May 29, 2012

"The UW's Teaching Assistants' Association has declined to endorse Democratic challenger and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who faces Walker in the June 5 recall election..."

Hot news! (You may have to wait a while for the stressed Isthmus website to load.)
"Through his use of Act 10 against the workers in Milwaukee [Barrett] has shown that he is not deserving of support of unions in Wisconsin," says Dan Suárez, a member of the TAA and a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at UW-Madison. Barrett made use of Walker's collective bargaining restrictions in Act 10 to increase pension and health care contributions for workers employed by the city of Milwaukee. Barrett has said he took those steps to avoid layoffs of public workers.



Without an endorsement, the TAA won't expend any of its volunteer or financial resources on electing Barrett, although individual members are still free to contribute as they wish.

"What this means for the TAA is that the conversation is going to shift back to how to meaningfully and effectively rebuild our membership [instead of wasting] time and money on supporting a candidate who doesn't care about us," says Suárez.

Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesman Graeme Zielinski bristles at the suggestion that Democrats aren't committed to defending organized labor. "The attack on collective bargaining was the original sin that sparked this movement," says Zielinksi. "Scott Walker's total dishonesty with the public on the matter of collective bargaining informs every inch of what we do going forward."

But a well-publicized memo (PDF) outlining the Democrats' messaging strategy for the recall election makes little mention of collective bargaining and lays out a range of alternative issues as the recall campaign's focus. In an interview for Mother Jones magazine, Zielinksi defended the strategy, stating, "Collective bargaining isn’t moving people."

36 comments:

damikesc said...

Dan Suárez, a member of the TAA and a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at UW-Madison.

Man, you can just SMELL the earning potential, can't you?

But a well-publicized memo (PDF) outlining the Democrats' messaging strategy for the recall election makes little mention of collective bargaining and lays out a range of alternative issues as the recall campaign's focus. In an interview for Mother Jones magazine, Zielinksi defended the strategy, stating, "Collective bargaining isn’t moving people."

Overpaying people polls poorly. I am beyond amazed.

Saint Croix said...

Holy fuck. What a clusterfuck. Parden my French, Wisconsin.

Next time you want to throw away a few million bucks, can I have some?

ndspinelli said...

I suppose if you're immersed in this cluster fuck then it's newsworthy. The vast majority of folks no matter how they vote are saying, WHO THE FUCK CARES!!!

Fen said...

Own goal by the Unions. Fine by me.

Have to give them props for sticking by their principles - the recall was about collective bargaining; Barret's campaign is not.

Mogget said...

This is just another way to pre-emptively make the point that the recall doesn't really matter.

alan markus said...

Says Zielinksi: Scott Walker's total dishonesty with the public on the matter of collective bargaining...

And there is this: Democrats' messaging strategy for the recall election makes little mention of collective bargaining

So, are the Democrats being "honest" or not on the issue of collective bargaining?

Richard Dolan said...

The circular firing squad is getting set up, and is plainly ready for action.

BarrySanders20 said...

In an interview for Mother Jones magazine, Zielinksi defended the strategy, stating, "Collective bargaining isn’t moving people."

Oh but it is. Toward Walker.

And this proves exactly what the unions would have done without Act 10 -- refused to negotiate increased pension and health insurance contributions resulting in layoffs of the union members with the least seniority. Barrett would not have used Act 10 unless he needed to. Milwaukee Public Schools, whose board signed a new contract extension in the fall to avoid Act 10, had to lay off hundreds when the union, who did not have to bargain due to the extenstion and could not be forced to contribute more under Act 10, refused to renegotiate. That resulted in the layoffs of scool personnel that Barrett avoided in city personnel.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Nothing the Unions have done thus far has worked.. maybe they are realising that and have decided to play ball with Walker?

Nahh.

Penny said...

"Purity Test" fail!

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Good for the TAA. I always approve when a union stands independent of a political party and acts in the interests of its members.

Penny said...

If the tea party was a smug group, they'd be giggling up their sleeves.

As it is, they're probably just happy to educate the educators.

traditionalguy said...

The TAs are making a smart move. That is like writing a good dissenting opinion setting out he principles even stronger for the day the wind shifts again.

In the meantime wasting money and rewarding a traitor at the same time makes no sense. Save the money and buy some more Brats and Mustard for a long winter.

edutcher said...

Rats.

Ship.

Sink.

Do the math.

PS I see Fox News is getting very geared up to cover the WI recall. When should we set our clocks to see Ann's interviews?

eelpout said...

Interesting the GAB predicts presidential turnout of 60-65% for June 5, or about 400-700k more voters than in 2010. Walker is running a desperate looking crime ad on Tom Barrett that you wouldn't think a winning/coasting campaign would be running. Then a GOP group just ran a phone jamming scheme to shut down Tom Barrett's phones.

Curiouser and curiouser...

Unknown said...

Has Jackson replaced Garage here as the cliched delusional lib?

tim maguire said...

Barrett made use of Walker's collective bargaining restrictions in Act 10 to increase pension and health care contributions for workers employed by the city of Milwaukee.

Prof., sounds like you finally have your answer for WWBD (What Would Barrett Do)?

HDJWWD (He'd Do Just What Walker Did).

Original Mike said...

"When should we set our clocks to see Ann's interviews?"

Someone should make sure Greta has Althouse's contact info.

(What's up with WV having one of its two words be so simple a cave man could do it? Does it fool the robots, somehow? (robot: That's too easy. Must be a trick.")

MadisonMan said...

I wonder if they would have endorsed Ms. Falk.

The Drill SGT said...

More Wisconsin butter on that popcorn?

Jason (the commenter) said...

"Collective bargaining isn’t moving people."

Yes it is! To other states.

Anonymous said...

Barrett, Mayor of Milwaukee, a supporter of Governor Walker's policy to avoid public school teachers layoff is challenging Governor Walker's policy to avoid public school teachers layoff.

Someone is spending 18 millions of Wisconsinian money to tie himself in a big knot.

l said...

"So, are the Democrats being "honest"

Can one use Democrat and honest in the same sentice

Peter said...

"GAB predicts presidential turnout of 60-65% for June 5"

But some Milwaukee wards might show 105%?

walter said...

Ah..the classic "there's no difference". So is Suarez not voting? Writing in Sly Sylvester?

Petunia said...

Does anyone know what happened to Garage? I'm starting to wonder if he or a loved one has had something awful happen.

Professor, do you and/or Meade have any contact info for him? I don't really miss the content of his posts but I'm beginning to think that something has happened to him.

Honestly, who cares about the UW TAA endorsement?

Rabel said...

A number of Dem organizations have put together a huge "get out the vote" effort.

I won't be shocked by an upset.

Petunia said...

And I mean "who cares" as in "who in the electorate cares", not that it wasn't an interesting decision considering all the protesting the TAs did last year.

Hey! One of my verification words is "nii"!

sane_voter said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael K said...

Barrett now says he has No Plan for jobs in an interview published today. If elected, he would ask the legislature to restore collective bargaining.

Great!

sane_voter said...

A number of Dem organizations have put together a huge "get out the vote" effort.

I won't be shocked by an upset.


Although not released for public consumption, the Dems and GOP have done numerous internal polls and it must be obvious to all concerned that the cake is baked; otherwise, the dog would be barking.

This will not be a Dewey vs Truman.

n.n said...

It's no wonder the public unions are suffering a perception problem. The implication of this statement is that they support a progressive exploitation of taxpayers. Unfortunately, for the unions, the majority of Americans are taxpayers. And Americans in general still prefer a representative form of government in lieu of a bureaucracy composed of civil servants and their representatives directly removing public funds and enjoying other privileges at the expense of the people they serve.

Anyway, the civil servants should get in line with rest of us and vote for redistributive or retributive or whatever change.

Methadras said...

Are Wisconsinite leftards officially retarded now? Garage? Paging Garage for comment? Hello? [crickets]

Michael Haz said...

Headline: Communists Refuse To Endorse Socialist Candidate!

Rusty said...

Petunia said...
Does anyone know what happened to Garage? I'm starting to wonder if he or a loved one has had something awful happen.

As a hard core progressive he is heavily emotionally invested in this election. This is very personal for them. The political stakes are enormous.
He and his friends are working hard to find ways to game the system so that Walker loses.
Cynical of me? Yes. But I know how liberals act when they think they are backed into a corner.
Reason goes out the window.

PackerBronco said...

Garage has probably been too busy voting this last few weeks to post here.