The Milwaukee Post

September 20, 2013 • Milwaukee Post • 9 OPINION Act 10 keeps bearing fruit Fall of Kenosha teachers union harbinger of things to follow The once all-powerful public employee unions in Wisconsin are dying and their death is a wonderful thing. As first reported by me on my radio show last week, the third largest teachers union in the state was recently decertified. The Kenosha Education Association, an affiliate of the once indomitable Wisconsin Education Association Council, can no longer represent Kenosha teachers on anything. The one remaining power government unions have in Wisconsin, contract negotiation, is now beyond the scope of the Kenosha union. All it can do now is exist as a private organization but with no formal status with its school district. Union officials in Kenosha, still living in a dream world, say they didn't even seek recertification by their members because they consider Act 10, the law that reined in the unions, to be unconstitutional and are confident it will ultimately be struck down. But the reality is they would have moved for recertification if they thought they could win. Act 10 requires that every year at least 50 percent of the workers represented by a union must vote to keep the union certified. With dues payment no longer mandatory and the power of the unions weakened, many employees understand they no longer need the union. A state Wisconsin Education Association Council official acknowledged many other locals are doing what Kenosha is doing. WEAC is virtually dead. The same thing is happening with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the once big union of state and municipal workers. Teamed with WEAC, the two unions went all in for Wisconsin Democrats. This led to the bloated pension and health care benefit packages that strangled local school districts and municipalities. With all of their money, the unions not only influenced state and local politics, they bought them. Many local school boards came to be dominated by union sympathizers who ran with the support, and money, of the unions. Only two years later, state government finances are in their best shape in years. Some local communities have been able to cut property taxes. Others are reforming their workplace rules to get rid of noxious vestiges of union influence, like seniority, shortened work schedules and the ability to refuse certain work assignments. But even more importantly, the influence of the unions inside school and municipal buildings has waned. Conservative teachers have told me horror stories of the ostracism and bullying of free-thinking teachers who didn't drink the WEAC Kool-Aid. But strength comes in numbers. With many teachers STANDING UP for MILWAUKEE cancelling their union dues and many unions being decertified out of existence, the ability of union goons to pressure others is fading away. Good riddance. Act 10 still faces legal challenges but a federal judge recently upheld the law. The state Supreme Court has already done so and the worst-case scenario is that only minor parts of the law could be subject to nullification in the remaining cases. Walker and the Republicans slayed the beast. The Kenosha Unified District is huge and includes a lot of area outside the city. Kenosha itself is one of the strongest union towns in America with a longer history of private and public unions. If the teachers union there can't survive, it's hard to imagine any outside of Madison making it over the long haul. The bullying of Wisconsin by greedy unions is over. *** None of the above applies to police and firefighters. They were exempted from Act 10 and local unions continue to negotiate contracts and benefits for cops and firefighters around the state. But these unions were never lackeys of the Democrat Party. The two largest locals in the state, the Milwaukee Police Association and the Milwaukee Professional Firefighters, are both staunch supporters of Governor Walker and plan to back him for re-election. Neither of these Milwaukee unions is a member of the state police or fire MARK BELLING unions. The statewide police union is led by a Madison hack but even seems to have been muzzled lately. This union even endorsed the conservative incumbent for the state Supreme Court this past spring. The firefighters union, led by leftist Mahlon Mitchell, has been abandoned by many locals around the state and has been plagued by money scandals. Mitchell is a non-entity in state government maneuvering. Some believe Act 10 should be extended to include police and fire unions. But Walker and the Republicans have little interest in doing this for three reasons. Many police officers and firefighters are Republicans themselves who have never participated in the obnoxious behavior of WEAC and AFSCME. The Milwaukee fire and police support of Walker has given him tremendous credibility. But the clinching argument is that many believe the public employees who literally lay their lives on the line are deserving of special treatment and benefits not given to a restaurant inspector. Besides, most Democrats don't want to press the issue and alienate the only public unions that have a future. (Mark Belling is the host of a daily WISN radio talk show. His column appears weekly in the Milwaukee Post.) Readers Forum Question of the week Previously we asked: , Are charter schools better than, on the same level or worse than public schools? Should the U.S. move forward with a diplomacy plan or military intervention in Syria? You answered: "Yes, go ahead with diplomacy, especially when the country and our allies don't want to get involved.We have had too much war and have no real leadership. Let the Middle East countries solve their own problems." – Noah Borkenhagen Franklin Editor's note: The following is a submission from the previous week's question about the proposed Menominee casino in Kenosha. "Yes, he should approve jobs for Kenosha and Wisconsin. My question is why does this question even need to be asked?" – Dorothy Seidl Milwaukee Call 744-6370, Ext. 15 and leave a brief answer to the Question of the Week along with your full name with spelling, phone number and city. No address is required. Readers may also send an email with a brief answer to: dbutler@conleynet.com.

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