140 million in new special interest spending that includes:

• $25 million for an economic development fund for job creation that still has $73 million due to a lack of job creation. Walker is creating a $25 million hole which will not create or retain jobs. [Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau, 1/7/11]
• $48 million for private health savings accounts, which primarily benefit the wealthy. A study from the federal Governmental Accountability Office showed the average adjusted gross income of HSA participants was $139,000 and nearly half of HSA participants reported withdrawing nothing from their HSA, evidence that it is serving as a tax shelter for wealthy participants. [Government Accountability Office, 4/1/08; Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau, 1/11/11]
• $67 million for a tax shift plan, so ill-conceived that at-best the benefit provided to job creators would be less than a dollar a day per new job, and may be as little as 30 cents a day. [Associated Press, 1/28/01]

And these claims of cronyism with industry and collusion with lobbyists are made more apparent by an article on Mother Jones which illuminates the infamous Koch Brothers role in all this:

According to Wisconsin campaign finance filings, Walker's gubernatorial campaign received $43,000 from the Koch Industries PAC during the 2010 election. That donation was his campaign's second-highest, behind $43,125 in contributions from housing and realtor groups in Wisconsin. The Koch's PAC also helped Walker via a familiar and much-used politicial maneuver designed to allow donors to skirt campaign finance limits. The PAC gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, which in turn spent $65,000 on independent expenditures to support Walker. The RGA also spent a whopping $3.4 million on TV ads and mailers attacking Walker's opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Walker ended up beating Barrett by 5 points. The Koch money, no doubt, helped greatly.

However, Koch Bros. involvement doesn't stop there, their astro turf tea party front Americans For Prosperity is organizing small pro-Walker protests in concert with The Club for Growth, a conservative PAC that features key adviser R.J. Johnson - one of the chief strategists in Walker's campaign for governor. The Koch Bros. have also launched a new site www.standwithwalker.org to sign a petition in support of the Gov. The site says "These common-sense reforms have made the union bosses desperate to disrupt Wisconsin government and overturn an election. They must not be allowed to succeed. In fact, every state should adopt Governor Scott Walker's common sense reforms."


This statement is laughable, mainly because it alludes to the archetype of union bosses as fat cats (epitomized by Jimmy Hoffa), when the real fat cats are the Plutocrats like the Koch Bros. who are spending this money to enact legislation, like the proposed bill, that benefits their corporate interests and their bottom line. If you don't think that is the case then look at the facts (from Think Progress):

Koch Industries is a major player in Wisconsin: Koch owns a coal company subsidiary with facilities in Green Bay, Manitowoc, Ashland and Sheboygan; six timber plants throughout the state; and a large network of pipelines in Wisconsin. While Koch controls much of the infrastructure in the state, they have laid off workers to boost profits. At a time when Koch Industries owners David and Charles Koch awarded themselves an extra $11 billion of income from the company, Koch slashed jobs at their Green Bay plant:

Officials at Georgia-Pacific said the company is laying off 158 workers at its Day Street plant because out-of-date equipment at the facility is being replaced with newer, more-efficient equipment. The company said much of the new, papermaking equipment will be automated. [...] Malach tells FOX 11 that the layoffs are not because of a drop in demand. In fact, Malach said demand is high for the bath tissue and napkins manufactured at the plant.

Koch Industries was one of the biggest contributors to Walker’s gubernatorial campaign, funneling $43,000 over the course of last year. In return, Koch front groups are closely guiding the Walker agenda. The American Legislative Exchange Council, another Koch-funded group, advised Walker and the GOP legislature on its anti-labor legislation and its first corporate tax cuts.
According to the EPA, Koch businesses are huge polluters, emitting thousands of pounds of toxic pollutants. As soon as he got into office Walker started cutting environmental regulations and appointed a Republican known for her disregard for environmental regulations to lead the Department of Natural Resources. In addition, Walker has stated his opposition to clean energy jobs policies that might draw workers away from Koch-owned interests.

Now with all this information at our disposal, I think it is safe to say that what Governor Scott Walker is doing is not motivated by any true fiscal crisis, but rather one he himself engineered, and his actions following the supposed crisis are tantamount to political payback, ensuring profits for his campaign contributors and weakened political opposition for himself. The only problem with this is that 65% percent of Wisconsin residents think the Governor has gone too far. And so do the Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers. And so do the democratic senators that have fled the state to prevent quorum from being reached. And so do the countless thousands in Madison who are protesting now as I write this.

For those that stand with Walker, I would ask the question, what is the larger danger facing our individual freedoms: unions that lobby for increased rights and pay at the cost of the state and corporations or corporations that lobby the state at the cost of workers rights and freedoms?

I mean how dense are we...have we really forgotten the bloody history of the corporation in this country? Or of organized labor in the US? How many people died under oppressive conditions and were killed during strikes? Did we forget long 16 hour work shifts and child labor here in the US? Did we forget how Carnegie hired an army of Pinkerton detectives (pejoratively called "pinks") to break the homestead strike - pinks that fired on a crowd of women and children - pinks that murdered innocent strikers? Have we forgotten what it took to get those collective bargaining rights, to be treated as equals at the table rather than a disposable objects? Can we really ignore the tacit implications of supporting this bill - that we would be supporting the destruction of our way of life and environment to advance the cause of two billionaires? Do we really think that corporations are generous entities that would gladly give large percentages of profit back to their workers if they were not forced to, and legally mandated to do so? Do we remember why each state has a minimum wage law?

Are we so easily fooled by the ads (made by billionaires) attempting to portray organized as labor as outside of our best interests that we forget the last 200 years of our history? Or all the examples in contemporary history that come to mind, like the sweatshops employed by Disney and Nike and Coca-Cola? Do we really want to shop at Wal-Mart?

Perhaps it would be better to consider a contemporary example from Wisconsin that was recently making headlines, one we could all stand to learn a lesson from: the Green Bay Packers, the only non-profit, community-owned major league professional sports team in the United States.  Business doesn't need to be diametrically opposed to the rights of its constituents to be successful. You can win a Super Bowl and have ownership consist of one hundred thousand people. You can have a successful business and be non-profit.

Let's all hear it for the Super Bowl champs, for championing the cause of anarcho-syndicalism and for saying, in no small way:

"We know that it is teamwork on and off the field that makes the Packers and Wisconsin great. As a publicly owned team we wouldn't have been able to win the Super Bowl without the support of our fans.
It is the same dedication of our public workers every day that makes Wisconsin run. They are the teachers, nurses and child care workers who take care of us and our families. But now in an unprecedented political attack Governor Walker is trying to take away their right to have a voice and bargain at work.
The right to negotiate wages and benefits is a fundamental underpinning of our middle class. When workers join together it serves as a check on corporate power and helps ALL workers by raising community standards. Wisconsin's long standing tradition of allowing public sector workers to have a voice on the job has worked for the state since the 1930s. It has created greater consistency in the relationship between labor and management and a shared approach to public work.
These public workers are Wisconsin's champions every single day and we urge the Governor and the State Legislature to not take away their rights."

Maybe there's hope for Wisconsin after all.
Maybe there's hope for all of us.
Maybe.
I'll wait til Tuesday.

-DJV