Tens of thousands of public employees and their supporters have been demonstrating at the state capitol in Madison, Wisconsin since February 15 to protest a bill that would require public employees to pay more for their health care coverage and pensions — and eliminate just about all of their collective bargaining rights.
According to the SEIU, “9,000 nurses and nursing home staff, along with about 5,000 home care workers” would be affected if Governor Scott Walker‘s (R) “budget-repair bill” passed, in addition to Wisconsin’s schoolteachers, firefighters, police officers, and other state and local public workers.
Also slated for elimination under the bill is the Wisconsin Quality Home Care Authority (pdf).
Agreed to Monetary Increases but Collective Bargaining Rights Untouchable
State and local public employees, including the county nursing home workers, reportedly agreed to pay more toward their health care and pensions, which amounts to a 7 percent cut in take-home pay. These workers would be required to contribute 5.8 percent of their pay toward their pensions, and, for most, double the contribution to their health care premiums from 6 percent to 12.6 percent, according to The New York Times.
The public employees have refused to accept, however, limiting their collective bargaining rights to negotiating wages only, as proposed by Walker.
“If you can only bargain for wages, you are basically unable to do much of anything,” said Bonnie Strauss, staff director, SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin. “The bulk of contracts are about what is most important — the working conditions: scheduling; staffing; holiday, vacations, and sick days; and input into safety issues.”
Under the bill, the collective bargaining rights for the 5,000 independent home care providers would be eliminated entirely.
“These rights are especially important to low-wage workers, because if you don’t have a sick day and get sick, it’s a major loss,” Strauss said.
Wisconsin was the first state in the nation to have collective bargaining rights, which were passed in the late 1950s, an NPR interview on states’ efforts to scale back collective bargaining rights explains.
Eliminate Matching and Registry Services
Less known is that the budget bill also contains a provision that would eliminate the Wisconsin Quality Home Care Authority, which provides matching and registry services, “like it never happened, erasing it from the map,” said Patti Becker, the Authority’s executive director.
The Authority helps consumers who want to direct their own care locate and employ compatible independent home care providers, as well as providing other services to support consumer-directed care.
“It would no longer be lawful for the Wisconsin Department of Health and Human Services to contract with the Authority to provide matching and registry services,” Becker said.
The independent home care workers just reached a tentative agreement on their first contract with the Wisconsin Department of Health and Human Services in December 2010; it was voted down the same month by the Wisconsin Senate along with other state contracts.
The Authority, which was enacted into law in 2009 and launched in late 2010, had plans to roll out its services to the entire state by July 1, but those plans are now in limbo.
Vote Delayed
Walker’s “budget-repair bill” has the full support of Republican legislators, who are the majority in the state legislature. They are one senator short to hold a vote, however, because the Democratic lawmakers have reportedly left the state to delay a vote on the bill.
Wisconsin has a budget shortfall of $137 million and faces a $3.6 billion gap in the coming two-year budget.
– by Deane Beebe
