Great LTTE: about loss of local control

[goddess40]

EDITOR: As a school board member, I resent the mandate by those in Madison that have decided we can no longer have local control to negotiate contracts with our employees. For decades the school board has negotiated with our unions dividing their compensation into wages and benefits. Unions have given up take-home pay to have that money put towards their benefits. The fact is that those who sit on the management side of these negotiations have done well by the taxpayers. Public employees earn 4.8 percent less than their private-sector counterparts.

There is a myth being projected that public employees don't pay toward their health insurance or retirement, but that simply is not true. The decision was made long ago that instead of taking only cash, part of their wages would go to cover benefits like health insurance and retirement. The union and management also agreed they would like their withheld wages pooled to purchase health insurance, because they knew a large group could get better coverage than if they took the money in wages and purchased the insurance as individuals.

As far as Gov. Walker's budget repair bill to remove the unions right to collective bargaining, his main purpose is to break the unions. It has nothing to do with the budget, so it shouldn't be included in this bill. If Walker feels that stripping unions of their rights is important, it should be done in a standalone bill with enough time for everyone to discuss it and have their opinions heard.

http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/article/20110218/WDH06/102180710/LETTER-Walker-bill-removes-local-rights

Most letters are inundated with hate, this one is not

[54anickel]

1. Seems Walker never learned how to "play nice". Other local munis and schools have chimed in as well

http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=32392

Wisconsin's local governments never asked to end collective bargaining, as Scott Walker contends

Gov. Scott Walker has said he wants to eliminate collective bargaining rights for most public employees in part to give local governments and school boards the authority to make unilateral adjustments to pensions and other benefits.

As he said at his press conference last Friday, "To protect our schools, to protect our local governments, we need to give them the tools they've been asking for, not just for years but for decades."

But local governments and school officials have asked for no such thing.

"Our position is we've sought significant modifications in bargaining laws, but we've never sought to eliminate collective bargaining rights," says Miles Turner, executive director of the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators.

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