Union Workers Replaced With Prison Labor Under Scott Walker’s Collective Bargaining Law

[kpete]

Source: Think Progress

Union Workers Replaced With Prison Labor Under Scott Walker’s Collective Bargaining Law
By Alex Seitz-Wald on Jul 6, 2011 at 4:57 pm

While Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) law dismantling collective bargaining rights has harmed teachers, nurses, and other civil servants, it’s helping a different group in Wisconsinites — inmates. Prisoners are now taking up jobs that used to be held by unionized workers in some parts of the state.

As the Madison Capital Times reports, “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.” Inmates are not paid for their work, but may receive time off of their sentences.

The law went into effect last week, and Racine County is already using inmates to do landscaping, painting, and another basic maintenance around the county that was previously done by county workers. The union had successfully sued to stop the country from using prison labor for these jobs last year, but with Walker’s new law, they have no recourse. Watch a report from Fox6 in Green Bay: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/07/06/261319/scott-walker-prison-labor/


Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/07/06/261319/scott-walker-prison-labor/

[eilen]

1. Wisconsin is a slave state now, who knew. nt

[alfredo]

50. I wonder what kind of kickback he is getting from the

prison industry?

[DallasNE]

59. Technically This Is More Like

Indentured servant labor. While both are considered property the indentured servant is release from that status after a predetermined period of time. The two can be compared here.

http://delmarhistory8.wikispaces.com/file/view/Slaves+vs.+Indentured+Servants.pdf

[glinda]

113. +1

[noel711]

2. Do I smell a lawsuit brewing?

[Brickbat]

3. Prison labor is slave labor. Disgusting.

[duhneece]

12. Amen

The new slaves, prisoners.

"Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million - mostly Black and Hispanic - are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don't have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don't like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.

There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison Focus, "no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens." The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the world's prison population, but only 5% of the world's people. From less than 300,000 inmates in 1972, the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000. In 1990 it was one million. Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100, with 62,000 inmates. It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports.

What has happened over the last 10 years? Why are there so many prisoners?

"The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners' work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce. The system feeds itself," says a study by the Progressive Labor Party, which accuses the prison industry of being "an imitation of Nazi Germany with respect to forced slave labor and concentration camps."

snip

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8289

[NM Independent]

23. That's an incredible article, but...

there are no citations for any of the facts or statistics noted anywhere. How reliable is this source?

Is 97% really the number of non-violent offenders in federal prison? That just seems insane!

[duhneece]

36. I honestly don't know nt

[fasttense]

93. Think progress is very reliable.

I did not read anywhere that 97% figure you quote.

The video is some corporate media piece that you may take with a grain of salt.

But Think Progress is very informative and usually very accurate.

[Butch350]

26. Come Onnnnn

You don't think a prisoner shacking up daily with Bubba the Butt killer wouldn't mind
going out to work everyday in a normal environment away from prison life?

I know I would.

For christ sakes they are in jail for crimes. You write like they are poor innocent people being
taken advantage of. They are not victims - they are criminals.

[duhneece]

38. No, many are War on Drugs prisoners

They are addicts. They were self-medicating. The War on DRugs is an unjust policy; if they weren't driving under the influence, neglecting their children, stealing or hurting anyone, they should NOT be locked in cages like dangerous animals.

[mysuzuki2]

40. THAT is not the issue

the issue is that UNION jobs are being done by unpaid labor. I'd jump at it if I was a prisoner too. The point is that family supporting jobs are being done by unpaid prisoners. What are the families to do?

[tclambert]

90. Can't get a job? Rob a liquor store. Get arrested. Go to jail. Get a job.

You see? It all works out in the end. When everybody commits crimes of desperation, goes to prison, and becomes slave labor, the Republican Utopia has arrived.

It's brilliant, really, in a Lex Luthor kind of way.

[Lorien]

106. And health care too!

I got a shiver when I read this. The Elite's plan is pretty clear, isn't it?

[blank space]

51. You don't seem to understand the issue,

take the time to go back and understand the issues at stake before making what are essentially illiterate observations. It is not about their desire for a better prison life, nor is it about whether or no they are guilty of a criminal offense - these things have absolutely no bearing on the issues being raised and discussed.

[Quantess]

56. That's a really rude reply with so little provocation.

I'm not taking sides on the argument, but that's just an insulting way to discuss a topic.

[Enthusiast]

89. Such is the nature of the internet.

I thought the response was relatively kind and considerate under the circumstances.

[coalition_unwilling]

112. Post #26 used the phrase 'Bubba the butt killer" - that's a nod and

a wink to prison rape. So aside from that poster not 'getting it,' he or she can turn a blind eye with equanimity to prison rape. I agree with you that the post #51 was kind and considerate under the circumstances.

[Mendocino]

67. Do you want that with anchovies?

[caseymoz]

71. Slavery has been illegal since 1865.

Period. End of argument. Yes, they're in there for crimes, and how is that relevant to slavery being illegal? Whether they are guilty or innocent has nothing to do with slavery being illegal.

No, I don't think almost all would like to be on a chain gang doing work free people wouldn't do for pay that nobody but another slave would do it for. The temptation will be to give them with less and less, since cheap is their selling point, and since few people will stand up for their rights, as you've demonstrated so well right here.

Plus, I don't think the government should be in the business of providing slave labor. That just gives the our justice system another incentive for taking prisoners besides serving justice, and the US can go nowhere from there but down.

[duhneece]

84. Thank you

You nailed it. There are lots of peripheral issues, but you nailed the main one for sure.

[arakis8]

74. Human Rights

Really butch? When you go to jail you are supposed to be incarcerated (and it used to be you were rehabilitated),but you are not supposed to be made slaves for corporations. Also, many of the people locked up are for petty crimes, not hard core like killings. If you look at recent events such as the man who held up a store for a 1(one)dollar so he could go to jail and get health care, or the man who robbed a bank. the teller gave him a stack of bills and he only took 1 of the hundred dollar bills because that was all he needed because he was hungry. He even turned himself in the next day because he wash ashamed, saying his mother didn't raise him that way. He got 15 years. compare that to the recent string of corporate bandits who crashed the economy. How much time did they serve? Zip. I'm not saying all incarcerated individuals have a story like these, but, I am saying the punishment for the poor or powerless often doesn't fit the crime.

[duhneece]

85. Not the Georgia inmates who organized a peaceful strike

Inmates organized among factions that don't usually get along so well.

Prisoners Strike in Georgia
By SARAH WHEATON
Published: December 12, 2010


In a protest apparently assembled largely through a network of banned cellphones, inmates across at least six prisons in Georgia have been on strike since Thursday, calling for better conditions and compensation, several inmates and an outside advocate said.

Inmates have refused to leave their cells or perform their jobs, in a demonstration that seems to transcend racial and gang factions that do not often cooperate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/us/12prison.html



GA Prison Inmate Strike Enters New Phase, Prisoners Demand Human Rights, Education, Wages For Work
Story by Bruce A. Dixon, audio interview by Glen Ford

Georgia prisoners who began a courageous, peaceful and nonviolent protest strike for educational opportunities, wages for their work, medical care and human rights have captured the attention of the world. Black Agenda Report intends to closely cover their continuing story. Glen Ford recorded a conversation with activist Elaine Brown and one of the striking inmates in Georgia on Wednesday, December 15.

Update story on the strike and support efforts of the newly formed Concerned Coalition to Protect Prisoner Rights

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/ga-prison-inmate-strike-enters-new-phase-prisoners-demand-human-rights-education-wages-work

[fasttense]

94. So, let them take your job.

I'm sure there are criminals in jails right now that could do what you do very easily and for free.

Prison labor is a way for destroying the working class's wages. It's just like illegally employing immigrants. Increase the pool of labor that works for free or below minimum wage and watch everyone else's wages drop like a rock.

[coalition_unwilling]

114. Welcome to my Ignore list - n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

102. Wisconsin-specific numbers:

About 23,000 in WI prisons.

[MrScorpio]

17. Damn Skippy nt.

[fascisthunter]

28. yup

[marasinghe]

39. yep. bringing the successful Chinese model to the US: the corpocrats wet dream. n/t

[JoshieR]

103. Especially considering the number of people in prison for minor offences...

...or that judge in PA that was taking kickbacks from the prisons to sentence kids.

I'd be willing to bet that people like Bernie Madoff will not be doing landscaping. Just the poor prisoners.

ALthough it would be interesting to see what kind of landscaping Charles Manson is capable of...

[No Elephants]

4. Full circle to the right using slave labor while John Adams weeps.

ETA: Tea Party, my ass. If the Sons of Liberty ran across these clowns, they'd vomit in the harbor.

[saras]

5. No they wouldn't. They'd go to war, and win.

[Iliyah]

6. A lot WI voted for Walker

This is what ya'll got. Instead of creating jobs like the gopers promised they are taking away the jobs and workers rights.

[elocs]

13. I didn't vote for Walker yet I still got it too.

Unfortunately in last year's election too many Democratic voters here were in a snit or pissed at Obama or Congress or whatever and they didn't bother to vote. Republicans on the other hand did get out and vote (Walker got 90% of the vote total that went to McCain). So this is what we got.

So we got Walker, all of us, and lost Russ Feingold as one of our senators.

[gateley]

55. Yes. This is what it looks like when you don't vote in "protest".

Sure showed those Democrats! :grr:

[florida08]

88. am in that same boat in Florida

Didn't vote for Rick Scott. Out of over 18 million in the state of FL about 5 million voted. Apathy is a huge problem

[1stBunny]

96. Amen, Brother

I voted for Barrett. I guess I deserve what I got too. What a bunch of hogwash. 100's of thousands of good progressives voted against this lamebrain. Unfortunately, some Wisconsinites bought into the right-wing propaganda and screwed the rest of us. And remember, almost none of the things Walker has done that are so despicable were described by him during the campaign. He should be recalled for that alone.

And he will be recalled. You can bet your bottom dollar on that one! :toast:

[TxVietVet]

133. The conservanazis got the white boys all lathered up over Obama.

I voted a straight Democratic ticket. I had supported Feingold since his first Senatorial campaign. I know some of the white union members I worked with were proud that they voted for the pieces of shit Walker and Johnson.

I retired and left.

They listened to all that conservanazi garbage on AM hate radio with Charlie Psycho and Mark Butthead Belling.

Good luck on recalling that piece of shit kocksucker.

[EC]

7. I remember West Virginia doing this for the state parks

and other places. They lived in tent cities too. One night my cousin and I were stopped at a traffic barricade because a few escaped from the camp in Blackwater Falls State Park. What joy going to the movies with inmates running free...we went to the movies to see "The Great Escape" what irony.


This is slave labor and workers should be screaming about this instead of screaming about illegal immigrants taking their jobs and lowering the pay range...when workers are made to work as slaves, it brings the pay scale really low...it brings it to more private prisons and more reasons to send people there. Imagine the new repub congress voting for economic crimes, "debtors prisons", and the workforce they could create.

[StarsInHerHair]

20. plus-how many of these criminals are rapists now out doing the landscaping?

how safe does this make WI feel? after all, the Republiscum claim to make the nation safer than Dems, so...

[arakis8]

75. debtor prisons?

Don't give the republicans any ideas. they might try it.

[Release The Hounds]

8. So he's basically...

[FailureToCommunicate]

47. Or Captain...

"What we have here...is a failure to communicate!"

[BlueCaliDem]

57. Yep. And I'm pretty damn sure he's taking dollars under the table for it, too

just like it was portrayed in the movie.

This is what we get when Republicans get power. The Democrats might not be the best liberals OR progressives, for that matter, but Dems don't do this kind of shit.

[coalition_unwilling]

116. Oh yeah? Take a look at post #26. - n/t

[BlueCaliDem]

117. And? It proves nothing other than an inmate wanting to get out

for some fresh air. It doesn't prove the Warden, or the guards, or the Mayor, or the Governor, isn't getting any pay under the table.

Surely, you don't think they allow this to happen for free, do you? Surely, you're not that naive. These are Republicans - the greediest, most stingiest people on the face of the Earth who are part of the Me Party.

[coalition_unwilling]

135. Post #26 (poster now on my Ignore list) proved that at least some Dems

(this one had over 1000 posts) are just fine with the idea of prison slave labor (and prison rape). The post of yours that I responded to said that Dems don't support (or "do") this type of thing.

[BlueCaliDem]

137. Ohhhh! My bad! I'm sorry, CU. I misunderstood.

You're right. There appears to be "Dems" on DU who seem to have more in common with the TeaBaggers' ideology these days, than that of the Democrats.

[Harry Callahan]

9. Many states and localities use inmate labor for landscaping, picking up trash, etc.

I don't think the unions have much to worry about when it comes to these guys taking their jobs.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

10. tell that to the unemployed workers of WI

who made good union wages, and now have inmates doing their jobs.

[julian09]

43. All the union workers need to do

is commit a crime then go to jail and get their jobs back.

[Harry Callahan]

131. My experience is that unlike picking up trash, most union jobs require skill.

[plumbob]

11. In Texas, cheap prison labor has already driven one trailer manufacturer out.

http://www.topix.com/forum/city/lufkin-tx/TBQN4HRBVDPDCKBHT

Texas prison labor drives Lufkin factory out of business

Full story: www.chron.com

The East Texas town of Lufkin was home to one of the biggest manufacturers of tractor-trailer beds in the state until sluggish sales forced the firm, Lufkin Industries, to close its factory earlier this year, displacing 150 workers.

For everyone but the affected employees, the story might have ended as little more than a cautionary tale of what happens when an established business gets squeezed by a smaller, nearby competitor, in this case, Direct Trailer and Equipment Co., which sells an almost an identical product for as much as $2,000 less.

Instead, plenty of people have taken notice of this East Texas labor imbroglio, and some are crying foul.

As it turns out, Direct Trailer produces its tractor beds with cheap prison labor and subsidies from the state of Texas. The company rents space inside the Michael Unit, a 2,900-bed facility in Tennessee Colony, for $1 a year. The state foots the tab on work force health care, too.

[Fuddnik]

33. Not to mention, all of Super Walmart produce comes from Arizona prison labor.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/151488/martori_farms%3A_abusive_conditions_at_a_key_wal-mart_supplier

Abuses at Perryville have continued. The ADC has sent its prisoners to work for private agricultural businesses for almost 20 years. The farm pays its imprisoned laborers two dollars per hour, not including the travel time to and from the farm. Women on the Perryville Unit are assigned to Martori Farms, an Arizona farm corporation that supplies fresh fruits and vegetables to vendors across the United States (Martori is the exclusive supplier to Wal-Mart's 2,470 Supercenter and Neighborhood Market stores). According to one woman who worked on the farm crews:

(snip) long, interesting article

[benld74]

37. Good to know - Glad I stopped shopping at the Wall

[Paulap]

49. Next they will just privatize the prisons and claim they are creating jobs.

[EstimatedProphet]

118. And just think - if everything were illegal, we'd have full employment!

The US would be saved!

[Overseas]

14. Hard to believe this is real. Will Wisconsites sign up to follow that $100 guy?

Go into a bank and ask for a bill so they can get into prison and become part of that bold new Republican labor force?

[Overseas]

15. Is this The Republican New Deal ?

It might make a powerful ad. Asking that question.

[Paka]

16. Replace workers with cheap prison labor...

then encourage the unemployed to commit a crime just to survive and we can put them in prison too. If we work this right, we can eventually have everyone locked up but us "fat cats." Such a deal!
Walker's idea of a perfect world.

:puke:

[wial]

72. at least they'll get health care

America is so not a free country. It's a country of fear and hate and ignorance. Free countries realize humans deserve food clothing shelter and medicine, just for the wondrous act of being human. And that if people have that safety net, they can do phenomenally great things. Instead, we are forced to plug away at meaningless jobs in industries drained of imagination, just so we won't die as much younger as many do compared with those in free countries.

Prison might almost be better than individualist/conformist America.

Not to distract from the renewed total dickishness of Scott Walker. Dude has got to go.

[oldbanjo]

120. Prison can be like an apprenticeship

On a job announcement the job will require 4 years prison experience to qualify.

[muntrv]

18. Scott Walker, read the 13th Amendment!

[ShadowLiberal]

19. Good way to get 'popular' during a recession, outsource to prisoners

Scott Walker keeps on proving time and time again that he has no common sense.

When the United States is still suffering from what's been called the worst recession since the great depression, that's not the time to go publicly killing and outsourcing jobs.

While laying off state workers to balance the budget is one thing, outsourcing state worker jobs to prisoners in a bad economy just writes the campaign ad for your opponent.

I'd find this situation even more ironic if the prisoners decided that the work was too hard and walked off the job. That's exactly what happened in Georgia after they passed the anti-immigrant bill and the republican governor tried to use prisoners to do the farm labor that illegal immigrants did.

[freshwest]

128. As usual, the shift of the government payroll won't save the taxpayers anything. That's the con.

[McCamy Taylor]

21. Holy moly! Slavery comes to Wisconsin!

[defendandprotect]

22. Outrageous -- anyone still denying we have the Fourth Reich Rising in US????

[999998th word]

80. NO

[whosinpower]

24. So, in order to get a job....

You have to go to jail first?

Even Orwell did not imagine this....

[Fuddnik]

25. When Gov. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio) proposed the same thing, he had support here.

I got into some very heated arguments with a few about it. A lot of DUer's thought it was a good idea then.

It was wrong then. It's wrong now. And it will always be wrong!

[6000eliot]

27. Welcome to Victorian England.

[Initech]

29. Why dont they just repeal the 13th amendment and get it over with?

Its the waiting I cant stand!

:sarcasm:

:grr:

[Amonester]

46. Well, for the Rs like bu$h (all of 'em), it's just a quaint...

and outdated piece of paper anyway (except when they can take advantage of it), remember?

[fascisthunter]

30. Debtor's Prison Next...

...stay tuned.

[blank space]

54. What do yo mean next ? Already happening.....

http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/Supreme_Court_Takes_a_Step_Closer_to_Debtors_Prison_110622

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/20/debtors-prison-jail-for-a_n_880321.html

http://www.popdecay.com/2011/06/21/us-supreme-court-creates-debtors-prison/9104

[999998th word]

81. Yup-probably waiting to pounce on ppl w/student loan debt

and an added bonus-medical debtors,thanks to our PRIVATE hc .
All this aided and abetted by a virtually unregulated debt collection industry chock full of scumbag bottomfeeders.
Scum with a capital 'F'

[fascisthunter]

100. good links... thanks

[oldbanjo]

121. Those sure were great examples, THANKS

[PatrynXX]

31. This keeps getting worse.

So while the State workers who are about to lose their jobs pay the state to keep these prison's open, these same prison's will be replacing them and they'll still be paying for it. Gonna confuse WI for AZ soon. Insane man in Gov.

[christx30]

32. When people want too much money

i.e. when people want to get paid what their worth, rather than what the higher ups say is the pittance they are worth, they will actually use slave labor. Either by prisoners, or by outsourcing the manufacturing to China or other countries over seas.
Probably where a lot of energy is spent keeping pot illegal. Why risk people getting hurt with a real crime (like destroying the economy of one of the stronest countries on the planet) when you can arrest people for petty crap owning a plant, and get 10 years or more of indentured servitude out of them? I'm not saying our justice system is corrupt. Mostly out of fear of imprisonment.

[sulphurdunn]

34. Prison labor is not free.

The taxpayers foot the bill for the incarceration of each "free" prison employee. This will only encourage the private prison industry to lobby for locking up more people for profit who can then be farmed out as dirt cheap labor for more profit. It's a pattern used in the South since the advent of Jim Crow and chain gangs. It encourages payola schemes that corrupt the legislatures, the courts, the police and the business community.

[certainot]

35. is badger radio WIBA 1310's local blowhards defending this along with prosser?

why does the university of WIS continue the relationship, essentially endorsing the limbaughs and local RW blowhards that get walkers and prosser's backs and essentially made a lot of the walker crap possible?

[Peregrine Took]

41. Door County? Milwaukee? Lake Geneva? Twin Lakes? NO! NO! NO!

I won't step my foot in Wisconsin until they have a complete sea change in government.

[Jimbo S]

44. Please visit Madison or Milwaukee

Plenty to see and do in these two blue counties.

[kimsarah]

77. New prison tourism campaign slogan

"Come to Wisconsin if you never want to leave."

[TrollBuster9090]

42. Suddenly the Republican obsession with law and order, and the 'war' on drugs

makes a lot more sense. Cheap labor.

Pretty soon you'll not only have a prisoner making your license plates, but you'll have one giving you your frikkin DRIVER'S TEST as well.

[47of74]

45. If I had my way this would happen yesterday

Amendment XXVIII
1. The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution is hereby repealed.

2. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

3. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

[Citizen Worker]

48. This is but one example of what happens when a movement of workers is co-opted by the democratic

party establishment. If the public/private sector workers want to counter the republican attack they must first shed themselves of the democratic party establishment.

[TxVietVet]

52. conservanazi Senator Ron Johnson of Wiscosin used prisoners as workers

to build his business. It's not new. If Gov. Wanker could create chain gangs in Wisconsin, he surely would. The rat bastard is using all the tricks he can to f*ck working people. I hope they remember that when the recall comes up.

Become active, agitate and vote. Take it to city council and county board meetings. Raise hell.

I'll even bet some of the folks who lost jobs even voted for that asshole. Especially the white union workers that believe all the conservanzi bu$hit that's on the radio waves all day in Wisconsin. Irony is a bitch, aina hey!

[CatholicEdHead]

119. WI Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald has pushed for chain gangs in the past

early on when he was first elected. So I can easily see it coming back again.

http://www.jsonline.mobi/more/news/124549979.htm

Scott Fitzgerald made a political splash early on by advocating for chain gangs - what he calls "secure work crews." Later he authored a bill on partial-birth abortion. He also pushed for a constitutional amendment to define marriage.

So if you hear "secure work crews", you know what they are masked in a new Orwellian language.

[Plucketeer]

53. I hope Walker ends up on the street when all this is said and done! nt

[TomCADem]

58. How Ironic! Republicans Bring Back Slavery!

[valerief]

60. Slave labor. Peonage. That's the plan! nt

[certainot]

61. when this is defended and sold from the local RW radio station, why isn't it being

picketed and why aren't their local sponsors being shamed and why aren't the universities that endorse those stations by broadcasting their sports on them being pressured to find alternative stations?

free speech is like muscle, to keep it you have to exercise it.

[lonestarnot]

62. Everyone should see from this move why Jane Brewer, AZ gov piglicon is into that private prison

industrial complex. Pays to keep people in the pen.

[Starry Messenger]

63. So fucked up.

[lonestarnot]

64. New fucking study in human behavior.

[lonestarnot]

65. That is one dirty motherfucker.

[Zambero]

66. Chain gang labor down on the ole County Farm

Who in hell needs law-abiding workers earning a living wage when inmates can be converted to slaves with the stroke of a pen? What's next from Conservatopia? Galley slaves to replace the U.S. Navy?

[Mendocino]

68. How Gone with the Wind of him!

Ashley-free blacks or convicts?

Scarlett-convicts, they're cheaper.

[Blue Owl]

69. That MotherFocker

Wisconsin please stick a fork in that POS "governor" of yours.

[elleng]

70. We see, as time goes on, the extent to which we rely on slave labor.

It ever was thus.

[Mendocino]

73. Michelle Bachmann says

that we could add thousands if not more jobs if the minimum wage were lowered. Yeah, if we pay convicts 50 cents an hour.

[roomfullofmirrors]

78. It's hard to end an institution that has existed for thousands and thousands of years.

If it were easy, it wouldn't have endured for thousands of years.

[TrollBuster9090]

79. Statement released from John Boehner Esq. 1859

"Uuuuhh...we don't want to....uuuhhh....abolish slavery right now. That would....uhhh....hurt the job creators that we.....uuuhhh...need most right now."

[kimsarah]

76. A new reality show

Maybe MSNBC can expand on its Lockup Show that is agonizingly on every Friday through Sunday and holidays, to "Lockup Job Detail." We could have a different washed-up actor each episode gathering the inmates for that day's job detail. Nick Nolte, Glen Campbell, Glenn Beck. Tom DeLay.

[Nossida]

82. Are they getting thru to you yet?

So we see another result of the agenda
being pursued by the republican Party.
I've been telling people for years, but
some blokes refuse to listen.

Agenda: Privatize all Social Services,
including Schools, Police, Medical
Emergency Services, destroy all Labor
Unions(circa Berlin 1933), use Prison
Labor, from Private Prisons, where ever
possible, to service the Communities,
etc,etc,etc.....

Long Story Short: Create a Permanent Under Class, and exploit it for Slave Labor.
This thing in Wisconsin is simply another step down closer to Theocratic Tyranny.

[Enthusiast]

91. Long story short: fascism. nt

[Name removed]

83. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Sherman A1]

86. Charming

:banghead:

[Harriety]

87. I pity the states with radical governors but.....

We have a state (Minnesota) that has a very good governor. He has stood strong against the Republican controlled legislator and because of it our government hes has shut down. They say they were willing to negotiate but keep proposing right wing bills similar to the the one in this news article and demands keep getting worse. They then point fingers as Governor Dayton as being the spoiler, and say he is responsible for the shut down. Pawlenty left this state so tanked out as far as our economy we are in a budget mess because of him not Dayton. Kind of like what Bush did to our country and letting Obama to fix his mess.

[FiveGoodMen]

127. "Kind of like what Bush did to our country and letting Obama to fix his mess"

Nope.

I think Dayton really wants to fix things as opposed to cementing them in place forever.

Not the same at all.

[Hubert Flottz]

92. It worked so well for Prescott Bush at Buna plant in Poland...

Let's give it a shot in America.

Edit..."Link Please"...Otay Panky...

http://www.scrapbookpages.com/poland/Auschwitz/MonowitzHistory.html

[DocMac]

95. Remember the dirty dozen?

They will be droping these prisoners into war zones with slingshots next.

[Roy Rolling]

97. "We must be competitive"

This is how Walker thinks we should be competive with China---used forced prison labor.

Mission accomplished....America is competing in the race to the bottom.

The good news? Prisoner unemployment is way down.

[pampango]

98. They're doing that in Georgia, too. The governor wants to use prison labor to replace farm workers

who have left due to the new immigration law.

[oldbanjo]

123. Ga is different the people in Ga don't won't the work.

[KillCapitalism]

99. Crap, where does it end?

If this goes much further, children will be showing up to school seeing their "teacher" shackled to a pole next to their desk. Hopefully the teacher won't be a convicted child molester!

[offmybrain]

101. The bad part is its legal per the 13th amendment

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation

The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution makes involuntary servitude illegal under any U.S. jurisdiction whether at the hands of the U.S. government or in the private sphere, except as punishment for a crime.

[mojowork_n]

104. Here's an idea...

How much research would someone need to do to find the actual numbers?

Number of Jobs created in prisons vs. Number of Jobs created in the overall economy?

Maybe go state-by-state... focusing on states with Republican governors.


....Someone would have to spend a little time on it, and having Photoshop skills
for graphic pie charts, or bar graphs, would be great, but you'd need to contact
(start with) an actual organization willing to put out the results.

OK -- I'm passing this on to someone in our state, OneWisconsinNow.org.

Information like this needs to get out to voters before the upcoming recalls.

[oldbanjo]

124. You wouldn't call these created jobs.

[mojowork_n]

126. My point exactly.

But it goes to the heart of exposing the RepubliCon agenda.

[lonestarnot]

105. mmm mmm mm. Smell that smell?

[mopinko]

107. doing the same thing in georgia. thought the prisoners were

gonna pick the crops after they chased of those pesky "illegals". trouble is there are not enough prisoners to do all the picking.
time to raise the minimum sentence for something or other.

[radhika]

132. Why raise Minimum Wage....

if you can just raise Minimum Sentences

[Uncle Joe]

108. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[coalition_unwilling]

109. Wake up and smell the fascism - n/t

[CrispyQ]

110. It's what they want:

Stuff us in overcrowded dorms & make us work for free.

[PATRICK]

111. A "keep the RW plane on the runway"compromise

in the spirit of the ways work for bipartisanship would be to ensure union workers are imprisoned and get first preference for those jobs. Starting with the pesky strikers in order of seniority.

[radhika]

115. Prison Industrial Complex 2.0

It's just American Capitalism at play.

Next step, prisons 'lease out' prisoners to private corporations.

[oldbanjo]

125. To the highest bidder.

[usrname]

122. Can't wait

Until someone goes all Shawshank on this POS. What a bleepin' grifter they managed to get in the capitol.

[hifiguy]

129. Apparently Wisconsin is the new China

Walker is one of the sickest SOBs I have ever seen in my life.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

130. Now I understand why the US prison population is so high.

This is very troubling to me. I believe forcing people to work for no pay is a dream come true for the people who really run this country.

[AngryAmish]

134. "This is what democracy looks like"

Especially when we lose.

[okieinpain]

136. wait until one of the dumb inmates decides he just can't

wait for his sentence to be over and kills someone trying to escape.

[daleo]

138. Sign above the entrance to Nazi concentration camps said

"Work will set you free".