Gov. Scott Walker's Anti-Union Plan

With all the breaking news of war and civil unrest and earthquakes around the world, the on-going anti-union legislation in Wisconsin has not received much coverage outside the United States.
In the early days of unions, they served a very important purpose in ensuring workers were adequately compensated for their work and to ensure safe working conditions for all. It made sense and unions played an important role. Today, unions are not seen in such a positive light. Unions for employees of the school boards are well known for their strikes to receive more benefits and higher wages. Unions are in a sense becoming a bit obsolete in today's world. But that is simply my personal opinion, perhaps if I was in a job with a union, I might feel differently. Historically, before unions were accepted in the workplace, factory owners did their best to squash and restrict unionization of their workforces because to them, unions were threatening and could severely disrupt the factory work. Even today in many Export Processing Zones and sweatshop factories around the world, unions are not allowed and anyone trying to create a workers union can be severely punished.
Back to Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker, introduced legislation that would significantly reduce the ability of public workers unions to bargain collectively, except for wages. Since Christmas, the proposed legislation has prompted mass demonstrations (some reports indicate that these protests were upwards of 85,000 people strong), and Senate Democrats decided to flee Wisconsin for several weeks, seeking refuge in Illinois. Today, a Wisconsin judge tried to prevent any further implementation of the new anti-union laws. There is some debate as to whether the new law is actually in effect despite the emergency injunction. The law was published however politicians have not agreed upon whether the law is in effect or whether it has, for the moment, been prevented from being enacted.





The legislation was rushed through and despite the Democrats being absent, the bill was passed by the Republicans. Attempts to block the legislation through lawsuits are to try and reach concessions and develop a better proposal that both parties could agree to. Some suggest that the efforts of the Republicans to pass the bill so quickly was illegal and hope that bringing the bill back to the Senate for a re-vote would validate the bill. Despite the absence of the Democrats from the Senate, a procedural move allowed the Republicans to move forward with approving the bill requiring only the signature of Gov. Scott Walker to become law.
Why was the anti-union bill introduced? Wisconsin is running a budget shortfall currently and the reduced spending of the state for union members health insurance and pensions would significantly cut the shortfall. From my understanding, union members would be required to contribute more to both their pensions and health insurance plan if the legislation was enacted, resulting in ~8% pay reduction of all employees.

Wisconsin is not the only U.S. state enacting similar legislation with Ohio and several others trying to reduce budget shortfalls by restricting unions, however, other states are not as radical as the efforts in Wisconsin.
It does beg the question of why the collective bargaining rights of unionized public workers were targeted as an area where spending could be cut. Perhaps the efforts of Republican parties across the country would be better served limiting expenses like urban sprawl, which leads me to the reason for this blog post. I was studying for a test in my social planning class this week when I read a chapter about the costs of urban sprawl to the public purse. It completely makes sense that the expense of supplying water, electricity, public transit, and waste collection is much more expensive in areas with low density and urban sprawl. This makes complete sense and argues that more compact land development would reduce public expenditures. The United States provides a legendary example of the exodus of city centres and the devastating effects of urban sprawl. If you don't believe me, take a look at this fantastic Detroit photo essay which shows some of the buildings left crumbling in Detroit's city centre. Perhaps limiting the tax-deductions for mortgages might cut expenses of states without targeting unions collective bargaining rights.
Just an idea.