If GOP Gov. John Kasich got an ugly bloody nose from public unions last year and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and his GOP pals wanted to leave public unions bleeding in the street (only to now face the wrath of the state’s voters), Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is by comparison sending wreaths and dry cleaning her little black dress for the occasion.
With a sweeping series of bills introduced Monday night in the state Senate, Republicans in Arizona hoped to make Wisconsin’s battle against public unions last year look like a lightweight sparring match.
The bills include a total ban on collective bargaining for Arizona’s public employees, including at the city and county levels. The move would outpace even the tough bargaining restrictions enacted in Wisconsin in 2011 that led to massive union protests and a Democratic effort to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
“At first glance, it looks like an all out assault on the right of workers to organize,” Senate Minority Leader David Schapira (D) told TPM on Tuesday. “And to me, that’s a serious problem.”
Not in Arizona it’s not. Not yet, anyway. It gets worse, however.
Beyond a ban on collective bargaining, the bills would also prohibit state and local government workers from deducting money from their paychecks to pay union dues.
They would ban state and local governments from paying anyone to spend time doing union work, a practice known as “release time.”
And in another break from the Wisconsin model, the restrictions would affect every type of public union, including police and firefighters.
Arizona is a right-to-work state, which gives unions a much smaller role there than in states like Wisconsin. But laws still currently give labor groups a place at the bargaining table to negotiate pay and other benefits for their members. All of that would change under the proposed rules.
Schapira, who is also running for Congress this year, said he expects the laws to easily pass unless something major happens. Democrats in the Senate are outnumbered 21-9, so he said there isn’t much they can do to stop the bills on their own.
Right about now I’m thinking Arizona’s various police and firefighter unions are going to have something to say about this. As are Arizona’s voters.
And I don’t think Gov. Brewer and the GOP are going to like it. Insert language about awaking a sleeping giant here.
The GOP’s lasting contribution over the last ten years is making us try to hate teachers, firefighters, cops, scientists, actors, journalists (the actual ones), public safety officials, local government employees, and factory workers. There’s something all of those professions tend to have in common, traditionally. And it explains Arizona Republicans making this move.
Schlemizel
I have family that has been in AZ for half a century. My gut instinct says these asshole stand a better than 50/50 chance of getting this execution carried out.
They continue to elect a succession of incompetent crooks and losers to office state wide, even the Dems there seem to suffer from tumbleweed for brains too often and the GOP makes the teabaggers look sane.
smelter rat
Sounds sort of…I dunno…Soviet?
JPL
What’s happening in AZ is a preview of the Government under a Republican Presidency. I wish candidates would run preaching the value of democracy since what the whackos are preaching is the opposite of working for the common good. The Koch brothers must be proud.
Schlemizel
@JPL:
Don’t you know? There is no common good. Thats just theft by another name. We’ll all be better off when its dog-eat-dog for real.
What a glorious day it will be when Galt returns to open Foxconn West near Tempe.
rob!
Can someone explain to me re: Arizona.
The former governor was Janet Napolitano, a Democrat. She left to head Homeland Security, so she was replaced mid-term by Jan “Army of Darkness” Brewer, who has gone full-tilt-boogie Hard Right.
How, then, has she managed to stay in office? Didn’t the voters of Arizona want a Democrat, or at least someone in the middle? How can/could Brewer–who was not elected to that office–go so hard right with seemingly no consequences? Is everyone in Arizona asleep? I truly don’t get it.
I mean, I can’t imagine this happening in other places. If, say, Andrew Cuomo decided to leave office, and his replacement decided to do the same thing as Brewer’s doing, he’d be thrown out of office in the proverbial New York Minute. So what happened?
brantl
Isn’t it amazing how the Republicans are mounting an existential threat to the unions, just in time for a national election?
How dumb can they get?(Hint: peak wingnut was a lie.)
JPL
@rob!: The economy. Unfortunately, the right wing has blamed fanny and freddy for all that ails them and people believe them. Didn’t you know that the President raised taxes? Romney said so just today.
Linda Featheringill
Only tangentially OT:
Apparently, GOP turnout for the primary election was about 15% less than it was 4 years ago. [TPM] I like the idea of 15% of the Republicans staying home on election day.
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/florida-gop-turnout-actually-fell-big-time-from-2008.php
The gov of AZ is not helping the GOP brand. Maybe she’ll help us some.
What can we do to help the Dems in Arizona?
r€nato
@rob!: Jan Brewer ran for election to her first full term in 2010, on SB1070. That was it. Her aides kept her out of sight to the greatest degree possible and simply kept playing that one note, and it worked. No thanks to Terry Goddard, who would have made a fine governor but ran a weak, milquetoast campaign.
The Leg can indeed pass this bill without any interference from the Dems. I’m curious why the public safety unions were included, unless it’s a ploy to bargain with them to get them to STFU about the bill if they get an exclusion. Unions are pretty much a non-factor in Arizona, except for the police/fire unions which do hold some power, especially in city of Phoenix elections. I hope they do not abandon their union brothers; the public safety unions are likely the only thing that stands between this bill and it becoming a law.
r€nato
@Linda Featheringill: invade and occupy the state Democratic party’s offices, and install a new regime with more capable leadership.
Actually, the current leadership seems to be more on their game; in 2010 they totally blew it and now the damage is done.
May I advise that boycotting Arizona is not the way to get anything done about this; it sure hasn’t done a damned thing to repeal SB1070. The bill was just introduced yesterday, so I haven’t yet heard of any organized effort to fight it. But once that happens… send money to whomever is charged with fighting this atrocity.
Brad
@rob!: People in Arizona actually LIKE SB1070. They really do. Here’s polling for the 2010 Arizona Gubernatorial Election. Jan Brewer signed SB1070 into law on April 23, 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_gubernatorial_election,_2010#Polling_2
jon
Arizona is just acting under the same moneyed interests that are pushing their agenda everywhere else in this country. SB1070 was just a copy of something tried (and passed) in California, after all. The point is to keep the underclass down, and when demographics change, to create more of an underclass. Unions, Saul Alinsky, Emmanuel Goldstein, whatever: the rallying cry for the two-minutes hate doesn’t matter as long as there’s something to hate.
Kirbster
Having won big in 2010, Republicans at every level are emboldened to try and “shoot the moon” (as in the card game hearts) with their most reactionary agenda ever. It’s a risky strategy: they’ll either win big, or totally go down in flames. I, of course, am hoping for the latter.
Desert Dog
Hi All. I live here. It’s nuts. I have been waiting for this to happen for months. Now it’s here, and I will go to the protests and do what I can, but it’s a very weird place, and I am NOT optimistic. Not at all like the rest of the USA….
The old, white, hard-right wing runs the show. This is a place where it’s not unusual to see a guy wearing a gun belt with a .45 in it in the local Albertson’s market. I saw one at my local Barnes & Noble a few months back.
Over and out.
g
She also said she was going to eliminate the civil service system, so that, to paraphrase the quote I read, it would easier to fire public employees.
Civil service rules are what protect a functioning public infrastructure from cronyism, favoritism, and retaliation. If these guys have their way, they’ll make Boss Tweed look like the Girl Scouts.
rikryah
not shocked in the least by this
Bobby Thomson
Dude, it’s Arizona. They elect McCain and Kyl repeatedly, and they elected an alcoholic, rightwing embarrassment as their governor. Republicans didn’t break a sweat killing unions in a state with much more favorable demographics to unions.
Since no one seems to have asked this question in Wisconsin, I’ll ask it now: who’s going to defeat Brewer?
John of Indiana
GOP Candidate-in-Waiting Mitch Daniels de-fanged all public employee Unions his first day as Governor of Indiana. Now we’re about to become a Right-to-Work (For Less) state and will soon be teaching Creationism in our schools that will have shiny new copies of the Lard’s Prayer posted on the wall..
Look out, Alabama! We’re coming for your factories!
Cacti
@Bobby Thomson:
As it stands, Brewer is likely term limited from re-election in 2014, but she appears to be looking for a loophole in the term limit language in the AZ Constitution.
Odie Hugh Manatee
They either let this happen or actively contributed to it happening and they are going to have to pull their own asses out of the fire. I doubt the rest of the state’s population is going to care all that much, especially the transitory Snow Bird population. There’s nothing that warms the cockles of the cheap, mean and nasty more than having their government paying shit wages while still demanding platinum-level services.
May this come back this fall and bite them in the ass. They are making it very clear to everyone out there; the Republican party hates workers who demand a fair wage and love the people who don’t want to pay them a fair wage.
Be sure to vote Republican if you want to America to become China!
Cacti
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
This union member is utterly unsympathetic to fellow union workers who wanted to play footsie with the anti-worker political party. Like the teamsters in Indiana who were just shocked that a former Bushbot decided to stab them in the back.
When you shake hands with the devil, don’t complain when you wake up one day in hell.
Nylund
The move against policemen and firefighters is what surprises me. I thought the GOP was smart enough to give them exemptions from laws like this. If there are big protests, are the police really going to take the call when the governor asks them to keep order or shut them down?
barry
@Nylund: “If there are big protests, are the police really going to take the call when the governor asks them to keep order or shut them down?”
If not, *then* they exempt the police (not firefighters) from the bill.
Max L
Nylund is exactly right. So, for my nickel, I’d bet that police and firefighters protest behind closed doors for about 20 minutes, wave the 9/11-first-responders flag, and get themselves exempted. Joe Arpaio’s heroes wouldn’t have it any other way.
If that sounds cynical, that’s because it’s how things get done here in California (the lobbying part). The Prison Guards union is good for this sort of dirty work, too. That way, all the heroes can get back to spiking their retirement benefits and endorsing republican candidates for governor.
piratedan
what you guys aren’t aware of is AZ’s demographics. This is the place where crazy Uncle Charlie comes to retire and those folks are right in the sweet spot for the Faux Bews spiel. Yet the numbers show that whites will be a minority and that AZ will be a split state with anglos, hispanics and naative aamericans all playing a part. There are big enclaves of Red around Phoenix, with Tucson shading blue and the rest of the state, trending Red but open for a good argument.
Our little Jannie was actually running behind in the polls to Terry Goddard (former mayor of Phoenix) when Russell Pearce turned his personal vendetta against Mexican immigrants into law. They played the trump combo of fear and race and in all honesty, Goddard never saw it coming. After all, why should a national issue like immigration suddenly be a key for a state election? According to the AZ DHS, immigration numbers had been trending down the last five years. Was their violence across the borders, hell yes. Was it bloody and gruesome, hell yes… but it continues because it is lucrative selling drugs to rich Americans.
Now some think this will be a cakewalk, after all, The R’s refused to even hear a bill limiting clip size for semi-automatic pistols after Giffords was shot. However, there are some signs of cracks in the facade, i.e. Pearce being recalled, the scandal about government officials being bribed with bowl seats and the ongoing Sheriff Joe show with the FEDS. S. AZ already has a semi serious secession process in the works and Jan hasn’t done any favors to the schools or the economy. The demographics are against them and they know it, the business community has stepped in and told them to knock their shit off and they came back from the cliff but obviously that lesson didn’t take.
I’d say its 60-40 that they ram this through and then douse themselves with gas and start lighting matches.
r€nato
@piratedan:
really? I saw it coming from miles away. Goddard is supposed to be smarter than that. He simply chose not to fight her on this issue, IMVHO.
Linnaeus
It’s stuff like this that tempts me to think that climate change can’t get here fast enough.*
*No, I don’t really feel this way. But I’m not optimistic about this being stopped.
Citizen Alan
Looking back, I really do think one of Obama’s biggest mistakes was appointing Napolitano as head of DHS. Not only did it allow Jan Brewer to ascend to the governorship and put her into a position where she could demagogue anti-Hispanic bigotry into reelection, but it took the only realistic shot AZ Dems had of beating McCain (Napolitano) out of contention and essentially destroyed her political future by making her spend four years defending TSA assaults on wheelchair-bound grandmothers and small children.
Linnaeus
@Citizen Alan:
I thought that appointment (and Kathleen Sebelius’s appointment as well) was a mistake from the get-go. I didn’t understand why the administration would remove Democratic governors who had won office in places that for so long have been hostile to Democrats.
Max L
So, it looks like AZ has the same problem with “spiking” that CA does, although maybe to a lesser degree (?).
It is impossible to overstate the resentment this has caused towards public sector unions here in CA. The police and firefighters have done an excellent job clouding the issue so that most people think that this is an option for ALL public emplyoees. It is to the point where even die hard liberals are sick of it. San Francisco voters last year approved a redo the contract for Muni transit workers over the objections of the union. Harsh stuff.
It will be dead easy for Brewer to get this done. And the cops and firefighters will get themselves exempted, naturally. Arizona ain’t Wisconsin.
The Other Bob
So I read that Komen has also previously supported emryonic stem cell research. Is that going to be cut too?
piratedan
@r€nato: well what was he supposed to say? DHS numbers say immigration is down and that its a Federal matter? How is that gonna play against headless bodies in the desert and that the drug coyotes are coming to get you?
she ran a one note campaign and turned the volume up to 11 and won. Lets face it, the one debate was awful for Brewer and Goddard never had a chance to debate her after it because she hid from the media. You live here Renato, you know how the airwaves and media work. This was a huge win for the attack ads crowd at the time.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Nylund:
First the Republicans destroy the unions at regular businesses so there are few of them left. Once they have done that they can safely destroy the Police and Fire unions. Why? Because the currently low paid, formerly union working public won’t have any sympathy for those “overpaid union-backed government employees” who ignored their plight own as the Republicans were destroying their unions.
Divide and conquer, the only way the GOP knows to ‘win’. As Cacti said above, many of these idiots chose to dance with the Devil and now they’re on the greased rails to Hell with Him.
Shocking, right? Not a bit.
HelpThe99ers
How to cross the finish line first in the race to the bottom:
1. Kill the public sector unions by eliminating the reason they need to exist: the right to bargain collectively over wages and workplace conditions.
2. Lock out union employees if they’re not willing to take up to a 50% cut in pay, plus a reduction in benefits. Note that in this case, it’s not a matter of “shared sacrifice” – Caterpillar, the company locking out their employees, just posted record profits in their fourth quarter.
3. If the workers won’t fold, move the jobs somewhere else… like a soon-to-be “right to work” state like Indiana.
4. Profit!
hitchhiker
That sentence can end right there. Where does all this hostility lead?
John M. Burt
Considering how the giant slept right through the hot foot and barely mumbled at the Tasering, I sure hope it notices when the clubs start coming down, before they move on to the cleavers.
PeakVT
@Citizen Alan: I agree with that heartily. Perhaps Napolitano and Sibelius are uniquely qualified for their jobs, but it seemed like a foolish move at the time and still does in the case of Napolitano (I have no idea what’s
the mattergoing on in Kansas).Sheriff Jimmie Russell
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