The Observation Deck

A key part of the American Dream is that we ALL want a voice at the table.

More than want, I suppose, we demand it.

Especially these days.

Which table, you may ask?

Whichever one affects our "lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor". At least, that seems to have been how Mr. (and later President) Jefferson put it in that great Declaration of Independence of ours.

Something to think about on this Presidents' Day, I do believe.

That's America, of course....and as we are seeing around the world, (and yes, in Wisconsin too) the voice of the people will be heard.

All sides too, whether we may like it or not, but we all WILL be heard.

Only thing is, these days, a number of different groups don't seem to just want a voice at the table. They seem to want to own the whole blamed table!

Beyond the posturing, the radicals left and right, the headline-grabbers, and the opportunists, there remains the simple fact that nearly all of us have rational concerns that sometimes will conflict with someone else's concerns.

To win, at the expense of another, has sometimes been referred to as "zero-sum", in game theory. In the history of humanity, perhaps the most common zero-sum game has often been called "war".

Perhaps the most difficult table to arrive at for our human family, is the table of negotiation.

At that table, we are required to listen and respond to the "other side", and sometimes, even compromise some of our positions.

"Negotiation" seems more and more to be a dirty word these days, does it not?

Yet, we either negotiate, or we don't. It's that simple, is it not? Those are the two options in a nutshell.

To have a voice at the table of our own destiny...whether that might be with our employer, our government, our religious groups, or even in our own families....

THAT is the goal being sought by millions of people around the world on this, and on every single day, in this 21st century...This, I do believe.

But...just remember...

You get a voice. You don't get to take over the WHOLE table, try as you might.

But that voice at the table? That's enough.

Oh yeah...one thing more...

...once people GET a voice, they won't be giving it back.

It just doesn't work that way.

Just my opinions here, and as always, I may be wrong...

..but, I don't think so...

Back to the banjo.

Springtime campfire sing-a-long time's coming soon!

I don't remember all these advocates to break contracts and end collective bargaining lauding Governor Strickland when he handed down huge cuts in staff at the State level during his term. As a County worker whose work is directly tied to the State offices that manage Medicaid it was a shock to hear that those offices (DD, Mental Health, etc.) did 30% cuts across the board. Boom. Gone. People are doubling up on jobs that were tough to begin with. That was done with collective bargaining in place, mind you. And yet this was the wimpy Democrat who couldn't make the tough decisions.

Collective bargaining is a process that protects workers from the momentary whims of management. It doesn't mean that when a contract is up they can't work to negotiate one more in line with the budget realities of the time. On NPR this morning they pointed out that contrary to the Republican talking points, there is parity between private and public sector jobs in terms of pay, contributions to insurance, etc. Yes, some states in the Union there is a bigger gap but not in Ohio. I also read that States suffering budget shortfalls can show no significant impact of Unions, either. States without public sector Union jobs are in just as much trouble than those without public sector Union jobs. Here are two maps I found in WSJ article...one shows map of states that have Public Sector Unions: http://www.nctq.org/tr3/scope/#interactiveMap

and here is one that shows graded performance of each state from the Pew Center:

http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/gpp_report_card.aspx

Only a political tool would find ways to connect the presence of Unions vs. no-Unions to have any noticiable impact in states performance. A Pro-Union person could say " of the top 3 performing states, one enforces unions and another allows it." Whereas someone with a bent on getting rid of Unions could point out "Look, NH has the worst performing state and they HAVE to have Union public servants!"

So what I am seeing is a political football, not policy or economic issue. Unions are the last bastion of Democratic power as the Republicans well know and they have found it easier to put the blame of America's downturn on the back of middleclass workers (as always) vs. the corporate fatcats who made our collapse possible. They say it is the UAW who made GM fail, not the fact that GM designed cars no one wanted to buy, as an example.

I think they know they have to get this out of the way fast because it won't be long before people's short memories tie the current state woes on the party in power and not the last party so if they are going to strike they better do it fast. It is a sad day for working Americans when they look for ways to DIS-empower the average Joe instead of EMpower them.