MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin state employees will start paying more for their health care and pension benefits in late August, state officials said Wednesday as a coalition of unions filed a new lawsuit against the GOP-supported plan that strips away collective bargaining rights from most public workers.

The announcement came a day after the state Supreme Court ruled that a lower court judge overstepped her authority when she voided the governor's polarizing plan to prohibit workers from collectively bargaining over anything except base pay increases no greater than inflation. Local police, firefighters and state patrol are exempt.

The law also requires workers to pay 12 percent of their health insurance costs and 5.8 percent of their pension costs, which amount to an 8 percent pay cut on average.

The Supreme Court's ruling was a major victory for Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who said the law was needed to help address the state's $3.6 billion budget shortfall. His proposal – which drew tens of thousands of demonstrators to the state Capitol for weeks earlier this year – thrust Wisconsin to the forefront of a national debate over labor rights.

But the legal battle was not yet over. A coalition of unions filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday arguing that the law violated the U.S. Constitution by taking away union rights to bargain, organize and associate and illegally discriminates among classes of public employees. The lawsuit seeks to block portions of the law taking away collective bargaining rights, but allows the higher pension and health care contributions that the unions agreed to take to move forward.

"Scott Walker has created two classes of public sector workers and that is unconstitutional," said Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt. "When a legislature discriminates among classes of workers, especially when doing so has more to do with political payback than with any legitimate reasoning, the law has been violated."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/15/wisconsin-union-law-lawsuit_n_877763.html

Oh yea let em have it brothers! whoo hoo

Well that is just made up garbage.

That seemed pretty rude to me.

Its not being addressed to him but to what he wrote. It is a made up statistic of an opinion.

actually i'm interested too where he got the 70% number. it does indeed sound "made up" to me and if so it is indeed "garbage" as it relates to a discussion on the issues. tread in to forum waters at your peril as it gets way more rude than this at times.

It was an estimate on my part but one has to ask yourself if life had you as a sanitation worker would you rather be union or non union? who has the better job? who do you think has a better quality of life?

I can dig up the stats if you like or you can do it yourself.

A union worker is twice as likely to have a pension and a good medical plan. On average a union worker draws 200.00 more a week in pay than a non union worker in the same field.

Realy do not understand the anti union sentiment, it is a triumph of the corperate owned media and propagandists of corperate america.

More for them less for you and your family.

I would not consider a sanitation worker a "job worth having." If like had you as one? What does that mean? Its about choices. Life doesn't hand you a career path. You make choices through your life that ultimately put you where you are. Its true some people have to work harder at it than others but choices are there.

Life happens dude I am suprised you being such a world traveler and a degreed engineer no less you have such a closed rigid mind. Its allways interesting to see how others think on things I suppose thats what keeps us all posting.

I did all that from choices. I worked since 16. I chose to make good grades in highschool and took the right classes so I could get a scholarship. I chose which degree to pursue. I chose to turn down a job offer to go abroad. That wasn't life happening. That was me making decisions. Sure things can happen like my dad slicing his hand when he was a teen and he cut his tendons and cant fully open his hand. He still went to college, became an engineer, learned to bowl left handed, etc. He made choices too even though life handed him a rather big speed bump.

That is realy not how everyone lives just an FYI. If you are as you claim to be on the internet your a lucky one.

What you do not grasp is that all people are not blessed in such a manner or given the abiity to make choices.

How about the son of a drug addict?

Or the son of a prostitute?

or a person adopted?

True adulthood comes from the understanding that all are not blessed.

Me for example will inherit close to half a million one day.

I was basicly a spoiled middle class kid who had everything.

In my world travels includeing a stint in the military I learned that gee not everyone has the choices I had and I should be more compasionate and understanding.
I also learned that some of the best and worst people come from humble origins.

I also learned that some of the best and worst people come from the upper classes.

okay, dig up the stats that say seventy percent of good jobs are unionized. throw in the stats that say that union wages draw two hundred bucks a week on average more than non union workers and is twice as likely to have a pention plan and good medical plan.

Yes not everyone can work at 16 or make sure to get good grades in school or work while they are in college etc. Just most people can. Don't act like I had it so easy. I have a chronic medical condition since I was 8. I had an abusive father. I moved out when I was 18 and still in highschool. I had to sign a suicide contract with my psychiatrist when I was in high school. I dropped my first semester of college due to depression. Does that sound lucky? I worked my *** off to be where I am. We all have choices and we make our own path in this life. I don't expect anyone to give me anything.

Realy? did you ever go to bed hungry? ever see your mom use
drugs or sell her body for drugs? Ever visit your dad in jail?
Ever have to walk past a drug gang to get to school?


Ever been car jacked or had your shoes stolen?

Oh we all have sat around at one time feeling sorry for our petty troubles but many of us have never faced the challenges of the poorest among us.

I still say we both have led charmed lives compared to many other americans and we should have a little compasion for those not so well blessed.

I just got back from dinner with my social worker girlfriend and she discussed with me a training seminar she had today in regards to fetal alcohl syndrom and the symptoms of it.

there are so many people with this you would be suprised and suprised at how many of them suffer many types of mental illness and are basicly wards of the state.

There are physical traits as well as mental ones and they are trained to spot them when dealing with clients.

Many people are born out of no choice of there own with a variety of mental illnesses.

They are all not just choosing to be defective or lacking in ambition.

We can only try to provide the most minimum of necesities to these non functional people, well if we were a descent society we would.

this wasnt hard to do. You could have done it yourself by googling "What are the benefits of being in a union.

Being part of a union typically results in higher pay and better benefits for union members. The American Federation of Labor reports that union members enjoy pay rates that are up to 30 percent higher than non-union members, while the odds of having a guaranteed pension increases for union members by more than 50 percent. This is partly because unions enable workers to indicate what benefits workers need the most and make it more difficult for employers to work union members in ways that work around benefit laws. The Site claims that unions make it more difficult for employers to deny minimum salaries and perks.



Read more: What Are the Benefits of Being Part of a Union? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/list_6499818_benefits-being-part-union_.html#ixzz1PUhP8tB5

What does that have to do with choosing to go to school. Choosing to work hard etc. Don't dismiss my problems like they are nothing. You have no idea what I had to go through. Years of fearing my father. I had a sick mother who couldn't work. I couldn't report my father's abuse for fear of him going to jail and my mom not being able to take care of me and my sister. Do you know what its like to be 16 and picked up by your ankles and slammed repeatedly on the ground? Do you know what its like to have depression so bad you actually hear voices? Don't act like I had this great life. My grandmother told me after I graduated how she was so proud because she thought I would give up. I am completely nonfunctional when my chronic condition flares. I am luck in the fact that it is under control usually but some people with my condition are not so lucky. I made myself who I am today. It wasn't given to me. Every person in my state could have gotten the same scholarship as me. Everyone could have gotten part time jobs. I didn't do anything anyone else can't do except the very low percentage of people that have a mental disability.

hahahaha. the american federation of labor is made up entirely of unions. i don't even have to click on the link to know that. it's the last place i'd go for "information" on pay and benefits in america. but even you admit here that unions are not paid double what nonunion workers are paid as you claimed earlier and you still haven't answered the seventy percent better jobs question.

I would say if a job is so worth having why would you need a union? You do t see doctors lawyers vets engineers etc etc etc in unions. Could it be that because they have high educated jobs that they already get good pay and benefits? I would think all the private sector jobs people go to college for are worth having yet only about 7% of private sector jobs are union.

Many of those professions are in trade associations and are basicly unions for salery folks.


I m haveing seriouse doubts on some people claiming to have higher educations.


Apparently you have never heard of the UAPD?
UNION OF AMERICAN PHYSICIANS AND DENTISTS, AFFILIATED WITH AFSME, AFL-CIO

or the IOUE?

INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS