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CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - The scene at the state capitol in Madison, Wisconsin this past week - as thousands of union workers protested a plan to cut their benefits - looked a lot like what we saw in the streets of Athens, Greece last year when workers there accustomed to years of socialism objected to similar cuts designed to save that country from bankruptcy.
In Wisconsin, the governor has had the temerity to ask the state's public employees to start contributing to their own retirement and health care plans. It's a plan that would cut their pay by about 8%. The Republican plan also calls for measures that would restrict a portion of the union's collective bargaining rights, something the governor says is necessary to save the state from insolvency.
While the union dominated by school teachers, some of whom earn over $75,000 a year, has responded by staging a rebellion. Well, what we are witnessing in Wisconsin and will soon see here in Ohio is the result of a recession-weary populace fed up with an old-style political system that benefits a protected class of workers – while everyone else suffers to pay their own way.
And it is a battle that has been a long time in coming.
Write and let me know what you think. I'm Bill Applegate.
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