Sykes: New Walker book excerpt

On Feb. 15, I went to La Crosse[where the heck was I?] for a visit to a manufacturing company. Outside the facility, we were greeted by hundreds of angry protesters, but inside we got an enthusiastic reception from the blue-collar workers. As I recall, they were paying about 25 percent of their health insurance premiums and had to match their employer contributions to their pensions, so they didn’t have a whole lot of sympathy for the folks outside complaining about having to pay 5.6 percent for their pensions and 12.6 percent for their health care. It was a great event.

As we prepared to leave, the state troopers saw that the protesters had physically blocked the entrance we had used to come onto the property. So they turned the squad car around and headed toward the other exit. We watched in disbelief as the throng of people rushed toward the second exit to block our path. As we tried to pull out, they surrounded the car and began beating on the windows and rocking the vehicle. Just as we extricated ourselves from their grip, a truck pulled up and blocked our path, playing a game of chicken with the troopers. They turned the lights and sirens on and warned him to get out of way. Eventually he backed up, and we sped off.

It was a lesson in how much our circumstance had changed in a matter of a few days. We were dealing with people who were so blinded by their anger that they were not in the least bit afraid to storm and shake a police car. We had never seen anything like it in Wisconsin before.

And that was only the beginning. The protests following us around the state grew bigger and louder — and the protesters got more aggressive with each passing day....

continue at Charlie Sykes

Racine teacher: "Go after the Catholics"

Villarreal

Meanwhile, Katherine Villarreal, a teacher at Racine’s Mitchell Middle School, wrote, “I am a very proud UNION THUG teacher. Today I even worked an extra three hours for FREE! I will still stick w my UNION before scabbing and slumming with y’all!”

Villarreal added a post script: “Go after the Catholics!”

EAGnews contacted Villarreal to ascertain why anyone should “go after the Catholics.”

“I DO NOT have to explain myself to you,” she responded.

But a Facebook comment from 2012 may offer a clue. She wrote, “Catholics are scary. I remember being told while attending Catholic School: All Christians are good, but Catholics are better… Better what? Pedophiles? Liars? Bigots?”

details at EAGnews

Racine Teacher Email by Vicki McKenna

WallSJ: What's at Stake in the Wisconsin Recall Election

Unions frequently abuse their standing to sue. In 2009, during the height of the recession, many government agencies furloughed employees to save taxpayer money. In Milwaukee County, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees successfully sued to prevent this—and won $6 million in back pay and interest, at a time when every local government was drowning in red ink.

In 2006, the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) sued the Cedarburg School District for terminating a teacher who had viewed pornography on his school computer. An arbitrator initially reinstated the teacher and awarded back pay. Only after much time and expense did the Wisconsin Court of Appeal uphold the termination.

In the past year, WEAC again fought the termination of a teacher who had viewed and shared pornography on his school computer in the Middleton-Cross Plains School District. An arbitrator recently reinstated and awarded back pay of over $200,000 to that teacher. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, the district spent over $300,000 in legal fees in its failed attempt to fire him.

In the Antigo School District, a principal has been criminally charged with selling drugs from his house to fellow teachers, among others. The district could drug-test these employees to ensure that students aren't exposed to teachers under the influence of illegal drugs, right? Sorry, drug testing is prohibited by collective bargaining and the union contract.

continue at Wall Street Journal

Image

New "Recall WEAC" billboard

The quote if of longtime national teachers union president Albert Shanker: "When schoolchildren start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of schoolchildren."  For more information, visit RecallWEAC.com

HT Vicki McKenna

AFL-CIO Trumka: Wisconsin Governor ‘Lucifer,’ Will Support a Recall

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka (AP Photo)

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said that his union coalition would participate in a planned recall campaign targeting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) – a man Trumka referred to as “Lucifer.”

“Would I support going after Lucifer?” Trumka said, after being asked if he would support a recall of Walker. “Let me think about that. That's a tough one. Of course we’re gonna' be there.”

“I mean, the guy has overreached, he’s been a bad governor,” said Trumka. “He tried to use a contrived deficit to take people out.”

cnsnews

Wouldn't invoking a religious figure get most kids kicked out of a public school?

Catholic teachers in Philadelphia on strike

It's for the children. Wait, that won't work, since the kids are missing school. It's for the public good. Ummm... for the good of the Church? Right?

Photo: Catholic teachers picketing students' first day of school in Philadelphia today. If it's not about the money... What a disgrace.

Catholic News Agency:

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput may become involved in ending a Catholic high school teacher's strike, though the archdiocese says he will not take any action until after his installation.

“I'm not averse at all to becoming involved personally, in a direct way, if that's good for our schools and good for our teachers," the recently-appointed archbishop told CBS 3 reporter Pat Ciarrocchi. Shortly after his arrival in the city, unionized Catholic high school teachers rejected a contract offer and announced they were on strike as of Sept. 6.

But the archdiocese's Associate Director of Communications Kenneth Gavin told CNA that if Archbishop Chaput does intervene, it would not occur until after his Sept. 8 installation [today]. The teachers' union says it will not picket the installation [how considerate of them] – expected to draw up to 1,500 guests, including 700 cardinals, bishops, priests, deacons, and seminarians – out of respect for the archbishop [and has nothing to do with the bad press that Catholic teachers picketing a Catholic archbishop would get, right?].

Archdiocesan Communications Specialist Meredith Wilson said that negotiations with the teachers would begin the next day, even though church officials “wanted them to start today.” The meetings are slated to last through Sept. 12, with a break on Saturday [what about Sunday?].

As of Sept. 6, the archdiocese and its unionized high school teachers had failed to agree not only on a future contract, but also on the matter of what had caused the strike.

Read the rest of the article here. Read the Archdiocese's letter to parents here. Archbishop Chaput certainly has his work cut out for him.

I would ask why there is a Catholic teachers' union, but perhaps that answer is a little too obvious.

Arch. Milwaukee contacted to cancel Walker school visit

The principal of a Catholic school in Milwaukee is telling people to “start acting like adults.” That’s after somebody super-glued the front doors at Messmer Preparatory School, the night before Governor Scott Walker is scheduled to read to third graders at the school this afternoon. The school’s principal, Brother Bob Smith, said he called Milwaukee Police to report the vandalism, and ask for adequate security for today’s visit by the Republican Walker. Smith told W-T-M-J Radio that a woman urged parents to bring noisemakers to Walker’s visit this afternoon – and she warned them to quote, “get ready for a riot.” The principal also said somebody called the Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese to order Messmer to cancel Walker’s reading lesson – and officials said they couldn’t stop it because Messmer does not rely on the church for its funding.  [probably a good thing] Brother Smith said the governor’s visit has nothing to do with the main reason for the protests – the virtual elimination of public union bargaining privileges. The principal said it’s “flat-out wrong” to make something political when it isn’t. And he said the third graders would have no clue about the reason for the protests.

WTAQ

Wisconsin State Unions worked to defeat the 2006 Traditional Marriage Amendment

"Wisconsin was one of just four states where labor unions contributed to committees working on the same-sex marriage bans in 2006 and the state where labor money played the largest role. All of the labor organizations' contributions went to opponents of the constitutional amendment.

Wisconsin unions contributed $377,7000 to Fair Wisconsin (a Madison homosexual activist group)

Teachers' unions gave $350,000.

The Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) gave $325,000,

Wisconsin Federation of Teachers gave $15,000;

Madison Teachers added $7,500….."

On Page 41, you will see that George Soros gave $65,000 towards the defeat of Wisconsin's Marriage Amendment.

The Money Behind the 2006 Marriage Amendment(page 39)

Labor Union reps must pay for parade if GOP banned, Wausau mayor says

The mayor of a Wisconsin town said on Tuesday a local labor council would have to reimburse the city up to $2,000 for a Labor Day parade if organizers exclude Republican lawmakers from attending.

The move in Wausau, Wisconsin, came after a county labor official said last week that Republican politicians were not welcome at the event due to their party's stance against collective bargaining when state lawmakers voted to curtail it earlier this year.

Wausau Mayor Jim Tipple told Reuters on Tuesday that the decision to exclude elected Republicans "flies in the face of public policy."

"This is not a political rally, it's a parade, for God's sake," Tipple said, noting that taxpayer money is used by the city to pay for staging the event. Tipple's office is nonpartisan, and he claims no affiliation with either political party.

He said the annual cost of the parade, including insurance, setting up and taking down a stage, and police personnel, runs anywhere from $1,500 to $2,000 each year.

Reuters

Labor Unions valdalize school locks hours before Gov. Walker visit

Custodial staff at Messmer Preparatory school were replacing locks Friday morning after the previous ones had been filled with metal and glue overnight, said the school's Development Director Jeffrey Robb.

"We're very disappointed," he said.

The vandalism came hours before Gov. Scott Walker was scheduled to visit the school to read to second- and third-graders. Walker plans to read, "Oh! The Places You'll Go," by Dr. Seuss.

"This visit is talking about education," Robb said, but there have been political elements brought into it. Robb said that cars lined the street by the school sporting anti-Walker signs Friday morning.

Protesters plan to be at the school during Walker's visit, according to Jacob Flom of the Milwaukee Students for a Democratic Society.

"We're not going to let him go anywhere, especially in our community, without him being protested," he said.

Flom said he doesn't know who's behind the vandalism[ROFL!], but acts such as that aren't effective for the protesters' cause. Instead, he said, a better way to be effective is for people to show up in support of the protest.

MJS

In related news, John Huebscher the WCC director wrote kind of a tribute to labor unions historically for The Compass(GB).  He is right.  Labor Unions did help defend rights of the working class.  In stark contrast, the behavior of the public sector unions of today is nothing short of shameful(unlike many good unions today and the their noble predecessors of the past).  Particularly when you look at the amount of vacation time the WEAC receives, they can in absolutely no way relate to the railroad unions of the past(referenced in the article).  It is important that despite the fact that these unions atrocious behavior recently, that moral labor unions are certainly something we should support and be grateful. 

Screaming "Show me the money!" isn't convincing me WI Unions...

State employees urged by union to wear black today to protest the date of the first paycheck (for most state employees) that will reflect the changes due to Act 10 and Act 32. Rally tonight in Madison.

MacIver Institute

Still waiting for a reasonable explanation of your position my dear labor unions.  I've seen the numbers.  Walker's plan makes sense.  I'm open to hearing alternatives.  It turns out screaming loudly only makes me put in ear plugs.

NCReg: Unions and the Church: Lessons Learned From Wisconsin Battle

MADISON, Wis. — The recall contests in Wisconsin this summer set a national record — an indication of how deep feelings run in the state.

The last recall elections ended Aug. 16 with Republicans still holding the state Legislature. But the partisan battle over the fate of pensions, benefits and collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions created painful divisions even among Catholics — and that still needs pastoral and catechetical attention.

Wisconsin’s Catholic bishops say it’s time to set aside the political divisions that have divided parish communities and even some families.

Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison has invited his flock to reconcile their differences. But he also suggested that the lingering tensions marked an unsettling truth: For many of the faithful, partisan loyalties trump Catholic teaching.

“This is a profound pastoral problem,” he said. “When the objective truth of faith is subordinated to political concerns, I am not free to teach the faith and instead get categorized as a Republican or a Democrat.”

While “the bishops of Wisconsin took a neutral position on the issue, Archbishop [Jerome] Listecki of Milwaukee rightly chose to emphasize workers’ rights in his own statement, while I chose to emphasize the principle of fairness. The media and local politicians decided he was pro-union and I was anti-union,” recalled Bishop Morlino. “In other words, politics wins the day.”

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/unions-and-the-church-lessons-learned-from-wisconsin-battle/#ixzz1VaW2VzaK

The divide amongst Catholic was there before the public union debate and it will be there afterwards as well.  It's too bad the left was unable to present a reasonable argument on the matter because I was listening. 

Do Wisconsin Unions Reflect Catholic Social Doctrine?

Pope Leo XIII supported unions...up to a point.

In the context of the Wisconsin recall vote on Tuesday, Michael Sean Winters over at the National Catholic Reporter brings up, as many others have, the importance of labor unions in the tradition of the Catholic Church’s social teaching. While Mr. Winters has a point that the Church has been in support of unions, what he and many others fail to note are the parameters which the Holy Fathers have given for that support. There are limits, and these limits are almost always ignored.

The news out of Wisconsin yesterday morning was in some places headlined “Unions Lose.” Whether or not that’s true, it certainly betrays the perception that at the heart of the political angst in Wisconsin are the questions of public unions, collective bargaining and the closed shop rules that dominate. A “closed shop” means that you cannot work at the “shop” unless you belong to the union. Wisconsin public schools are a closed shop.

Because of the historic support for unions, many Catholics are lamenting the lack of support that the bishops are giving the Wisconsin unions. How dare they not use their pulpits, suggests Mr. Winters, to rally Catholic action against Governor Walker and his GOP hoods. But then looking at the actual social teaching ought to help us decipher the situation.

Let’s start with Pope Leo XIII, the founder of modern social doctrine, and his Rerum novarum which says:

continue at Regnum Novum 

A very good read.  Sadly, the Church's social teaching has got a reputation of being "bad" because so many on the left continue to misrepresent it.  The Church defines the teaching, not a particular political party. 

AmP: In Wisconsin, a Rebuke to Union Wrath

Catholic auto workers listening to lecture
by priest in 1945 in Detriot, MI

Alberta Darling (R) speaks to press after holding her seat in the most targeted WI Senate race.

I was on my computer late last night and so had a chance to witness the failure of a months-long effort by unions and Democrat groups to take back the Wisconsin Senate after it helped Governor Scott Walker introduce pension reforms for public sector union employees.

Because I was actively tweeting my reactions to a very heated topic, not surprisingly, I caught some flack from people who disagreed with my hope that Republicans would retain their majority in the Senate.

What surprised me about the critiques I saw leveled at me was how many would claim “the pope is pro-union” (typically followed by an expletive describing their distaste for my anti-union sentiments). They were most offended, in other words, that I as a Catholic was not cheering for the Democrat/Union team.

Get real. I believe it’s totally Catholic to be anti-union in the particular circumstances of the Wisconsin recall elections. Here’s why.

continue at CatholicVote

US Catholic: In defense of Wisconsin public sector unions

The question in Wisconsin was whether public employees should have the same right to collective bargaining as employees at private companies. The 1935 U.S. National Labor Relations Act officially recognized the right to collective bargaining for private-sector workers. Critics argue that public employees inherently have more leverage than employees of private businesses. Public employees can elect their own bosses. What’s more, public-sector workers won’t moderate their demands for fear that their employer—the government—will go bankrupt in the same way that private-sector employees must do.

“One has to make a distinction between unions as they were conceived in social teaching and unions that exist on the basis of taxpayer funding,” says Patrick Carey, professor of theology at Milwaukee’s Marquette University.

.....

The following day, Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison issued a clarifying letter. Listecki and the Wisconsin Catholic Conference, Morlino wrote, had taken a neutral position, neither supporting the governor nor supporting the unions. He quoted Pope John Paul II’s Laborem Exercens: “Just efforts to secure the rights of workers who are united by the same profession should always take into account the limitations imposed by the general economic situation of the country.”

Right-wing bloggers praised Morlino for reining in the Wisconsin Catholic Conference’s support for the unions. The media cited his comments as evidence of divisions within the hierarchy.

“People may say the bishops cherry-picked from the encyclicals,” says John Huebscher, executive director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference. “The answer is to urge people to go read the encyclicals for themselves.”  [Isn't the bishops' office a teaching office?]

“As Catholics have become more affluent, the church’s teachings sometimes bump up against a Catholic’s economic self-interest,” says Huebscher of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference. “So the church has a greater challenge in teaching.”

Huebscher thinks the church is teaching the social encyclicals, but the evidence is sketchy. “How many laypeople have ever been taught anything about the Catholic encyclicals?” asks Marquette’s Carey.[We know all Marquette grads have Humane Vitae memorized] “It doesn’t surprise me that Catholic laypeople don’t necessarily support unions. The culture can teach more easily by osmosis than the church can.”

“When I talk with priests around the country, they say the church’s social teaching is the subject they feel least comfortable addressing,” says Father Bryan Massingale, associate professor of theology at Marquette.[Less comfortable than gay marriage apparently] “They tell me their two weakest courses in seminary were homiletics and social justice.”

entire article at US Catholic

US Catholic = NC Reporter.  Liberalism is their religion.  It is very telling that they are still trying to spin Listecki as unconditionally supporting unlimited bargaining for public sector unions, despite the fact Listecki clarified his own statement as neutral.  Count how many times Rerum Novarum is referenced without ever quoting it. 

Want to "get" Catholic Social Teaching? Read Regnum Novum, and check out Mr. Gutierrez' section on Catholic Social Teaching at Discerning Hearts.

Not discussed in the article was the public sector union's firm support of abortion, same-sex marriage, contraception without parental consent, and pornographic sex education beginning at early as kindergarten.

You think politics in Washington is bad?  Try politics within the Church!

Distributist Review: The faces of Capitalism

We are frequently told how, if government would simply get out of the way and stop over-regulating businesses, "the market" will automatically adjust itself in a way that is best for everyone. There was a time when the regulations on businesses were much less than now. History has documented what this prosperity looks like. DWC

Distributist Review.  And a point of clarification:

Mr. Purdef, You may have misunderstood my point. I am not making a statement about regulation. I am pointing out that those capitalists, particularly of the Austrian school, who claim that "real" Capitalism - that is, Capitalism unfettered ...by the government - would result in the greatest prosperity for the most people are wrong. History shows their claim to be untrue because, when it was essentially unregulated, the result was that working families were so poor that, despite the fact that it was often the case that both parents worked long hours, they couldn't afford to live unless they also sent their children out to work in these kinds of conditions. Capitalists of the time fought very hard against all attempts to bring and end to these conditions. You are correct, though, that this happened because Capitalists separated ethics and morality from economics and business. DWC

Again, the point is not about regulations, the point is that capitalists, especially of the Austrian School assert that allowing the "laws of the market" to work unfettered will result in the greatest prosperity for all. The truth is that their promise actually resulted in extreme poverty and virtual slavery for a large portion of the working class while the capitalists lived in extreme luxury.

The funny thing is that Wisconsin public sector unions try to make this work in complete reverse where union members are given lavish benefits that no one but themselves enjoy in society.

In particular is capitalism problematic when the Capitalist has no ethics or morality.  Of course when those politicians charged with ensuring those with the means of production act ethically have yet an even worse ethical outlook, we end up with things like public funding for corporations like Planned Parenthood.  Folks might say we are so much better off now without children in coal mines(at least in this country).... but today's poor children aren't sent to mines, they are sent to their death.  And if we had a picture of today's forty or so poor souls' tragic end, we'd turn away much sooner than looking at coal covered children. 

Teachers unions: Show us your bank accounts!

Never, ever, ever give out your bank account number to anyone. Just sayin'. And don't get Alinksy-ed. Photo: From a March 5, 2011 union rally in Madison.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Teachers unions are asking teachers for bank account information so their union dues can automatically be deducted once the state collective bargaining law goes into effect later this month.

The Wisconsin Education Association Council has asked school districts for teachers' home addresses -- both email and street addresses -- so local union leaders can contact them directly, as the new law states school districts no longer may collect union dues on behalf of unions through payroll deductions.

Teachers now will have the option of whether to continue paying dues.

Union supporters hiring

Teachers union and the common good

Patrick McIlheran

Weigel: The Church and Unions, party like its 1919

Jesuit priest Dennis J. Comey discussing
work issue w. a group of longshoremen

Judging by the impassioned commentary from some Catholic quarters during recent confrontations between unionized public-sector workers and state governments, you’d think we were back in 1919, with the Church defending the rights of wage slaves laboring in sweat shops under draconian working conditions. That would hardly seem to be the circumstances of, say, unionized American public school teachers who make handsome salaries with generous health and pension benefits, work for nine months of the year, and are virtually impossible to fire even if they commit felonies. I don’t think those were the kinds of workers Leo XIII had in mind in Rerum Novarum, or John Paul II in Laborem Exercens.

Is it morally worthy of us to leave our children and grandchildren with mountains of debt because we cannot bring ourselves to reform unsustainable entitlement programs that were enacted when life expectancy was far lower than it is today? Is it morally worthy of today’s public-sector workers’ unions to defend what one columnist described as “massive promissory notes issued to government unions when state coffers were full and no one was looking”? Is it worthy of citizens of the world’s leading democracy to mortgage the country’s future security interests and diplomatic options to the fact that the People’s Republic of China owns vast amounts of American governmental debt in the form of Treasury bonds—and may well call our financial bluff one day when freedom’s cause is on the line?

Rather than acting as if this were 1919, Catholic leaders in America might begin to assert that selfishness is selfishness, with or without a union label, and that the common good requires sacrifices from all.

The whole thing at First Things 

HT Dad29