Need a Job? Go to Prison

by Clyde Weiss  |  July 07, 2011

That sounds pretty dumb, but that’s the consequence of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) decision earlier this year to strip state public service workers and teachers of their collective bargaining rights.

As reported in The Capital Times of Madison, “Besides losing their right to negotiate over the percentage of their paycheck that will go toward health care and retirement, unions also lost the ability to claim work as a ‘union-only’ job, opening the door for private workers and evidently even inmates to step in and take their place.”

It’s already happening. Racine County Exec. Jim Ladwig says he wants to let county inmates shovel, landscape and paint in addition to the highway mowing “privileges” they had earlier. Although they’re not paid, the inmates could get time knocked off their sentences.

Sweet deal – for the inmates. But what about the public service workers who diligently performed that work before? They’re out of luck. No contract, no requirement for the county to allow them to perform that work.

Read more about this outrageous situation in this ThinkProgress report. To learn more about the continuing attacks on the rights of public service workers, and Walker’s decision to remove their collective bargaining rights, check out this story in AFSCME WORKS.