Solution: Just give private sector workers the same pay and benefits as public sector workers.
3/17/11, "Union equates lavish benefits to black civil rights," Examiner.com, Byron York
"Fresh from defeat in Wisconsin, union leaders are planning a new campaign not just to head off future challenges to their collective bargaining powers but also to make the case that organized labor's benefits and prerogatives -- wages, health care, and pensions that are
- more generous than those of comparable workers in the private sector --
the civil rights movement.
- To make the point, the AFL-CIO is planning a series of nationwide events on April 4, the 43rd anniversary of the day the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated after speaking in Memphis, Tenn., on behalf of striking black garbage collectors.
- trying to take away the rights Dr. King gave his life for."
Throughout, the AFL-CIO is asking local leaders to tie the Wisconsin issue to the King assassination and civil rights. "A lot of people forget that what [King] was doing in Memphis was fighting for sanitation workers there," says Josh Goldstein, an AFL-CIO spokesman. "It's important for people to make the connection. Martin Luther King was so important to the labor movement.
- Workers' rights and civil rights go hand in hand."...
But was King fighting for the things that Trumka and his union forces are fighting for today? Is, say, the "right" for well-paid, unionized public employees to enjoy a health plan
- that includes coverage for Viagra ----
- a cause for which Milwaukee teachers waged a protracted court battle --
right to vote and access to public accommodations?
"It is delusion, bordering on abomination, to try to equate what Martin Luther King was doing in Memphis to public workers getting Cadillac benefits for which they contribute very little, or nothing, at taxpayers' expense," says Peter Kirsanow, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights who has also served on the National Labor Relations Board.
- "The sanitation workers in Memphis were receiving wages that were so significantly below that which are enjoyed by middle-class teachers in Madison that to try to draw that comparison is offensive. Truly offensive.
Will it work? After all the demonstrations, and all the speeches, will the public watch protests by angry, nearly
- all-white, middle-class school teachers with excellent health and retirement plans and think of Martin Luther King?
via Drudge Report
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