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March 25, 2015
Although not officially announcing his bid for President as of yet, all signs point toward a Scott Walker run in 2016. But, while the mainstream media, particularly the “conservative” outlets has been promoting Walker as one of the up and coming rock stars of the Presidential race and the “liberal” outfits have been criticizing him in all the typical areas, there are plenty of reasons to stay far away from Scott Walker and why this man, like Hilary Clinton, should never be president.
For instance, fresh on the heels of the passage of his “right to work” legislation in Wisconsin, Walker and his fascist allies in the Wisconsin State House is now launching yet another assault on workers’ rights and the economic rights of the American people. This time, the guarantee provided by Wisconsin statute that workers receive 24 hours rest for every 7 days they work finds itself under attack from the Walker machine.
The bill, proposed by Republican state Representatives Mark Born and Van Wanggaard, would create an exemption for workers to “voluntarily opt out” of the rest day and work more than seven consecutive days. While this bill is being presented as “workers’ choice,” the problem is that this exemption will open the door for employers to coerce employees into opting out of the rest day in favor of longer hours.
Obviously, the result of repealing this legislation opens the doorway to a situation in which workers can be forced to work indefinitely without a day off.
As Bryce Covert writes in his article “Wisconsin Lawmakers Go After Workers’ Rights,”
To some, it is a complete mystery why Wisconsin voters would allow Representatives like the two who submitted the new “rest day” bill or Scott Walker himself in public without howls of derision and laughter. Instead, Walker has been elected twice and survived a bitter recall battle over his attack on collective bargaining rights.
Walker has long acted as a tool for Wall Street, Big Corporations, and government by attacking the right of workers and their unions. Unfortunately, after his “right to work” victory in Wisconsin and his colleagues’ “rest day” bill, three other attacks unions and workers are now in the planning stages.
The fascist leadership of Wisconsin is now taking aim at the Worker’s Compensation Program by reducing the influence and involvement of administrative law judges and putting more decisions in the hands of Walker’s reactionary State government which has a history of producing favorable outcomes for businesses and employers at the expense of workers.
Second, Wisconsin “leaders” also appear to be set to attack a statute that would keep blue-collar wages higher and prevent state money from being spent on out of state corporations that low ball bid against Wisconsin-based companies on public works projects. The law is an attempt to keep jobs in the state and prevent the depression of wages. However, out of 32 states that have such laws on the books, 18 are now attempting to remove them.
Lastly, there has been a clear signal that Walker and his friends are attempting to target “project labor agreements,” agreements where non-union contractors are barred from working on publicly-funded projects. If a non-union firm wins the bidding process, it must unionize in order to complete the project. There is currently no PLA system at the state level in Wisconsin but city governments often use them.
On this issue, Walker and his cronies are following fast in the footsteps of George W. Bush who banned PLAs in 2001 from the federal level.
The fact that Walker can even show his face in a political race in the United States is a sad statement on the political judgement of the American people since his economics are purely guided toward benefiting Wall Street bankers, major corporations, and public-private government/corporate collusion. Walker is an open proponent of austerity and of the slashing of the living standards of the American people. Yet, unfortunately, Walker has managed to survive politically this long in the state of Wisconsin.
Walker’s lengthy stay as Governor of Wisconsin is certainly not a testament to his leadership but a collective disgrace on the intellectual capacity of the American people who have been brainwashed with propaganda regarding the alleged and theoretical success of “Austrian School economics,” cutting and gutting, union-busting, and the low-wage economy. Years of propaganda and billions of dollars have been spent to convince working Americans to support policies that stand in direct opposition to their own interests and now those dividends are truly paying off.
Walker has done everything in his power to bring about lower living standards and a low-wage, long-hour economy to Wisconsin at the state level. His tenure as governor of Wisconsin should be reason enough to never allow him the opportunity to do so at the Federal level.
Brandon Turbeville is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He has a Bachelor's Degree from Francis Marion University and is the author of six books, Codex Alimentarius -- The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1and volume 2, and The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria. Turbeville has published over 500 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville's podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.
Although not officially announcing his bid for President as of yet, all signs point toward a Scott Walker run in 2016. But, while the mainstream media, particularly the “conservative” outlets has been promoting Walker as one of the up and coming rock stars of the Presidential race and the “liberal” outfits have been criticizing him in all the typical areas, there are plenty of reasons to stay far away from Scott Walker and why this man, like Hilary Clinton, should never be president.
For instance, fresh on the heels of the passage of his “right to work” legislation in Wisconsin, Walker and his fascist allies in the Wisconsin State House is now launching yet another assault on workers’ rights and the economic rights of the American people. This time, the guarantee provided by Wisconsin statute that workers receive 24 hours rest for every 7 days they work finds itself under attack from the Walker machine.
The bill, proposed by Republican state Representatives Mark Born and Van Wanggaard, would create an exemption for workers to “voluntarily opt out” of the rest day and work more than seven consecutive days. While this bill is being presented as “workers’ choice,” the problem is that this exemption will open the door for employers to coerce employees into opting out of the rest day in favor of longer hours.
Obviously, the result of repealing this legislation opens the doorway to a situation in which workers can be forced to work indefinitely without a day off.
As Bryce Covert writes in his article “Wisconsin Lawmakers Go After Workers’ Rights,”
But some are concerned that it would be hard to ensure that workers were actually choosing to forgo the rest period, rather than being pressured by employers. As Moshe Z. Marvit reports, “the reason Wisconsin had passed a ‘day of rest’ law in the first place was because employers had been abusing employees by pressing them to work too many days without break.” Marquette University law professor Paul Secunda argued that in many workplaces, “workers often have a proverbial gun to the head.” And the Economic Policy Institute’s Ross Eisenbrey has noted, “If the employer puts pressure on people and lets them know they will be unhappy if workers exercise their right to have a day off, that might be enough so that no worker ever does anything but volunteer to work seven days a week.”
Employers already frequently get away with breaking labor laws. It’s estimated that they rob employees of more than $50 billion in wages every year by making them work off the clock, denying them overtime pay, or making them pay for things like uniforms out of their meager wages. Even when workers press charges over wage theft, many don’t recover any money after proving what happened.
To some, it is a complete mystery why Wisconsin voters would allow Representatives like the two who submitted the new “rest day” bill or Scott Walker himself in public without howls of derision and laughter. Instead, Walker has been elected twice and survived a bitter recall battle over his attack on collective bargaining rights.
Walker has long acted as a tool for Wall Street, Big Corporations, and government by attacking the right of workers and their unions. Unfortunately, after his “right to work” victory in Wisconsin and his colleagues’ “rest day” bill, three other attacks unions and workers are now in the planning stages.
The fascist leadership of Wisconsin is now taking aim at the Worker’s Compensation Program by reducing the influence and involvement of administrative law judges and putting more decisions in the hands of Walker’s reactionary State government which has a history of producing favorable outcomes for businesses and employers at the expense of workers.
Second, Wisconsin “leaders” also appear to be set to attack a statute that would keep blue-collar wages higher and prevent state money from being spent on out of state corporations that low ball bid against Wisconsin-based companies on public works projects. The law is an attempt to keep jobs in the state and prevent the depression of wages. However, out of 32 states that have such laws on the books, 18 are now attempting to remove them.
Lastly, there has been a clear signal that Walker and his friends are attempting to target “project labor agreements,” agreements where non-union contractors are barred from working on publicly-funded projects. If a non-union firm wins the bidding process, it must unionize in order to complete the project. There is currently no PLA system at the state level in Wisconsin but city governments often use them.
On this issue, Walker and his cronies are following fast in the footsteps of George W. Bush who banned PLAs in 2001 from the federal level.
The fact that Walker can even show his face in a political race in the United States is a sad statement on the political judgement of the American people since his economics are purely guided toward benefiting Wall Street bankers, major corporations, and public-private government/corporate collusion. Walker is an open proponent of austerity and of the slashing of the living standards of the American people. Yet, unfortunately, Walker has managed to survive politically this long in the state of Wisconsin.
Walker’s lengthy stay as Governor of Wisconsin is certainly not a testament to his leadership but a collective disgrace on the intellectual capacity of the American people who have been brainwashed with propaganda regarding the alleged and theoretical success of “Austrian School economics,” cutting and gutting, union-busting, and the low-wage economy. Years of propaganda and billions of dollars have been spent to convince working Americans to support policies that stand in direct opposition to their own interests and now those dividends are truly paying off.
Walker has done everything in his power to bring about lower living standards and a low-wage, long-hour economy to Wisconsin at the state level. His tenure as governor of Wisconsin should be reason enough to never allow him the opportunity to do so at the Federal level.
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