[TheMercenary]

Do you really think that this fight between the unions and Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin was about collective bargaining? If you do, you're sadly mistaken. The real issue was something called a dues check-off, not collective bargaining. What is a dues check-off? That's a system whereby your employer, in this case the government, deducts union dues from your paycheck before you actually get paid. The dues are then forwarded to the union. Unions, of course, love this because they know that sometimes people just aren't all that thrilled about paying their union dues; especially when those dues get close to $1000 a year as they do for some Wisconsin teachers.

Virtually all of the media coverage in Wisconsin has been about collective bargaining. Scott Walker wanted to take the collective bargaining rights away from government workers on all issues except basic pay. The unions, and the Democrats who supported the unions, would love for you to believe that this was the real issue. It was not. The real issue was how union dues would be collected.

Under the law before Gov. Walker signed his new bill last week, the union dues were collected by the employer -- the government. Now the workers will get to make up their own mind whether or not they want to pay the union dues. That is because they're going to have to write a check for these dues every month, every quarter, or however they pay them. What really troubles the union leaders is the fact that about 50% or more of union members have clearly indicated that they would rather not be paying union dues, and, in fact, would rather not be union members at all. Now is their chance. In these tough economic times, many of these government union members can find a lot better things to spend their money on than union dues. They know that their jobs are protected by the Wisconsin civil service system. They also know that, generally speaking, they're making more than their counterparts in the private sector. The new law provides that they will pay what amounts to a pittance toward their health care, and they're going to be paying towards their own retirement just as private sector workers do. So all-in-all they know that they don't have it quite so bad. So, for many of them, paying dues will be problematic.

This presents a big problem for the union leaders, and an even bigger problem for Democrats. The problem for the union leaders is obvious. Most of them earn salaries in the six figure range -- salaries that come from union dues. Without the government collecting these union dues from the workers, the union leaders may find the financial cupboard running a bit bare. That puts their fat paychecks in, you should pardon the expression, the crosshairs. But there's an additional problem. Union leaders also derive a huge amount of power from how they decide to spend union dues. Were talking about political campaign donations here. Surveys during the midterm election process of 2010, showed that Wisconsin government union members pretty much split their vote between Democrats and Republicans. The union leaders weren't quite so bipartisan. Wisconsin government employee unions made about 93% of their campaign donations to Democrats. This might sit well with the union members who supported the Democrats, but remember about half of them supported Republicans. These might be the very union members who will rethink this idea about paying union dues, especially if they can't control how those dues are spent. So now you see why this is a huge problem for Democrats as well. You can also understand why The Community Organizer mobilized his Organizing for America volunteer squad to head to Wisconsin for the purpose of promoting and beefing up the demonstrations.

It's really a shame that the ObamaMedia won't explain why these union leaders are much more concerned about dues check-off than they are about collective bargaining. The collective bargaining argument was quite easy to sell to the public during the controversy. Trying to protect the dues check-off system wouldn't have been quite so easy. Even the government educated American dumb masses get it every once in a while.

Bortz 14Mar11

It is unfair for the government to collect taxpayer funds paid to the government union and give them to a single party for support in general elections. The individual should be able to reserve the right to choose who that money should go to. Make a law that prevents public sector unions from giving money to PACs or in support of elections and they may get more support. Until then this is going to end. Many states are following the suit of WI and are not having half the battle that is being orchestrated by the Obama Administration and Democratic party on behalf of that 15% of the total Union work force in WI. They are spinning this as is it a Labor issue and they will fail again in the next national general election as these facts are discussed in the wider issue of the use of tax dollars in support of public sector Unions.