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Wisconsin Protests Are Setting Stage For A National Battle

Braden Holly |
February 17, 2011 | 6:07 p.m. PST

Staff Reporter

The protests of public sector employees in Wisconsin Thursday is really a "national battle," according to Professor Raphael Sonenshein of California State University, Fullerton.

The battle over union rights for public sector employees in Wisconsin is relevant to people nationwide, and is being watched nationally as well.  Moves like this are taking place beyond just Wisconsin.

The GOP gained a lot of ground nationally in the 2010 elections and many Republicans around the country have been pushing to limit the powers of labor unions.

“You have a number of new Republican governors coming in and they have a very strong agenda to weaken public sector union bargaining rights,” said Professor Sonenshein.

In California, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has criticized California Governor Jerry Brown for taking a harder stance with labor unions to bring down state employee costs. Instead, Brown is marching forward with a plan to get voters to extend $12 billion in tax increases.

Most Republicans seem to favor of limiting the collective bargaining rights of teachers and other public sector employees in an attempt to lower the costs associated with them rather than raising taxes.

“Republicans in Congress — and reform-minded GOP governors like Scott Walker, John Kasich and Chris Christie — are daring to speak the truth about the dire fiscal challenges Americans face at all levels of government, and daring to commit themselves to solutions that will liberate our economy and help put our citizens on a path to prosperity," said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) according to The Hill.

In a vote on Wednesday that was split directly down the partisan divide in Nashville, Tennessee, the Senate Education Committee approved a bill that stripped collective bargaining rights from the Tennessee Education Association, according to The Chattanooga Times Free Press.

In addition to the estimated 25,000 protestors gathered in Madison, Wisconsin, about 3,800 public employees have converged on the statehouse in Columbus Ohio, according to Bloomberg.

The spread of the protesting from Wisconsin to House Speaker Boehner's home state highlights Sonenshein's point that this issue is both partisan and national.

What happens in Wisconsin may set the tone for a debate that engulfs the nation.



 

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