Scott Walker, Adolph Hitler, Unions and the Red States

February 27, 2011 / Posted in  Adolf Hitler, GOP, Iowa, Tea Baggers

The day after Labor Day, on 2 May 1933, Nazi groups occupied union halls and labor leaders were arrested.  Trade Unions were outlawed by Adolf Hitler (http://www.johndclare.net/Nazi_Germany1.htm and http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERlabour.htm), while collective bargaining and the right to strike was abolished.  Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (who has no university degree and who education can be summarized as marginal), Ohio Gov. John Kaish, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, and other Red State governors repeat the move of Adolph Hitler and the Nazis by repeating the actions of the German dictator and mass murderer.   Lisa Graves, of PR Watch noted: “A new investigation by the Center for Media and Democracy documents the big money funneled by one of the richest men in America and one of the richest corporations in the world to put controversial Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in office. Walker was elected just over three months ago on the heels of an exceptionally expensive gubernatorial race in the Badger State, fueled by groups funded by the Koch brothers, David and Charles. David Koch, the son of a radical founding member of the John Birch Society, which has long been obsessed with claims about socialism and advocated the repeal of civil rights laws, personally donated $1 million to the Republican Governors Association (RGA) in June of last year. The RGA in turn spent $5 million in the race, mostly on TV ads attacking Walker’s political opponent, Democratic Mayor Tom Barrett.”  This corporate giving was enhanced by Australian citizen and fellow billionaire Rupert Murdoch who matched Koch’s donation to the RGA with a $1 million donation from his company News Corporation, parent company of FOX “News” Channel (for the economic and ideological tie between Rupert Murdoch and the Koch Brothers and the distortion of Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, see: http://www.alternet.org/story/150047/rupert_murdoch_and_david_koch_collude_against_wisconsin_workers?page=entire where right-wing “blowhards” like Rush Limbaugh, Saen Hannity and Bill O’Reilly and other “personalities” condemning the Wisconsin unions belong to the American Federation Television and Radio Artists union (AFTRA), which is the AFL-CIO affiliate for television and broadcast workers: http://www.alternet.org/story/150054/confirmed%3A_union-bashing_right-wing_media_stars_hannity%2C_limbaugh_and_o%27reilly_are_afl-cio_union_affiliated_members?akid=6577.92205.QNxzu_&rd=1&t=8 which first appeared at http://www.naplesnews.com/blogs/he-is-that-guy/2011/feb/23/union/; AFTRA’s health care policy is at http://www.aftrahr.com/home/HealthFund/health_glance_intro.aspx as for AFTRA having a contract with FOX News, the answer is no–it is not allowed but it does work with FOX news employees independently if they qualify for coverage).  The Center for Media and Democracy has been documenting on its SourceWatch site for several years how David Koch, the founder and chairman of a front group called Citizens for a Sound Economy, which received at least $12 million from the Koch Family Foundations and which is the predecessor of the group Americans for Prosperity continues to manipulate, buy and sell the American people and control their voting habits. (Read: http://www.truth-out.org/scott-walker-runs-koch-money67916 and compare the Koch Brothers to Adolf Hitler at http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=SourceWatch)

Wailing that Wisconsin was faced with a budget shortfall, as Hitler did when faced with the declining German dollar and rising unemployment, Walker decreased state revenue when he enacted tax cuts for the rich and big corporations, who are not surprisingly large campaign donors for his political campaign–with the Koch brothers each giving him the maximum the law would allow ($15,000;

Koch Brothers

according to Cenk Uygur (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CMjO7GW7JEw) on MSNBC, the Kochs were in fact Walker’s fourth-largest donor during his 2010 campaign, giving him a total of $43,000 throughout 2010.  Now they’re getting exactly what they want out of Walker, including massive tax breaks and this effort to quash Wisconsin union workers’ rights.  What few people know is the greed of the Koch brothers: the company has been slashing jobs in Wisconsin as David and Charles Koch granted themselves an $11 billion pay raise; http://www.alternet.org/story/150023/right-wing_group_funded_by_the_kochs_ratchets_up_interference_in_wisconsin_uprising?page=entire).   At the same time, Governor Scott Walker moved to get those who helped him win the governorship large pay raises, as he did in 2008 when he gave an aide (Tom Nardelli) a 26% pay raise with a $35.700 pension (http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/32492604.html). In January 2011, Walker gave $117 million in tax breaks to businesses that “expanded”. As the New York Times noted:  “That was a choice lawmakers made, and had it not been for those decisions and a few others, according to the state’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the state would have had a surplus” (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/opinion/18fri1.html?_r=2&hp).

As for Walker’s concern over or for the people of Wisconsin, there is none. As one of his first acts as governor-elect, Walker made a high-profile, seemingly aggressive move when he rejected already-approved federal funding to build a high-speed train between Milwaukee and Madison. Outgoing Gov. Jim Doyle (D) said the rail-line would stimulate Wisconsin’s economy and create 5,500 jobs.  Walker balked at the plan, calling it too expensive and urged the federal government to redistribute the $810 million to road projects in other states. After refusing the federal funds the money was instead allocated to other states’ high-speed rail projects (Todd Richmond, “Wis. train supporters lament loss of federal funds,” Associated Press, Dec. 9, 2010).

Political advertisement denouncing Walker (he did not vote against the amendment, but voted to table it)

In the past Walker has come out against laws protecting minorities, women (he voted to “table” a Republican amendment to the budget bill that would deny women mammograms and cancel health insurance, but he did not vote against it), and union workers (especially teachers). One of Walker’s boldest moves was to allow the secretary of the state Department of Administration to sell the power plants, which primarily serve University of Wisconsin campuses, including those in Madison and Milwaukee, as well as state prisons and other facilities, without calling for bids. This would enable the Koch Brothers to monopolize energy resources in Wisconsin and increase energy rates for consumers at will without review. This is a change from a similar proposal that Republican lawmakers sought six years ago, the bill stripped a requirement that the Public Service Commission review whether the sale is in the public interest.  During their marathon debate on the budget-repair bill, Democrats unsuccessfully sought changes to the plants issue, including a requirement that competitive bids be sought and another to restore PSC review of the deals (http://www.jsonline.com/business/116965798.html).

Adolf Hitler (l) and US Sen. Prescott Bush (R-CT) (r)

Like Walker’s richest backers (such as the Koch Brothers) Adolph Hitler depended on the financial support of Connecticut Republican United States Senator Prescott Bush for capital to build his death camps, to stop the unions in Germany from opposing his plans to enrich those obscenely wealthy  (cf. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar and http://www.georgewalkerbush.net/bushfamilyfundedhitler.htm; cp. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,100474,00.html, including the yet untold tale of the Bush family interested in Hitler’s eugenics program at http://richardboyden.com/bush_hitler_family_values_eugeni.htm; ref. http://www.rense.com/general17/bushhitler.htm), and carrying out some of the darkest plans penned in history. 

Walker, and his GOP counterparts, depended on the financial support and news media manipulation of David Koch and cronies at FOX News that regularly turns to Tea Party spokesman for commentary on the news, ignoring their lack of objectivity.  In a manner imitating that of Adolf Hitler, Scott Walker has been a congenital liar, and after his election in November 2010, his lies grew like imaginary magic beans–but not leading to any castle in the sky–but the building of an empire for himself while fabricating about what was happening in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin teachers demanding civil rights.

Walker continues to claim that the state is crippled economically by the unions, especially the teachers’ union and intensified his raw rhetoric when teachers came out against him and his proposed budget.  Walker’s solution to teachers demands was to call out the guard and have a row of police confront them.  Every major paper exposed this falsehood, for the unions agreed to concessions and even offered to pay into the state treasury.  As The Cap[ital] Times noted in an editorial:

To the extent that there is an imbalance — Walker claims there is a $137 million deficit — it is not because of a drop in revenues or increases in the cost of state employee contracts, benefits or pensions. It is because Walker and his allies pushed through $140 million in new spending for special-interest groups in January. If the Legislature were simply to rescind Walker’s new spending schemes — or delay their implementation until they are offset by fresh revenues — the “crisis” would not exist. (See: http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/editorial/article_61064e9a-27b0-5f28-b6d1-a57c8b2aaaf6.html) 

Contrary to Walker’s fabrications, the Wisconsin governor did not inherit a budget that required a repair bill as the Wisconsin treasury is solvent(http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lfb/Misc/2011_01_31Vos&Darling.pdf).  but his lie won for him the support of the Wisconsin police as the Governor promised the state police that their jobs were secure.  Racine’s Democratic state Rep. Cory Mason noted, the governor’s bill was not designed with the purpose of getting the state’s finances in order but as “an assault on Wisconsin’s working families and political payback against unions who didn’t support Gov. Walker.” 

Lawrence Textile Workers Strike

Walker did for a time consider bringing in police to “push back” the “demonstrators and unionists” in a manner similar to the Lawrence Textile Strike at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, and as Hitler did in the middle of the Twentieth Century in Germany.  Walker considers any opposition to his plans to “revamp” Wisconsin to be un-American using the rhetoric of  one-time Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy who saw every opponent as either a communist or a belligerent un-American activist.  Walker, with his Tea Party supporters following slavishly behind him, has continued to argue that the protests were demoralizing “Christian Americans” and rejected any suggestion that the unions’ objections were tantamount to what was happening in Egypt where the common man and woman opposed the government that had put limits on their collective bargaining and basic civil liberties.

Egypt supports the workers of Wisconsin

Wisconsin organized labor managed to abolish child labor all together, as well as institute an 8 hour work day, 40 hour work week, mandatory breaks, safety guidelines, grievance procedures, a minimum wage, the concept of a work free weekend, workers comp, pensions, health safeguards, and paid sick days, vacation days, and holidays. 

Collective Bargaining in the United States was finally legalized for the private sector on a countrywide scale in 1935 with the National Labor Relations Act signed by FDR.  JFK signed an executive order extending this right to the public sector in 1962.  Today’s Tea Bag Republicans are every bit as dangerous and self-righteous as Hitler’s Nazis and the Tea Party has become the Brownshirts of the GOP which has but one goal: busting unions and having the corporate world take absolute control over the government which is part of the definition of fascism (along with authoritarian nationalism).

Support for Democratic Senators leaving Wisconsin to stop Walker's attack on unions.

When Wisconsin Democratic Senators fled the state to avoid voting against the people of Wisconsin, Scott Walker had a draconian plan in mind.  As he stated in a telephone interview during which the Governor explained how he was going to layoff thousands of Wisconsin workers as a tactic to get the Democrats to cooperate:  “So, we’re trying about four or five different angles. Each day we crank up a little bit more pressure. The other thing is I’ve got layoff notices ready, we put out the at-risk notices, we’ll announce Thursday, they’ll go out early next week and we’ll probably get five to six thousand state workers will get at-risk notices for layoffs. We might
ratchet that up a little bit too.” (http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/02/10094/koch-brothers-prank-no-laughing-matter)  The state’s former Attorney General told the Capital Times: “There clearly are potential ethics violations, and there are potential election-law violations and there are a lot of what look to me like labor-law violations,” said Peg Lautenschlager, a Democrat who served as Wisconsin’s Attorney General after serving for many years as a U.S. Attorney. The head of the state teacher’s association, Mary Bell, reminds us: “He literally planned to use five to six thousand hardworking Wisconsin taxpayers as political pawns in his political game. He actually thought through a strategy to lay people off — deny them the ability to feed their families — and use it as leverage for his political goals.” (http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_0657a7e5-a7ca-59df-abf0-3222b8c8ef98.html and http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/john_nichols/article_6b772e26-401f-11e0-ba2e-001cc4c002e0.html; cf. http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_0657a7e5-a7ca-59df-abf0-3222b8c8ef98.htmlhttp://www.mediaite.com/online/former-wisconsin-ag-sees-three-crimes-broken-by-gov-scott-walker-during-prank-phone-call/)

Wisconsin state senator Jon Erpenbach

Senator Jon Erpenbach claimed that Democrats “had no choice” but to leave, and that at least 14 were no longer in Wisconsin.  He refused to comment on where they were, but said they were determined to leave Republicans without the three-fifths majority they would need for the vote to take place.

Those who oppose Walker or other Tea Bag Party officials at the state or national level are chartered for assassination by a new group of home-grown terrorists called Oath Keepers (http://oathkeepers.org/oath/). The Oath Keepers are one of the fastest-growing “patriot” organizations on the right having been founded  last April by Yale-educated lawyer and ex-Ron Paul aide Stewart Rhodes.  His paramilitary group, complete with assault weapons, has established itself as a hub in the sprawling anti-Obama movement that includes Tea Partiers, Birthers, and 912ers.  Nationally listened to hate mongers such as Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, and Pat Buchanan have all sung its praises, and in December, a grassroots summit (http://www.nationallibertyunitysummit.com/) it helped organize drew such prominent guests as representatives Phil Gingrey (a medical doctor representing GA-11, who fears that Obamacare will bring about numerous “frivolous” lawsuits) and Paul Broun (GA-10; another MD who claimed that Obama would establish a Marxist dictatorship, and that the Center for Disease Control [CDC] was aiming to control all people in the USA and force them to eat fruits and vegetables; see: Evans, Ben (November 10, 2008). “Georgia congressman warns of Obama dictatorship”. Associated Press. http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_wires/2008Nov10/0,4675,CongressmanObamaMarxist,00.html), both Georgia Republicans.

Those who contributed to Walker’s campaign chest, like the Koch Brothers now reap a treasury of wealth both in money, preferments and government contracts (according to Wisconsin campaign finance filings, Walker’s gubernatorial campaign received $43,000 from the Koch Industries PAC during the 2010 election;  one prime example of Walker’s budget for the state is a benefit only for the wealthy: $48 million for private health savings accounts. A study from the federal Governmental Accountability Office showed the average adjusted gross income of HSA participants was $139,000 and nearly half of HSA participants reported withdrawing nothing from their HSA; the average USA citizen does not have an AGI of $139,000 a year).  It is the identical duplicity of Dick Armey of Texas who sponsored the Tea Party and the assault on democracy in the USA before the November 2010 elections (Dick Armey now chairs the astroturf group FreedomWorks, which was founded with Koch money).

Walker remains unmoved, as did Adolph Hitler, and insisted that curtailing the “power of public unions” and right to negotiate for fair wages and livable working conditions, is essential to curing the state’s budget shortfall, and threatening, as did Hitler, that public employees (1500 in Wisconsin) faced the risk being laid off–with the exemption of police and fire who had supported his gubernatorial bid (it has backfired, for the fire fighters have offered to give up pay increases to retain the right to collective bargaining; cf. http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/wisconsin-firefighters-give-pay-union-video).  When a prankster during a phone conversation with the Wisconsin senator suggested planting “trouble-makers” among the protesters, the Wisconsin Governor admitted he “thought about that” but was convinced that the protests would be short-lived and get no real media coverage (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/23/AR2011022307100_2.html?hpid=topnews&om_rid=NsflBB&om_mid=_BNZln3B8ZUsYYd&sid=ST2011022307203).

Walker’s plan to eviscerate collective bargaining rights for public employees is right out of the Koch brothers’ playbook. Koch-backed groups like Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Reason Foundation have long taken a very antagonistic view toward public-sector unions. Several of these groups have urged the eradication of these unions.  In Wisconsin, this conservative, anti-union view is being placed into action by lawmakers in sync with the deep-pocketed donors who helped them obtain power. (Walker also opposes the state’s Clean Energy Job Act, which would compel the state to increase its use of alternative energy.) At this moment—even with the Wisconsin uprising unresolved—the [David H. and Charles G.] Koch brothers’ investment in Walker appears to be paying off. (Andy Kroll, “Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: Funded by the Koch Brothers,” Mother Jones at http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/wisconsin-scott-walker-koch-brothers; cf. Eric Lipton, “Billionaire Brothers’ Money Plays Role in Wisconsin Dispute” 21 February 2011, New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/us/22koch.html?_r=1; cp. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2011/02/americans_for_prosperity_to_ru.html)

It has never been hidden from any media that the Koch Brothers want an end to industrial regulations, a lowering of minimum wage, the ending of collective bargaining, ending the EPA and all climate control and environmental agencies (http://motherjones.com/environment/2011/02/koch-brothers-media-beck-greenpeace) as they attack Greenpeace and other advocacy groups trying to protect the environment, and the right to employ children at cheaper wages. These are the fodder for Iowa politics and other states where a few rule and the will of people are ignored. The most diabolical doyen of the Tea Party and most vocal admirer of the Koch Brothers is Fred Luber, chief executive of the Supersteel Products Corporation in Milwaukee, who serves on Americans for Prosperity’s Wisconsin state advisory board and has demanded the end of collective bargaining for steel workers.   Campaign finance records filed in Washington show that donations by Koch Industries and its employees (many who have testified that they were forced into contributing if they wanted to keep their jobs) climbed to a total of $2 million in the last election cycle, a figure that is more than double what it was in 2000.  The Koch Brothers have a wide range of topics they want to force on the American people. These goals include combating public health care, environmental regulations and spending by state and federal governments.  The effort to impose limits on public labor unions has been a particular focus in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Iowa.

Conservative Tea Baggers are unabashed in calling out for the assassination of environmentalists, unionists, and those who argue for a living wage and better education.  The State of Indiana’s Attorney General Jeff Cox called protestors and demonstrators “political enemies” and “thugs” who were “physically threatening legally elected officials” who were attempting to end collective bargaining and human rights.  In response to the demonstrators who ranged from age 5 to 95, were of both genders and various degrees of physical abilities and handicaps, he said that the police had every right to shoot those who opposed GOP governors and GOP legislators who were trying to outlaw unions and basic civil rights.  Jeff Cox said, in an interview, “You’re damned right I advocate deadly force.”  (http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/indiana-official-jeff-cox-live-ammunition-against-wisconsin-protesters) No human life was important if it was the life of a union worker or anyone who opposed the Koch Brothers or the golden rule (He who has the gold makes the rule).  Cox, like Walker, has a single commandment: it is better to kill than to tolerate the opposition. As he wrote on his blog Pro Cynic [The] “sensible policy for handling Afghanistan,” he offered, could be summed up as: “KILL! KILL! ANNIHILATE!”  At the same time he declared that the police had every right to beat up any black teenager–equating all as “thugs”.

A similar travesty against human rights has eroded the legislative process in Iowa. Like their counterparts in Wisconsin, Iowa GOP legislators were busy hammering away at the rights of labor and the right to negotiate.  The Iowa GOP, now primarily in the control of Iowa Nazis and KKK, have tried to end all rights of labor.  Democrats fought back for the working people of Iowa, offering amendments to House Study Bill 117  that included a proposal to put off all changes in the collective-bargaining law until the issue could be thoroughly studied. Other amendments that were introduced by the Democrats would have let unions and government employers bargain over how managers would decide whom to lay off if there was budget trouble or fire if there was misconduct. One amendment proposed by Democrats would have given teachers’ unions the right to bargain over class sizes. Other amendments would have given unions the right to bargain over reimbursement for work clothes or over payment for mammograms, dental services or care for fibrous growths on kidneys. The Iowa GOP would not consider any of these.  Recognizing the attack on workers that was current in Wisconsin, Iowa Democrats, the minority in the House, would not allow such a travesty of inflict the state.  “We’re willing to go all night here, tomorrow, through the weekend, however long it takes,” Rep. Kirsten Running-Marquardt, D-Cedar Rapids, said Thursday evening.  Female Tea Baggers in the House had no concept of civility, nor the rules of governance. Instead of attempting to engage in constructive debate, Rep. Linda Miller, R- Bettendorf, ignored the Democrats and continued to play “hearts” card games on her computer. She propped her feet up on a chair and turned her back partway from the Democrats and their debating points in a manner matching other, better known, fascists who grew in number and strength in Nazi Germany with the dissolution of labor and negotiation rights under Hitler.  (http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2011/02/24/dems-drag-out-debate-on-labor-bill/?source=nletter-news)

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad

Iowa’s governor, Terry Branstad, is like most Tea Baggers: he lies and double-dips. Not only does the Iowa governor get a state pension of $50,000 for having been a governor of Iowa (1983-1999), he also collects the salary of $130,000 for being the current governor, not counting the money poured into his accounts from his race for governor to today’s wallet from the Koch Brothers.  Republicans excuse this double-dipping, noting that Branstad gave up a position at Des Moines University (osteopathic medical college) that was paying him $375,000 a year. (Branstad is one of Iowa’s most corrupt politicians. He easily selected one his largest donors for the Iowa Supreme Court: Thomas Waterman  (http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110203/NEWS/102030356/1001/?source=nletter-news and http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2011/02/23/branstad-taps-waterman-for-iowa-supreme-court-justice/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IowaPolitics+%28Iowa+Politics+Insider+-+Des+Moines+Register%29&utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail).  Thomas Waterman contributed $7,500 to Branstad campaign chest and after the three sitting judges were ousted by Koch and outside Iowa money, Waterman’s name was placed before the new governor. Waterman had worked for Branstad when Branstad was sued over a line-item veto.

While the Tea Party’s GOP moved to end all public subsidies for children going to preschool at taxpayer expense if the parents could afford private schools, Governor Terry Branstad’s granddaughter goes to preschool at no charge through a state-supported program that Branstad says should not be open to parents who can afford the classes (http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2011/02/04/branstads-granddaughter-goes-to-state-paid-preschool/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IowaPolitics+%28Iowa+Politics+Insider+-+Des+Moines+Register%29&utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail).  About four months after Terry Branstad said the universal preschool effort forces private preschools out of business and siphons money from other public education programs, his son

Eric Branstad

Eric (who killed two people [Charles E. McCullough, age 65 and his 60 year-old wife Jean M.] in a car “accident” in 1991 while driving ten miles over the speed limit while under the influence of alcohol; the “accident” is detailed at http://ericbranstad.org/ while his parents were in Seattle, WA) and his wife, Adrianne, enrolled their daughter in a school the grandfather denounced. Lawmakers who approved a plan to phase in universal preschool in 2007 billed it as a way to offer all 4-year-old children a jump-start on school at no charge to their parents.  Terry Branstad saw this as a form of socialism: leveling the playing field so that all Iowans were treated equitably and equally–an idea abhorrent to state Republicans.  A bill that would scrap universal preschool passed in the Republican-controlled Iowa House in January, but has stalled in the Democratic-controlled Senate; however, the Senate doesn’t have the votes to override a line-item veto by Gov. Terry Branstad if lawmakers pass an education budget that includes universal preschool, and his granddaughter could continue feeding at the public troth.

When it comes to unions in Iowa, Branstad wants to reopen all  union contracts and force through a pay increase freeze and gain additional concessions. Branstad claimed that the outgoing Governor Chet Culver was wrong to agree to union demands: “It’s unprecedented to just accept the union’s first demand without any negotiations,” he argued, noting that if the negotiations were not resumed and the unions offer concessions, he would be forced to implement layoffs of state workers–matching the rhetoric of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

What has been ignored by the conservative press is that the unions in Iowa voluntarily accept five unpaid furlough days and forgo deferred compensation payments to help the state weather a 10 percent across-the-board budget cut after state revenues plunged due to affects of the national recession.  This is not enough for Branstad who worried that the current contract gives those with seniority preference over new hires “because seniority rights usually mean that people who lose their jobs are the most-recent hires with the lowest paid, which means you have to lay off twice as many people” (http://thegazette.com/2010/11/30/branstad-wants-more-contract-talks-with-union-workers-that-include-pay-freeze/; cp. http://qctimes.com/news/local/government-and-politics/article_c0a3e224-fd10-11df-81ba-001cc4c002e0.html).  As the Daily Iowan noted:  “A recent study [http://wox.sagepub.com/content/37/2/119] by researchers from the University of Kansas and University of Texas-Austin showed that removing collective-bargaining power and wage contracts creates greater income inequality than in sectors where workers salaries are protected.”

Earlier in 2011, Branstad issued an executive order forbidding state-funded construction to use project labor agreements, in which the buyer and the contractor agree to certain terms for the construction (including timeline and hiring issues).  Nullifying the agreement will have the largest consequences for local Iowa workers. “With a project labor agreement, we have the option to require that contractors hire workers in state,” said Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett. “But without a project labor agreement, we are required to accept the lowest bid.” This means that, without a project labor agreement, construction income could travel entirely out of the state if costs were low enough (http://www.dailyiowan.com/2011/02/10/Opinions/21264.html).  To further augment his nefarious design, Branstad’s budget proposal will cause a substantial decrease in revenue by cutting corporate income-tax rates in half and taxing new corporate building projects at only 60 percent of their valuation. By cutting taxes for corporations the individual Iowa taxpayer would have to make up the difference in lost tax revenue–the taxpayer already having a share that is a disproportionate amount of the state revenue burden and one of many reasons that young Iowans and older workers flee the state (http://www.dailyiowan.com/2011/02/10/Opinions/21264.html).  It is because of past assaults on labor when Branstad was governor that Iowa’ congressional representation began to decline as young Iowans left Iowa in droves (I remember living in Dallas in 1980 and went to visit a teacher who lived on Beltline Road at a new apartment complex. The educator told me that there were 100 new apartments to meet the needs of those coming into Texas.  The teacher pointed out the cars in the parking lot, everyone having an out-of-state license plate. Every license plate in the parking lot was from Iowa).