Introduction
Trade unions or workers unions are employees’ organizations that bring the employees together for common objectives that relates to the improvements of various aspects of their work. The unions can be viewed as a collective media through which workers air their grievances.
These unions are normally legally recognized and their existence provided for by the constitution of a country. State employee unions are unions formed by or for workers who are employed by state government in public sectors. These could include unions for state employees such as the police officers, teachers, nurses and other workers in the public sector. This paper seeks to discuss state unions in Wisconsin.
The paper will examine the existence of state unions in Wisconsin, their activities and nature of operations, their challenges in the quest to achieve their objectives and the kind of treatment that the state unions receive from government. The paper will also look at the state’s budget with respect to state union issues with the aim of identifying the motive of the state regarding the unions as well as the nature of relationships between state unions and states. A comparative of the unions in Wisconsin will be made with those in other states.
History of Trade Unions in Wisconsin
The state of Wisconsin is recognized for its high living standards and developments. Services provided by the state such as education, health services and water among others are of high quality. Other elements such as scenery have also been developed by the state. It is, however, notable that state unions have played a fundamental role in shaping the nature of the state of Wisconsin.
The effectiveness of labor organizations in the state came to its affectivity following struggles and sacrifices that were made by workers to establish a ground for initializing change in their work environment and even beyond. The history of trade unions in Wisconsin dates back to the nineteenth century. By the year 1865, trade unions had started being formed in the state. A trade union was for example formed in the very year of 1865.
In the year 1867, another workers’ union was formed by shoe makers. This particular union developed to about fifty thousand members in the region of Milwaukee. One of the first impacts of trade unions in the state of Wisconsin was felt in the year 1886 when workers mobilized themselves to halt industrial operations in an attempt to air their grievances in a process that was seen as workers’ protest in the whole nation.
The then action by the nation to counter the workers’ protests by use of military force culminated into formation of an organized movement for workers’ interests. Movements to ensure regulations in the labor force in the state with the interest of protection of workers continued leading to a full fourteen weeks strike in the city of Oshkosh in the year 1898. Some workers were arrested over the strike but their defense won the case (Germanson, 2011).
The formations of organizations such as “council of the American federation of labor” (Germanson, 2011, p. 1) and other federated trade councils had by the year 1893 started campaigns for employee protections (Germanson, 2011).
The workers’ organizations included demands for “abolition of child labor, workplace safety, and health protections, the eight-hour day, workers compensation, an end of company stores and requirement to pay wages in cash, not company script” (Germanson, 2011, p. 1). Though not immediately, the demands of the worker were later realized through a series of legislations that established workers’ rights in the state of Wisconsin.
Legislations such as “workers compensation law” (Germanson, 2011, p. 1) in the year 1911, “unemployment compensation” (Germanson, 2011, p. 1) in the year 1932 and “Wisconsin employment relations act” (Germanson, 2011, p. 1) in the year 1937 were formulated to ensure that the welfare and rights of workers were safeguarded (Germanson, 2011). The more than a decade depression that started in the year 1929 motivated registration of workers into unions, a move that employers greatly opposed.
The movement of trade unions then triggered the development of unions among workers in public employments. By the middle of the twentieth century, public sector employees had developed unions that were legally recognized in the state of Wisconsin. Developments in the year 1963 aided by state laws accorded the workers in public sectors more rights that further spearheaded the formation and strengthening of workers unions among the public sector employees.
Some of the workers’ unions among public sector employees formed in this period included unions among teachers, firefighters, police officers among others. State legislators, however, started moves to control the strikes that were witnessed among the state unions offering oppositions to the organizations (Germanson, 2011).
State Unions in the Current Wisconsin
The number of state unions in Wisconsin is more than forty five. Most of the state unions are organized on the basis of the types of state departments of employments. Some of the state unions in Wisconsin include “American federation of government employees, American federation of state, county and municipal employees, American federation of teachers, amalgamated transit union, international association of bridge, structural, ornamental and reinforcement iron” (Wisconsin state unions, 2010, p. 1)
The state workers’ unions in Wisconsin are organized and managed in a particular way. The state unions, like other trade unions have representatives who are the links between the government, the employer, and the public employees, the state union members. The representatives act as advisors to both the state and the employees to ensure consensus between the two parties.
The representative’s duties are majorly oriented towards the defense and the protection of employees against the employer. One of the roles of representatives is presenting and negotiating the employees’ interest with the employer, which in the case of public service employment would be a relevant government agency.
In cases where an employee has been summoned for a disciplinary process, union officials or leaders accompany the subject employee into the disciplinary venue and process with the aim of ensuring that the employee is accorded a fair treatment in the whole process.
In cases of disagreements over payments or the nature of environment at work, the unions through their representatives ensures negotiations with the state or state agency to ensure that the demands or needs of employees are considered in the best interest of employees.
The union representatives also take measures to ensure that any form of dispute arising among employees with respect to elements of their work is addressed by the employer. These roles of union representatives are achieved through authoritative powers vested upon the representatives, by employees to bargain with the employer on behalf of employees (Direct, n.d).
Running of State Unions in Wisconsin
State unions in Wisconsin and other American states are actively run by officials who are elected by member in meetings and sessions where such elections are held.
The union leaders of particular unions act individually or in collaboration with other unions’ officials to ensure that rights of their members are not violated. The union leaders normally engage the state in dialogue on behalf of their members. The union representatives, however, resort to mass actions involving all union members when negotiations by the unions fail to bear fruits.
Whenever negotiations fail on substantial issues in which rights of union members are at stake, then the officials call upon union members to join them in the fight. The course of action by union members involves demonstrations that call for the state to look into their interests. The calls for mass actions have been characterized by uniting statements such as “together we can turn a new page in the history of Wisconsin’s labor movement” (Wisaflcio, 2011, p. 1).
The strategies for mass actions are normally organized in systematic ways by involving expertise in organizations of such actions. Expertise services are recruited to ensure the organization and mobilization of union members is undertaken successfully for the objective of particular mass action. These specialized organizers also help unions in developing support among union members (Wisaflcio, 2011).
Issues Facing State Unions in Wisconsin
Even though workers’ movements started a long time ago and have so far made some progress in regard to establishment and protection rights of workers, issues have been currently emerging that negatively impacts the status of workers in public institutions in Wisconsin. State unions have been under constant pressure from the state government a move which has been interpreted as an attempt to undermine the objectives of state unions.
State employees have been faced with a number of difficult circumstances regarding their public service. There have been reductions in workers remunerations as the state moved in to control its expenditure following the economic crisis. Allowances allowed to state workers have similarly been reduced by the state for similar reasons of balancing the state’s economy. Other major issues like loss of jobs by some state workers in retrenchment circumstances have also been witnessed.
In spite of the fact that the rewards offered to these state employees are much less compared to those offered to workers in private sectors, the state employees have had to face this fact and continually offered their services to the state. There have also been issues of laws which have over time been enacted by state legislations to check on the rights of state employees. These legislations have been successful in reducing the rights of the state workers and their ability to bargain over their rights as well as their wellbeing.
State Power Problem
The legislations have empowered the state to more authority than that possessed by state trade unions resulting to undermining of state workers by their government employer. The government has for this reason made moves that benefit it in its economic planning while the state workers are on the other hand becoming victims of lower remunerations and reduced benefits together with ineffective bargaining power.
Legislations have also been made to repeal former laws that protected wages of employees. Under the previous regulations on wages, workers both in public and private sectors were protected and ensured reasonable pays in terms of remunerations alone. Regulations were, however, made to repeal the wage protection that previously existed over workers.
The impact of the new laws has been the lost earnings in terms of lost jobs or reduced remunerations. Such losses have impacts on union members at personal levels especially if the affected members are sole bread winners of their families. It is also notable that income distribution is not uniform among state employees in Wisconsin with higher level of state government officials receiving very high remunerations while the middle class employees are poorly paid.
Experts argue that the state would have been more justified if it had regulated the salaries of the exorbitantly rewarded high class public servants in a bid to fairly harmonize wages of public service employees. The state has on the contrary put the burden of the wage regulations on the middle class employee whose are averagely lowly paid (Wisaflcio, 2011).
State unions are currently being faced with problems originating from the state government. Andy Stern (2011) warned that the crisis between the state and its workers is indeed a complex issue. The Republican Party that governs the state is seen withdrawing the rights of employees in the state. The crisis between the state and its employee is however hinted to be a political battle between the two American heavyweight political parties.
The crisis has raised political lines with Rahm Emanuel, a democrat and chief of staff to the United States president Barak Obama making such statements as “this crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that that you could not do” (Stern, 2011, p. 1). The statement indicates a political motive of disapproval among the democrats and the republicans.
With similar problems experienced or expected in states governed by republicans, according to Stern (2011), a warning may be raised that the crisis is not of a natural cause but rather a product of political ideologies of either the democrats or the republicans. Stern (2011) claimed that the campaign is not just an isolated problem in the state of Wisconsin, but a move that has been engineered in some other fifteen states that are governed by the Republican Party.
If this is the case, then a number of claims, based on party politics, can be made with respect to the nature of this particular conflict. A question can be raised as to why Mr. Emanuel said that he is just watching the crisis like any other American citizen yet he is a member of the federal fiscal commission. The main questions being raised in the Wisconsin crisis are budgetary, and being a member of the state fiscal commission, one expected Mr. Emanuel to present a solution to an American state that is in a crisis.
Whether a direct legal move or a simple implied advice to the Wisconsin state, Mr. Emanuel is expected to have made a statement towards a solution to the crisis rather than a neutral statement of him just watching the crisis. Stern (2011) further raised issues of calling for the dismissal of some state employees such as “teachers, nurses and firefighters” (Stern, 2011, p. 1).
One of the causes of the conflict in Wisconsin is the large budget deficit that the state government has faced. The state of Wisconsin is reported to have projected a budget deficit of close to two billion dollars in the 2012 fiscal year. Analysts have claimed that although other states have equally been faced with deficit forecasts, the state of Wisconsin has made reactions that were uncalled for.
The state is making a step to sacrifice its workers in a step to offset its budget deficit while the expenditure on the public sector servants and their unions does not bear a realizable relationship. The lack of correlation between the budget deficit in Wisconsin and the state servants and state unions mean that the move by the state to cut its expenditure on these two subjects would not really solve the state’s budget deficit (Stern, 2011).
The problems facing public sector employees and the state unions in Wisconsin are similarly attributed to recurrent factors that started long time before the current state governor came to office. The economy of Wisconsin is reported to have been weak for the past one decade.
The impacts of globalization that negatively impacted wage rates and employment rates are claimed to be a significant source of the current crisis in the state of Wisconsin. Economic policies that had been implemented in the state during earlier regimes are also blamed for the establishment of poor investment strategies.
Reports also indicate that in the state of Wisconsin, a majority of state corporations have been exempted from paying taxes and that the contribution of these corporations into the state’s economy has been significantly declining over the last one decade. These observations give a wider view of what could have been the cause of the conflict in Wisconsin state; it has been claimed that these problems have been in existence for almost a decade.
External factors had long caused general loss of jobs in the state as well as reduction in wage rates that were being offered in different sectors in the economy. When state cooperation are operating in competitive markets that are infiltrated by globalized business activities liaising to lower prices of products and revenues generated by the corporations, the state bodies can as well join the private sectors in their attempt to reduce their losses.
If the state bodies failed to take the measures of streamlining their operations, then a time would come when a leader would move to cut the expenditures on the state bodies which are not being productive to the state’s economy. These views would rather defend the position of the Wisconsin governor to reduce the states expenditure on state corporations and state unions.
Management opinions would advise the state government that in the absence of revenues to finance the state corporations, state workers and state unions, the state government ought to take measures to reduce the expenditure on these subjects. Changes in systems are bound to be resisted but whether done by the current governor or another regime, measures must be taken to realign state revenues and expenditures in a manner that will ensure a stable economy (Stern, 2011).
Another school of thought expresses the concern that although there is a problem in Wisconsin that has made the government to make a move against the interest of public workers, the main problem is not the public service expenditure such as pension plans among other benefits. It has been argued that government expenditure on such schemes only requires proper planning coupled with sufficient analysis.
With proper implementations of these two elements the state would be able to fund these benefits as it has been successfully done in the past. Cases of exaggerated or inflated benefits or the dependence of either unreliable or unrealistic investments to fund the benefits are however pointed out as being the main source of problems into the crisis. A question would therefore be asked as to the nature of investments that the state of Wisconsin should venture into.
hether the government should identify the state corporations that have proved unprofitable to the state and reduce or cut expenditure into these institutions leaving them to private sectors or whether the government ought to uphold its expenditure and fail to meet the benefits that its employees are entitled to, is the main problem to be solved. Either case will depend on the current row between the state and its workers and unions. Closing or privatizing the corporations would lead to possible layoffs that would worsen the crisis.
On the other hand, maintaining the workers and failing to finance their benefits would also be seen as infringement of the rights that have all along existed for the state workers. The governor has therefore been put in a situation where he has to choose between pleasing the state workers by maintaining the status quo or by taking initiatives to steering the state’s economy to self-reliance (Stern, 2011).
In consistency with a previous representation in this paper, opinions have also been raised over political aspects of the move by the governor to cause changes affecting his workers as well as their state unions. In his move to review the terms under the power and responsibilities of state unions, the governor chose to exclude some departments of the state’s corporations.
Notably exempted from the governors changes are the “police fire fighters and other and other safety workers” (Stern, 2011, p. 1). These categories of state employees are reported to have some of the highest benefits yet they have been excluded from the governor’s changes. There are further reports that this group of employees showed significant support to the governor and his republican party in the former elections.
This discriminative move, as it could be perceived by the rest of the public employees, could have played a major role in the move by the state unions to resist the changes that were proposed by the governor. An alternative case where changes in legislation are identified to be based on general aims of saving the state’s economy could have raised different reactions among state employees and the state unions.
It would be easier to convince the trade unions that the changes were meant for the general good of the public as well as the state’s economy, convincing the state unions and workers to sacrifice their interests in the spirit of patriotism. The selective application of changes by the state, which are further identified to be discriminatory and revenge oriented, are more of a provocation on the state workers.
The general exemptions of groups of people from the changes indicate a direct partiality in exercising authority of the governance office. State unions especially the ones whose professions have been affected, owing to the fact that most state unions in the state of Wisconsin are based on professional background of workers, would therefore fight the governor’s changes on the basis of discrimination. It is in the first place against the constitution to discriminate people based on their opinion.
The changes, being political, could enlist the support of the main political opponents of the Republican Party (the democrats) into a battle of disapproval. Agents of the democrat’s party could for example incite and finance state unions just for the sake of overshadowing the Republican Party on the basis of poor policies. Another point of view could be raised over the exemption of the above mentioned departments in the changes. It has been evident that some exemptions are generally necessary in the application of law.
A case example is the constitutional limitation of the drinking age to twenty one years in most if not all of the American states. A similar view could be posted on the governor’s exemption of these state departments. It is evident that all the state departments that were exempted from the changes were departments that deal with security issues.
The exemption could have been just on the mere basis of the sensitivity of their area of work, or due to the fact that their line of duty has not been infiltrated by the private sector’s investments. The sensitivity of their line of duty to the state as a whole would warrant their exemption from the changes since their protest and further boycott of duty would put a lot of state aspects at great risks.
If their line of work has not been ventured into by private sector investors, then these department would be among the few government corporations that are still been generating revenues to the state government. In this case, the governor would be justified to uphold their status in order to continue getting the revenues obtained from these state departments (Stern, 2011).
The Situation in Wisconsin and how it correlates with other states
Supporting the opinion that the crisis in Wisconsin has been politically motivated is an idea that other states governed by Republican Party members have experienced; this has been especially for the states which have effected similar changes. The concept is therefore that even though the Republican Party won the governor seats, they had not been favored by state employees.
This could be due to the fact that the Republican Party was previously in power and they failed to consider the plights of employees in the public sector. It could also been argued that the republican win was due to support they received from voters who were not state employees while receiving direct criticism for state unions. This could have fuelled the hatred among the Republican Party officials leading to the unfair treatment that they have now plotted against state employees (Stern, 2011).
The state budget is identified to have a deficit and this fact is acceptable to most of the citizens and eve state workers in the state of Wisconsin. The only issue that people seem not to agree upon is if the state employees were the best group to bear the burden of the deficit in the state budget. Statements from personalities such as Kevin Gibbons expressed fears that “Governor Walker is using this financial crisis as an excuse to attack unions” (Davey and Greenhouse, 2011, p. 1).
It has further been noted that other states governed by the Republican Party are most likely to emulate the actions witnessed in the state of Wisconsin. The new York times recorded Mr. William giving his opinion that although the issue of budget deficit was a national problem, republican governors were noted to use state workers and state unions as the sole strategy of cutting the budget deficits (Davey and Greenhouse, 2011).
Conclusion
A budget deficit has been notable in a number of states in the United States of America. This deficit problem has led to the Wisconsin governor taking steps to make changes in public sectors, affecting state employees and state unions. The specific step of changes in the public sector has however raised protest among state unions and even experts who comprehend the move as an excuse to punishing state employees on political grounds.
Other states that are governed by republican candidates are also seen to have adopted similar moves to that in Wisconsin. The issue of offering the state workers same salaries as other employees in private sectors would not be feasible though it is justifiable. This follows the changes in economies that were affected by factors like globalization.
The state unions are seen to be at high risks of falling into the changes initiated in Wisconsin and the other republican governed states following the fact that these states have majority of republican legislators in the states. The unions might therefore not survive in these states.
References
Davey, M. and Greenhouse, S. (2011). Angry demonstrations in Wisconsin as cuts loom. Web.
Direct. Trade union representatives. Web.
Germanson, K. (2011). Wisconsin labor history society. Web.
Stern, A. (2011). Wisconsin union fight is really a 15-state GOP campaign to strip workers off their rights. Web.
Wisaflcio. (2011). Wisconsin state AFL-CIO. Web.
Wisconsin state unions. (2010). Wisconsin state unions. Web.