Police and firefighters are exempt. - Democratic Underground

vanbean

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Thu Mar-10-11 10:42 AM
Original message

Police and firefighters are exempt.

The measure approved Wednesday forbids most government workers from collectively bargaining for wage increases beyond the rate of inflation. It also requires public workers to pay more toward their pensions and double their health insurance contribution, a combination equivalent to an 8 percent pay cut for the average worker.

Police and firefighters are exempt.

http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20110310/NEWS03/703109975/Wis-GOP-bypasses-Dems-cuts-collective-bargaining

Isn't this classic discrimination? Can you discriminate based on occupation?

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Tansy_Gold

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Thu Mar-10-11 10:46 AM
Response to Original message

1. If a teacher makes $40,000 a year and

a CEO makes $40,000,000 a year, that's discrimination too and it ain't illegal.

sheesh.

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vanbean

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Thu Mar-10-11 10:49 AM
Response to Reply #1

2. Sheesh yourself. One is compensation and the other is collective bargaining.

Edited on Thu Mar-10-11 11:10 AM by vanbean

I don't see the analogy. Legal rights are separate from compensation.

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atreides1

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Thu Mar-10-11 10:55 AM
Response to Original message

3. An 8 percent pay cut

And food prices go up.

:banghead:

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Maine_Nurse

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Thu Mar-10-11 10:56 AM
Response to Original message

4. Our state has slightly differing benefits plans for different...

occupations that were hired during specific time periods. Some were enacted as emergency measures for critical need situations. We have certain year-groups of game wardens or state police that got slightly better retirement contribution packages to entice applicants at a time when there weren't enough. Sometimes it was used to entice applicants for certain jobs because wages were so far below private sector pay for the same job. Usually, the difference isn't too large from the baseline pay/benefits package that all state and municipal employees get here.

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vanbean

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Thu Mar-10-11 11:10 AM
Response to Reply #4

6. But the right to have collective bargaining is different from benefits.

Rights are rights.

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Maine_Nurse

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Thu Mar-10-11 11:33 AM
Response to Reply #6

9. Oh absolutely...

All of our state and municipal employees belong to the same union and the general bargaining is for all of them as a single group. The "extras" that some professions have been offered at certain periods of time usually had nothing to do with the union at all and were state-initiated bonuses to attract key workers, although the union has sometimes worked to obtain certain specified benefits for specific employee groups (dangerous jobs, etc). I just meant that it isn't unheard of for certain professions within a union to have slightly different rules/benefits than others.

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theophilus

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Thu Mar-10-11 11:01 AM
Response to Original message

5. Divide and conquer. I thought if we could read we should THANK a teacher. n/t

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Fla_Democrat

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Thu Mar-10-11 11:21 AM
Response to Reply #5

8. and the ones that can't read?

:shrug:

:smoke:

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indypaul

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Thu Mar-10-11 11:16 AM
Response to Original message

7. Simply a divide and conquer tactic

Don't think the Intnl Assn of Fire Fighters will go for it and
certainly hope the FOP won't either.

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