By Kevin Foley
In the wake of 9-11, after we learned that firemen/paramedics raced into the Twin Towers to rescue occupants knowing they would probably be killed – 343 of them died that awful day - America began thinking about its first responders differently.
We came to understand these men and women are a breed apart; that what they do and the sacrifices they are prepared to make for all of us go way beyond merely performing a job. We rightly began to call them our heroes, honoring their nobility and courage.
Before long, we credited policemen and teachers the same way; humble Americans doing difficult and largely thankless jobs for middle class money.
So, how did "our heroes" over night become "cry babies" throwing "temper tantrums" reviled by conservative politicians and media for having the temerity to demand collective bargaining rights and political representation? These are the same politicians and media, by the way, who hypocritically rush to embrace "our heroes" when it suits their purposes.
When he was running for governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie appeared before the New Jersey firefighter's convention and said, "I'm not here to court firefighters. I'm here to honor firefighters."
Now Christie is among the Republican governors trying to weaken or kill unions that represent first responders, including firemen, paramedics, police, along with teachers and other civil servants. Under the pretext of fiscal responsibility, their objective is to fulfill that cherished conservative dream of eliminating labor unions altogether.
It's not coincidental that this concerted campaign to gut unions, funded by the billionaire Koch brothers and other wealthy conservatives, comes on the heels of the 5-4 Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case last year. That ruling allows corporations and unions to spend unlimited money supporting or defeating political candidates and causes.
President Obama said of the decision, "I can't think of anything more devastating to the public interest."
Senator John McCain, who helped forge the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act added, "There's going to be, over time, a backlash ... when you see the amounts of union and corporate money that's going to go into political campaigns."
Unless, of course, there are no unions. Then only corporate money will fund political campaigns and we all know the politics of most corporations just as we all know the politics of most unions.
So it is the GOP governors of New Jersey, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Florida and elsewhere are vilifying state and municipal union workers and attempting to wrest away their collective bargaining rights. Without that right, unions have little reason to exist and conservatives know it.
The primary battleground today is in Madison, Wisc., where Gov. Scott Walker fallaciously claims unions must give up collective bargaining and allow members to stop paying dues if the state is to manage its budget. He has met stiff resistance from Wisconsin's union workers who understand the stakes.
Meantime, Democratic state senators are having none of Walker's scheme and fled the state, while support for Wisconsin's firefighters, paramedics and teachers is coming from the AFL-CIO and other national labor unions.
"If they succeed in Wisconsin … they will be emboldened to attack workers' rights in every state," said Gerald McEntee, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. "Instead of trying to work with public employees at the bargaining table, they've decided to throw away the table."
Indeed, the unions in Wisconsin have already made concessions, but Walker refuses to negotiate saying the matter is too urgent. But he did take time recently to speak to his chief benefactor, David Koch, one of the aforementioned billionaire brothers. Except it wasn't Koch. It was an imposter and Walker's comments were most revealing.
"If they want to yell at me for an hour," Walker told "Koch," "I'm used to that. I can deal with that. But I'm not negotiating."
"Once you crush these bastards, I'll fly you out to Cali and really show you a good time," replied "Koch."
"All right. That would be outstanding," said Walker.
Our heroes, huh?
*
* *
Kevin
Foley is president of KEF
Media Associates, an Atlanta-based producer and distributor
of sponsored news content to television and radio media. |