Clear Up the Misconceptions
After the continued onslaught of opinions by clergy in reference to the collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin, it is time to clear up the misconceptions, specifically the articles by Fr. John S. Rausch and Norbertine Br. Steve Herro.
First of all, clergy like to speak of collective bargaining as a right and that workers are losing their rights. Wisconsin has the strongest civil service laws in the nation above and beyond those of federal workers. To say that they are losing their rights as workers is a total misconception and play on words. Collective bargaining was a privilege given to state workers by the state legislature and, therefore, can be removed by the state legislature.
As someone who has read the Constitution, I challenge anyone to find that Constitutional right. Furthermore, what we saw in Madison with the protests was an example of democracy which I find humorous because we are a representative republic. Our founding fathers had the foresight to give us a representative republic versus a democracy which tends to be mob rule as evident in Europe. Benjamin Franklin stated it well when he said, “We have given you a republic, now we challenge you to keep it.”
The elections in November and the recent election for Supreme Court bore out the fact that the silent majority agrees with Governor Walker and the legislature. Br. Herro stated that “the bill strips the unions from the right to collect member dues directly from workers’ paychecks, which will add extra burdens onto the due collection process,” but he also cites Bishop William F. Murphy when he wrote, “Pope Benedict renews and reminds us of the church’s classic support for the right of workers to choose freely to form or join a union or other types of workers’ associations.” Apparently, Br. Herro does not understand the previous collective bargaining where workers were forced to join the union and have dues taken out of their checks. Therefore, where is their choice?
Approximately 90% of the dues paid by the union workers go to one political party that in return insures that public workers’ contracts remain out of the norm verses private sector jobs. This is a prime example of political payola which gives 17% of the state work force the power to tell the other 83% of the taxpayers what they will be paid.
Fr. Rausch states that public sector workers make 4% less than their private sector counterparts. I challenge any of the people in the public sector to come and join us in the private sector.
We have much more important issues such as the rights of the unborn which, unfortunately, are not championed by the benefactors of the 90% of the dues paid by union workers. As a Catholic man, I feel that our leadership should be focusing on this issue more passionately than the rights of workers are paid well in accordance to the standards of the average worker in our state.
Craig Fletcher
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