Here is our latest spot promoting Wisconsin’s recent reforms. It features public employees and taxpayers.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is living in Big Labor’s head – rent free.

The state’s public sector employee unions recently suffered an embarrassing rebuke from voters when four of the six targeted Republican lawmakers survived their recall elections. Big Labor took back two seats, but it was not enough to regain control of the state Senate.

If you thought Big Labor would be chastened by the defeat, think again.

Do you recognize this thug unionist?

The unions are so angry and have become so obsessed with Scott Walker, that a contingency of union thugs followed him to Milwaukee’s Messmer Preparatory Catholic School last Friday where the governor was to read to students and tour the school.

An unidentified union thug tried to prevent the visit from occurring by tampering with the school’s door locks. Media reports indicate that the vandal put super glue and sticks in the locks of eight school doors late Thursday night. Things went downhill from there.

Protestors spent the day on the sidewalk outside the school, chanting and displaying anti-Walker signs, such as “War on Walker, not on workers.” One protestor was even arrested on battery charges.

The protests got so raucous that at least one parent said that she felt unsafe entering the school with her child.

(more…)

Sigh.

Look what happened when Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker dared to go to a successful inner city school to read to a group of young kids.

The event was a perfect storm for the unhinged Left: A chance to combine their absolute hatred of the Republican governor with their complete disdain for the nation’s longest running school choice program.

SEIU, AFSCME and Milwaukee Public School officials combined forces with Students for a Democratic Society, self-professed Hippies and others to march, sing, chant and yell at not only the governor, but the students and staff of Messmer Preparatory School.

The Messmer story is inspiring, and one I’ll tell in greater detail here soon. What’s really striking to me is this obnoxious display of thuggery comes onthe heels of the release of the MacIver Educational Choice Census, which shows that throughout Wisconsin, parents are embracing educational options. In Milwaukee, nearly 4 out of 5 children attend a school other than the one geographically assigned to them by the public school bureaucrats.

The Left and the perpetually offended, who despite spending millions of dollars in national money have been losers now in several consecutive elections and policy debates in Wisconsin, must resort to civil disturbances, vandalism and thuggery.  Their well of vitriol has no bottom, apparently.

(more…)

Wisconsin schools, once scrambling for every tax dollar available and relentlessly proposing new ones for taxpayers, are now seeing their cost of doing business drop, thanks to the collective bargaining reform law that has now taken effect.

The new law, which was met with union protests unlike this generation has seen, put more power into the hands of school boards and administrators to set spending policy.  That’s because spending policy was taken off the collective bargaining table, where the Wisconsin Education Association Council could manipulate the process to its own self-serving advantage.  Perhaps most significantly, the new law took employee health insurance off the bargaining table, so WEAC is no longer able to pressure school boards to purchased overpriced coverage from WEA Trust, an insurance carrier established by the union. Read an exposé on that here.

That has all been wiped away and many school boards are about to reap the rewards.

The MacIver Institute recently produced a report showing the potential savings many school districts stand to receive, just from new mandatory employee contributions to health benefit premiums and pension plans.  For example, in the Green Bay district, if employees contribute 12.6% of the health insurance premium and 5.8% to their pensions, it stands to save $11 million.  With similar contributions by employees, Madison would see $15.5 million; MacIver estimates the Racine district would save $19.2 million.

(more…)

Warning! The video above contains graphic language and is not suitable for children.

As we move closer to the inevitable passage of the state budget…and as the collective bargaining law dispute becomes resolved either via the Supreme Court or additional legislative action…as families across Wisconsin and the nation tire of the circus-like chaos in Madison… the protests are getting smaller, but much more intense.

From teacher walk-outs with their students, to doctors issuing fake sick notes, to ‘zombies’ disrupting a Special Olympics ceremony, The MacIver News Service has brought you the story from Madison, Wisconsin since the protests began in mid-February.

Tuesday afternoon we sent out an intern to gather video footage of the day’s protests. Several hundred had gathered, in public, on the steps of the Wisconsin State Capitol in anticipation of Tuesday night’s budget debate in the state assembly.  The video captures what happened after our intern answered the simple question: “Who are you with?”

(more…)

Perhaps one of the most disturbing developments in the fight against Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to curtail school spending is his opposition’s penchant for reverting to its usual selfish ways.

A commune has been created within the Wisconsin state Capitol.  People sleeping on the floor.  Piles of pizza boxes stacked in the corner.  Signs taped to the walls.  A drum circle and Hyde Park-style Speaker’s Corner to air the latest rant.  An area transformed – no joke – to medically treat protesters.

So the unions are not only leeches, but squatters as well.

The Lord of the Flies now resides in Madison, Wisconsin.  This story, released by the MacIver Institute, reveals an actual makeshift organizational structure, complete with marshals that order people around.  Capitol security stands idly by as the Capitol is overtaken by hippies and union goons.

This is coming to a Capitol near you, should your state decide to push bold reforms, as well.

But that’s precisely the point: Big Labor wants to show America exactly what will happen if other states attempt to curtail in spending.  Wisconsin is the unions’ national example.

(more…)