With union leaders speaking out against Gov.-elect Scott Walker’s potential plans to decertify unions, Walker’s head-butting with organized labor in Wisconsin has intensified.
Walker said in a statement Wednesday that he still plans to push for bigger concessions from the unions to combat budget woes once he takes office.
“[Walker] believes that state workers are great people who do great work, but he understands that to get through these tough budget times there will need to be shared sacrifice, which is why on his first day on the job he will begin making a 5 percent pension contribution voluntarily,” Cullen Werwie, a spokesperson for Walker, said in a statement.
Walker’s continued appeal for more concessions comes after Marty Beil, executive director of the Wisconsin State Employees Union, shot back at Walker’s apparent plans to limit the negotiating power of unions once he takes office.
Decertifying unions would mean employers would not be held to agreements to only hire union members, which would decrease a union’s ability to negotiate with the state.
“We certainly prefer negotiation to confrontation. It’s unfortunate that the next governor seems hell-bent on creating a climate of fear, intimidation and hostility,” Beil said in a statement. “Those aren’t conditions commonly associated with successful economic development.”
A memo to Wisconsin Professional Employee Council members from a small group of leaders raised the idea of potentially disrupting work in order to combat attempts by the new administration to increase furlough days or the percent paid by employees toward pensions.
On Wednesday, the Wisconsin AFL-CIO also called on the Legislature to call a special session necessary to approve the contracts.
President Phil Neuenfeldt and secretary treasurer Stephanie Bloomingdale said in a memo to legislators the labor contracts covered work already performed by state employees over the last 17 months.
“This is possible because employees understood that they were in good faith negotiations with the state, with the expectation that the collective bargaining process would be honored by the Legislature and the final agreements approved,” Neuenfeldt and Bloomingdale said in the memo.
Gov. Jim Doyle reached agreements with 16 of the 19 state employee unions, but the contracts need to be approved by the Legislature before they can go into effect.
Many legislators have indicated they plan to hold a lame duck legislative session in December, although the incoming Republican majority has shown resistance to this plan. The contracts would cover work performed in 2009 through June 2011.
Walker has also asked Doyle and the Legislature to refrain from approving the contracts, saying it would hinder his ability to deal with the $3 million budget deficit.
Some Democrats have called Walker’s plans for unions “anti-worker rhetoric”, such as Rep. Tamara Grigsby, D-Milwaukee.
“A regressive and unfair economic strategy puts everyone in Wisconsin at risk,” Grigsby said in a statement. “Everyone in Wisconsin will be vulnerable, whether you’re in the threatened middle class or trapped in a world of poverty.”
Nevertheless, Walker maintains holding off approving labor contracts is necessary in order to have all options available to him when crafting the next biennium budget.
