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Talk about slitting your own throat!  You would almost think Dems were worried about their State's budget.  Could it be?

http://articles.boston.com/2011-04-27/news/29479557_1_unions-object-labor-unions-health-care (http://articles.boston.com/2011-04-27/news/29479557_1_unions-object-labor-unions-health-care)

House votes to restrict unions


House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly last night to strip police officers, teachers, and other municipal employees of most of their rights to bargain over health care, saying the change would save millions of dollars for financially strapped cities and towns.

The 111-to-42 vote followed tougher measures to broadly eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees in Ohio, Wisconsin, and other states. But unlike those efforts, the push in Massachusetts was led by Democrats who have traditionally stood with labor to oppose any reduction in workers’ rights.

Unions fought hard to stop the bill, launching a radio ad that assailed the plan and warning legislators that if they voted for the measure, they could lose their union backing in the next election. After the vote, labor leaders accused House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and other Democrats of turning their backs on public employees.

It'll all come out in the wash.  Crap is crap, regardless of the side of the aisle.

Really?  Don't you think there must be an extremely compelling reason for them to turn on one of their major supporters, both in money and in manpower?

To me, that doesn't bring up thoughts of "eh, they're all the same."  It makes me wonder what's the motivation.

That's been an ongoing theme since Wisconsin's Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed legislation to ban many public sector unions from striking and end their ability to bargain most issues, including health care. Similar legislation has also passed in Ohio. But Gov. Deval Patrick (D) says Massachusetts' bill is far less extreme since it ends collective bargaining only for some aspects of health care, like copays and deductibles.

"This is not Wisconsin. That's not what the House did. I'm not going to sign a Wisconsin-type bill in the end. We are going to have a meaningful role for labor, and we are going to deliver on savings to municipalities," Patrick said the day after the House action.

Lawmakers in Massachusetts say cities and towns must control skyrocketing health care costs or more workers and services will be cut.

Geoff Beckwith with the Massachusetts Municipal Association says the Massachusetts bill would save cities and towns $100 million while still leaving workers with significant bargaining power.

"Clearly there will be some measure of additional cost for some muni employees, but that's what everyone else in society has had to go through," Beckwith says.

Beckwith calls the Massachusetts legislation "galaxies away from Wisconsin's." As the bill now moves to the Senate, where support is still unclear, labor leaders like Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Robert Haynes vow to keep fighting.

"I would not equate what happened in the House as Wisconsin-esque. I may have said it in a fit of anger here and there. But it is Wisconsin-like ... that you take pieces — particularly important pieces of collective bargaining away from us."

Haynes insists unions are willing to give up pay and other benefits to save cities and towns as much as the legislation would. But he says lawmakers' insistence on cutting bargaining rights instead suggests they're really trying to break unions.

"It's the camel's nose under the tent. They take this away from me, what's to prevent them from saying, 'You shouldn't negotiate pension either.' Maybe 'You shouldn't be negotiating how many hours you work everyday.' Or 'Maybe we should just tell you what your wages are,' " Haynes says.

Legislation to restrict union bargaining rights to some degree has been introduced in two dozen states.

But Eve Weinbaum, director of labor studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, says it is significant that it's happening in Massachusetts.

"In a Democratic state with a Democratic legislature and a Democratic governor, we don't expect this kind of attack. And it's not same as Wisconsin, but it's part of the same trend," Weinbaum says.

She calls it a perfect storm.

With new scrutiny on workers' benefits and bitterness around "big government," she says, it's not a surprise that public sector unions are in the cross hairs.


http://www.npr.org/2011/04/29/135846478/mass-legislature-takes-on-union-rights