Wisconsin -- the unions behaving like spoiled children

The latest from Wisconsi is that the Democrats in the State Senate have gone into hiding to prevent that chamber from voting on the bill to restrict the power of public employee unions and to increase the contribution of the state employees to pensions and health care by 8%. In exchange for passage of the bill, the governor pledged that there would be no layoffs of state workers. Without the bill, the governor has said that there will have to be about 6000 state workers laid off in order to close the budget gap.

In response to these actions by the state government, the unions have acted as if the world was coming to an end. Thousand of state workers have carried out an illegal strike. Most have gone to the state capital to chant "Freedom and Democracy!" It would be more appropriate if the chant was "we would rather you fire 6000 worker than to have us pay for 8% of our health and pension benefits!" Or maybe a better chant would be "We don't care if the state is broke and the people unemployed; we won't pay for any of out benefits!"

The truth is that the behavior of the Senate Democrats is reprehensible. Maybe someone should tell them that old favorite, "Elections have consequences and we won!" Seriously, the elections in Wisconsin last fall were fought on the issue of controlling the spending of the state by making changes like this. The people of wisconsin (remember them?) voted for a governor and legislature that promised to go beyond business as usual and to bring spending under control.

I do not think that the public employee unions are doing themselves any good. Over the top actions like picketing the homes of the governor and legislative leaders and threatening their families will not play well with the people of Wisconsin. Using tactics like going into hiding will not help the dmeocrats regain a reputation for responsibility. My guess is that the bill will pass within the next week. The effect of the childish games from the unions, however, will linger for a long time. Folks in Kenosha or Milwaukee who can barely keep afloat are not going to think kindly of the state employees who demand no cuts whatever in their benefits (which are already much better than private workers) and want taxes raised on everyone else to pay for these perks.