If you didn't notice, Unions were outspent ~8-1 in Wisconsin. Fat lot of good those vast amounts of donations did. Some power.Mr. Fed wrote:Because there's no money in it.Exodor wrote: Maybe I'm not familiar with how collective bargaining works in Wisconsin but why can't they tell the unions to fuck off if they ask for 20% raises and full pensions?
Unions give vast amounts in donations for -- and against -- candidates, all in service of "give us what we want."
By contrast, there's no constituency giving vast amount of money to candidates to be tough in bargaining against unions.
When GM and Ford bargain against auto workers, the countervailing financial interest is built-in: GM and Ford are playing with their own money.
Whereas the people in state capitols are playing with taxpayer money, and can always tax more, or run a higher deficit.
It's like P.J. O'Rourke's hierarchy of spending, which goes something like this: When we spend our own money on ourselves, we care about price and quality. This is how middle-aged men spend money on cars. When we spend other people's money on ourselves, we care about quality but not price. That's how the middle-aged men's trophy girlfriends spend their money. When we spend our money on others, we care about price but less about quality. That's how grandmothers buy us underwear for Christmas. And then there's spending other people's money on other people -- in which case who gives a shit?
So, let's see - the Chamber of Commerce tends to donate heavily to anti-union legislation and members, as well as every Grover Norquist-style Tax crusade. Arnold even championed a Wisconsin-style package of 'reforms' that were solely targeted at Unions - restricting Union political donations (but not Corporate, or Chamber of Commerce donations!), etc.
Additionally, as I said before, Unions are fighting health care cost increases as well as against furloughs and pay cuts. They aren't asking for 20% raises for the most part.
As to GM and Ford - what happened there is that the HEALTH CARE COSTS skyrocketed. It wasn't pensions, it was the associated HEALTH CARE. Arrgh. You keep skipping over this, when it has been a primary factor in just about every Union Negotiation over the past 15 years, public or private. Yes, pay is also included, but the real negotiations have been on Health Care costs, as every effort to push more onto the employees is effectively a pay cut, and one that will keep increasing.