The Wisconsin Fleebaggers keep saying that all they want is for Governor Scott Walker to come to the table and negotiate on his budget-repair bill, and they’ll end their hostaging of Wisconsin government. However, new e-mails released by Walker’s office show that the governor has negotiated on key aspects of his union reforms, perhaps to an extent that might make his supporter nervous:
This directly refutes the notion pushed by the state Senators who fled the state that Walker has unilaterally refused to bargain with them. In fact, here are the specific proposals offered by Walker as a compromise:
• Public employee union bargaining over wages would no longer be limited to the rate of inflation.
• Unions would be allowed to bargain over certain economic issues, including mandatory overtime, performance bonuses, hazardous duty pay and classroom size. On this set of issues, both labor and management would have to agree to discuss them for bargaining to happen.• Unions could bargain over workplace safety, but that would be limited to workers’ physical health and safety. It would not allow bargaining over hours, overtime, sick leave or family leave, work schedules or vacation.
• Unions would have to vote every three years to remain active, with the first of those votes coming within one year of the bill becoming law. The current version of the bill would require unions to vote to recertify every year – starting this April – and require them to get at least 51% of workers’ votes.
• Employees of the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics Authority would not lose all union bargaining rights.
• The Legislature’s budget committee would have to approve changes to state health programs for the poor sought by the Walker administration. The budget-repair bill gives Walker broad powers to reshape those Medicaid health programs, which cover more than 1 million state residents.
