Wisconsin’s state legislature was embroiled in controversy when several of its Democratic membership fled the state in an attempt to postpone voting on a bill that would, among other things, limit public employee’s collective bargaining rights– and, as of this week, the scandal has reached Cornell.
A group of Ithacans including Cornell and Ithaca College students gathered on Ho Plaza earlier this week to show support for Wisconsin’s public-employee unions. Their set-up was simple, consisting of a single microphone surrounded by a group of students– some just observing, some holding handmade signs showcasing slogans such as “Take Back Our Economy” and shouting “This is what democracy looks like!”
One speaker at the event defended the unions by saying that they had already made concessions, including agreeing to pay more into their own retirement accounts, because they recognized such steps were necessary to balancing Wisconsin’s budget. He went on to protest, though, that they were also being asked to give up their collective bargaining rights, a request that has nothing to do with balancing the budget.
This, however, is probably not true. The rationale behind asking public-employee unions to surrender some of their bargaining power (Under the new proposal, they would still be able to negotiate for higher pay.) is intimately connected with the desire to reduce wasteful, unnecessary spending. The major concern here is that these unions collect mandatory dues, use those dues to finance the campaigns of certain politicians, and later have their own budgets and regulations decided by these very same politicians.
This problem is similar to the classic “Iron Triangle” dilemma, in which interest groups and corporations make campaign contributions to politicians who later staff the committees that oversee those same groups. Such constructs are obviously a potential problem and source of corruption and waste in government. Therefore, no matter what one thinks of Wisconsin’s proposal regarding on public-employee unions, it should not be considered a purely spiteful move by the governor to destabilize the Democrats’ power base, as was alleged at this week’s Ho Plaza gathering.
