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.”
The bills were crafted with the help of the Goldwater Institute, a powerful conservative think tank in Phoenix that flew Walker to the state for an event in November. Nick Dranias, director of the institute’s Center for Constitutional Government, told TPM he sees Walker as a “hero” but that Wisconsin’s laws were “modest” compared to Arizona’s measures.
“In Arizona, we believe that the political will exists to do even more comprehensive reform,” Dranias said. “The environment, the climate that we face in Arizona is much more receptive to these kinds of reforms than Wisconsin is.”
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.
“I think it’s kind of an all-hands-on-deck thing,” Schapira said. “We’ve got to get people down here at the Capitol to talk to their legislators, to contact them by phone or email and if need be to actually spend a significant amount of time here protesting these bills.”
The restrictions are on top of a proposal that Gov. Jan Brewer made earlier this month, saying she would offer state employees their first pay raise in years in exchange for giving up certain protections.
In light of that, Dranias said he expects the governor to be supportive of the new bills. The governor’s office did not return a message seeking comment. Sen. Rick Murphy (R), who introduced three of the four bills, also could not be reached for comment.
Dranias said the measures were inspired by Wisconsin but were more modeled after legislation passed in Virginia about 30 years ago. He said the goal of the measures wasn’t to ban public unions from Arizona but to make them seem obsolete.
“Gradually this would cause people to leave the unions as they recognized that unions no longer have an unfair bargaining advantage given to them by collective bargaining laws,” Dranias said. “They’ll realize that unions don’t do much for them.”
He said the institute has told Arizona’s legislators the state will save as much as $550 million a year if they put an end to collective bargaining.
Nick R. Martin
Nick Martin is a reporter for TPMMuckraker. He comes to the site from Arizona, where he worked as a freelance journalist, investigating serial killers, extremist groups, politicians and scoundrels of all stripes for a variety of local and national news outlets. He also operated the award-winning news blog, Heat City.
Looks like Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate are going to lose their majority. Your bad, so sad.
This whole initiative is primarily based off a report by the Goldwater Institute and testimony by them to the senate. Their entire report hinges on a single number - a multiplier of how much of a return a union member receives per dollar of investment into the union. The thing is, to get this number what they did is compare every public sector employee to every private sector employee [1]. They compared dishwashers to M.A.-carrying career public servants; country dwellers to those living in the capitol; 20-year-olds to 40-year-olds. This is the only way they could make the argument that the public sector pays better than the private sector, because a direct apples-to-apples comparison shows that it pays less to be in the public sector [2].
This was done intentionally and maliciously, and it's how they will be able to frame the debate as out-of-touch liberals arguing ethics who just can't get that this is the time we all need to be tightening our bootstraps, versus fiscally responsible Conservatives who are going to bring this state out of the dark age.
We'll fall for it, just as we fall for the other cockamamie plans, arguing ethics when we should be arguing arithmetic. The Goldwater Institute lied. It gave fraudulent testimony to the Arizona legislature. This plan won't save money (like the Wisconsin bill [3], it's not intended to); it will, in fact, cost the state plenty as it deals with strikes and suits.These petulant idiots are trying to sabotage Arizona's economy. That should be our line, not an ethical objection that can be easily brushed off.
[1] http://goldwaterinstitute.org/article/save-taxpaye...
The Republican Party has moved backwards in time to the 19th Century. Back to its "Social Darwinist" roots from the "Gilded Age" in the latter part of the 19th Century and the first decade of the 20th. The Republican Elephant is growing a thick coat of hair and larger tusks as it becomes a wooly mammoth of the Ice Age.
“They’ll realize that unions don’t do much for them."
Right. Once you strip away their power to do the things they're designed to do, of frickin' course people will think that unions don't do much for them. It's like saying "once we remove the tires from everyone's cars they'll stop using them." You don't say...
Sigh, Arizona. WTF happened to that state?
We the Members of ALEC for the Members of ALEC Against Anybody Whom Isn't a Member of ALEC. Could it be anymore obvious?
My co-worker's mother is recently widowed and is trying to sell her house in Maricopa County, AZ. It currently features solar panels that provide almost all of her electricity. She received an offer from someone who made it contingent on having the solar panels removed. You know, because solar panels are for socialists. Who needs free electricity when you can pay a utility company? I think Fox News should move its headquarters to Phoenix.
Remember when everyone said that Glass-Stegall was "obsolete"? Allowing absolute collusion of infrastructure and services to the few on the backs of the taxpayers.
sensativereceptor I don't recall the term "obsolete". How quaint.
Fascist
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite
10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.Then we have the others Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
Dawn Swift-Sadlowski I keep telling everyone that it could be a good time to get into the guillotine rental business...
Dawn Swift-Sadlowski Thank you for so eloquently laying out the groundwork of Fascism that is overwhelming America
Hey AZ welcome to the party. Much like up here in Wisconsin, any Red Neck public employee will finally realize the target is on their back as well the dirty poor people and Liburls. Eventually, the GOP will alienate enough of the electorate and be driven into the desert.
fedup Hoping they wonder there for 40 years at least.
Dawn Swift-Sadlowskifedup I want to go back to WI to retire in 10 years or so. Hopefully the loonies head to the desert. I can't wait to get out of AZ and the craziness that is the Republican party.
Republicans have riled up minorities in Arizona, now they've riled up teachers, cops, firefighters, EMTs and public nurses and other public health workers. It's like they want to alienate the middle class and minorities. Minorities will be almost half the population in twenty years and the union debacles in Wisconsin and Ohio triggered the income inequality fight of the Occupy movement. When people saw how the billionaire Koch brothers wanted to dismantle the pay of middle class union workers while giving more tax breaks to the wealthy, they started a revolution of the masses. Now, Wisconsin looks like it might lose it's Republican majority. Why, oh, why, do Republicans keep shooting themselves in the foot? Can't say. But, by all means, keep doing it.
rosaleewells They also shoot each other in the face
rosaleewells I couldn't believe Wisconsin ever fell into the hands of any Reblublicans not to mention the right wing loonies.
a promise of "save as much as $550m a year" is fulfilled if only one dollar is "saved", therefore a completely meaningless statement.
And... after the GOP tears down all the unions in all the states, the Democrats will come back into office, rebuild the unions, rebuild the states infrastructure, bring up the middle class -- and people will prosper for another 20-year generation...
And then the GOP will rush into office, declare everything built in the last 20 years to be evil, non-Christian and that it made people lazy...
Vicious cycle. Frankly, I'm tired of it -- and America has been loosing it's "ohhhh shiny" reputation for a long time. Sadly, now her reputation is being destroyed internally.
I guess we need a Rapture.
Cynner Unfortunately, I suspect that all of the people who think they'd be first in line to be Raptured are they ones we'd be stuck with afterwards...
How many Tea Party Grand Parents showed up at their kids house this
morning to baby sit, because both parents work at non union jobs that
pay just a little bit more than minimum wages and they can not
afford daycare... That's the great life style Ronnie the Republican
gave them !!
UNIONS MAKE RICH PEOPLE SHARE!
magicmaker yes they must since it was us who helped them get to that high place they did not do it alone.
Most times it was the sweat of our brows not theirs.
I live in Arizona and my governor and the elected majority are all idiots.I apologize.
You got nothin'. I live in Texas.
rosaleewells Actuallly AZ is making TX look sort of sane, these days.
Ned Earley No need to apologize Ned, You are just stating the truth. :) Can we ever wise up enough to vote out "America's most corrupt sheriff. What a Joke Arpaio is.
What the hell is wrong with Arizona that their senate is 21-9 GOPer?
As an aside, I've never understood why Obama tapped two popular red-state governors for cabinet positions, one of which yielded Jan Frickin Brewer and the other pissed away our only shot a bagging a rare red-state senate seat in Sibelius. Are we to believe that only Napolitano could hand DHS so that we had to hand the governor's mansion to GOPers in AZ? That only Sibelius could handle HHS so that we had to kick our only statewide successful Dem in Kansas out of that state?
I like Obama (and Sibelius, for that matter; Napolitano....no, don't like her) but from the very first moment I heard those nominations I was disappointed from a politicking standpoint. Struck me as very unsound politically. Unless of course both those women were just about to quit their then current positions unless Obama dragged them to Washington. Even then, I'd have told them to stay and fight in their states were we are so thin and tapped others from elsewhere for DHS and HHS.
SandyBerman My husband said she looks like a very old used pitchers mit.
She might look like Cryptie if she got a facelift.
Keep it Arizona you will have your government employee wages low enough that only people entering Arizona with out proper papers will do them. The time of peaceful demonstration has passed. It is now time to go to war like what happened in the 20s 30s and 40s. Time for unions of Arizona and the whole U.S. to give people like Walker and Brewer a proposal which can't be refused.
bennybelloes They should have a few days of just shutting this nation down. But until those few who have some have none nothing will happen.
Worker's rights and employer's responsibilities made America the industrial powerhouse it was. The corporations and republicans started to erode those rights and responsibilities et viola! This freaking mess!
Joe Cass Thanks St . Reagan
Robman2Joe Cass The original GE tool ex democrat union president.
"The Education of Ronald Reagan: The General Electric Years and the Untold Story of His Conversion to Conservatism"
Thomas W. Evans
This one also mention the GE years
"Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future" Will Bunch
Police and firefighters in Wisconsin by and large sided with the protests here, even though they weren't included in the law. They were right to be alarmed as Arizona and Ohio have proven. From heroic First Responders to blood-sucking gnats living off the taxpayer in 10 short years. Exactly what kind of political party -- what kind of society -- demonizes educators? Hopefully the GOP plan to destroy unions blows up on them in November, going the way of other grand schemes like the K Street Project or the US Attorney scandal.
MilwaukeeKent
I wouldn't want to have a Republican bumper sticker on my car after this passes. The police will understand which political party destroyed their union.
The bullies want to destroy the unions to prove to the union members that unions are unable to protect them from the bullies?
Timothy Evans Yeah, that's right.
What is going on in my state? First HB1070, now this? What is it going to take to get Democrats to fight back? We need to get these idiots out of office!
Vicki Lewis Bernal Omon' wins the election, policies will rattle down ticket, even for red loser states like Brewer's.
What a great gift to Democrats in an election year. Republicans certainly know how to mobilize the Democratic base. Thank you right wingers!!
googiecat The current GOP presidential crop nearly assures an Obama win. I hope! It took "W" 8 years to tear the country apart, surely Obama should get a chance to turn this country around.
Arizona is a shinning example of what happens when you elect a majority that has been bought and paid for by the Corporate special interests (aka ALEC). One bill after another has poured on to the floors of both house to either cripple unions or workers in general.
They shot themselves in the foot with their anti-immigrant legislation and now there are not enough workers to do the necessary work that all the whites refuse to do because it is below them to make that little money.
Now they are going to go after the public employees. I hope the the workers start screaming as they did in Wisconsin. Arizona needs to realize that what they are doing is killing the wage earners to increase the wealth of those who never get their hands dirty.
westofnorth2003 We need to publish a list of their addresses so the police and fire departments will know which properties they really don't need to rush to. Their trash might not get picked up, and who knows what could happen if a meter reader discovered that their water bill wasn't paid up.
I do believe that some aspects of these proposed laws violate the NLRB rules and law....particularly "release time"...but hey, they don't care...off to the courts we go.
The politicians of this state are some of the most cheeky, backward folks I've seen. There is absolutely nothing gained by passing this legislation but the "in your face factor"...a short sighted maneuver that will ultimately cost these folks.
Unfortunately for the corpulent angry WHITE FOLKS who are striking out at windmills, the ultimate dominance of Hispanics will be a VERY RUDE AWAKENING for those that are doing the CONSERVATIVE KABUKI THEATER THING....
iheardthisbefore Welcome to the 21st Century. Us folks who grew up in California, and other well integrated parts of the country certainly handled the decline of the White Majority with more intelligence and grace.
The fact is, we are so very privileged to be able to work and live with so many different people from different regions and cultures. We are most certainly a better people for our diversity, and it is the one thing we do so very well. A reason to be proud we're Americans.
From Wisconsin with love, so long unions. FYI - it's the year 2012, not 1932...no one needs you any longer.
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