In a Wisconsin Supreme Court vote of 4 to 3, the Gang of Four Empty Robes aka GoFERs, pushed Wisconsin's union busting Governor Walker to victory over the middle class. Wait, I'm reminded of another monumental decision affecting America being decided by a close non-partisan 5 to 4 vote of a Supreme Court. I digress. The WI high court upheld Gov. Walker's "budget repair" bill which eliminates most collective bargaining rights for most WI public workers. And don't we all know that public employees - like maybe your next door neighbor that protects your house when you're on vacation - should not have the same union member rights as a private employer union member. BTW, how come Police, Firefighters and State Patrol Officers are not affected by Walker's law?
MOST union leaders slammed the high courts decision according to the AP. The President of the Wisconsin of the AFL-CIO, Phil Neuenfeldt, 'called it "an affront to our democracy"'.
I guess Phil is speaking for MOST of his union affiliates. Ya think Phil is aware that Union Boss Gooch McGowan of Wisconsin's Local 139, International Union of Operating Engineers SUPPORTS GOV. WALKER. Local 139 is 9,000 members strong in Wisconsin.
And who was one of the four GoFERs? Yup, Justice Prosser, former non-partisan Republican Speaker of the Assembly. The same Prosser who very recently won his reelection to the WI high court with 14,000 "found" votes by a Republican elections official in Waukesha. Big Ed says Prosser "wrote in his eight-page concurrence that GOP legislators had good reason to rush things they [sic] way they did, given the ugly mood of protesters at the Capital". Come on, why would upwards of 70,000 public workers and their supporters protesting at the state capital be upset about Wisconsin public union members losing their decades old and established collective bargaining rights. Rights that effectively helped to support their middle class families. Rights that non-public union workers still enjoy. At least for now.
Secrecy Good, Open Meetings Law Bad. Is this what the GoFERs are telling the citizens of Wisconsin? Telling the world?
And what of the three dissenting justices. They said the GoFERs rendered a "hasty judgement", "... they make their own findings of fact, mischaracterize the parties' arguments, misinterpret statutes,...and misstate case law". They went on to say that the court order was "based on errors of fact and law". Dissenting Justice Abrahamson wrote that the majority "set forth their own version of facts without evidence. They should not engage in this disinformation". Ouch.
Secrecy, arrogance and lying.
1 comment:
Furthermore, after the fact Gooch had the chance to back off his endorsement. He instead stood in favor of cutting union wages by cutting the salaries of public UNION workers!
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