With public employees under attack by Republican governors, I have some questions.

[bulloney]

What's the average education level of public employees who are under collective bargaining?

What's the average number of years of experience of said employees?

The ones I know tend to have some type of post-secondary education and have 10-30 years of experience in their positions.

These governors attacking these public employees from their states seem to be arguing that peoples' wages should be the same as they were in 1980 and any education background is irrelevant as far as a worker's ability to perform their duties is concerned.

Even with only a 2% annual increase in pay, a person making $25,000 in 1985 makes $41,000 today.

[mike_c]

1. in the recently pubicized WI study, which controlled for both education...

...and length of service IIRC, public workers made less than comparable private sector workers even after their pensions were factored in as lifetime income. We-- public employees-- simply do the same sorts of jobs for less money than our private sector counterparts. Public employee pensions are just low-hanging political fruit that politicians use to sow divisiveness among citizens. In fact, rather than targeting already lower paid public employees for deferring compensation until they draw pensions, we should be targeting private sector EMPLOYERS who do not provide decent retirement options for their workers.

SOLIDARITY!

[murielm99]

2. In Wisconsin, one might ask about the

education level of the current governor. He dropped out of high school.

I understand that he received a GED later, but he has no respect for education.

[NNN0LHI]

4. Wisconsin elected a high school dropout as their governor?

Sorry, but that says more about the people who voted for him(Or the voters who stayed home), than it does about the governor.

Don

[murielm99]

8. The people of Wisconsin got rid of a lot of their

progressives and elected teabaggers in their places. The teabaggers and republicans were well organized there. They took everyone by surprise.

My daughter lives in Madison and my parents live near the Dells. They said that too many people stayed home, and some Democrats voted for repubs to "teach the Democrats a lesson."

Let that be a lesson to us. We need to get the vote out, and we need to pressure our elected Democrats to do the right thing. That includes President Obama.

Walker and the teabaggers have kicked over a hornet's nest. I hope they recall the jerk when the time is right.

[TheMightyFavog]

7. College droput, not high school

Let's try to get these things right.

[murielm99]

11. You are right. My bad.

[madrchsod]

3. my wife is a union official that makes 11.00 an hour with no retirement

state /private funded mental health facility. she takes care of reagan`s rejects from the state`s mental health facilities.

the same state funded facility union starts at 16 with retirement. guess what the state would love to do but so far has`t been able to do.

[sufrommich]

5. Why should education levels play into a workers right to

unionize and negotiate?

[blondeatlast]

6. Perhaps you could offer your perspectives on those questions first. nt

[bulloney]

13. I'm saying that people with more education and training should be higher-skilled,

therefore, command higher compensation. It has nothing to do with questioning whether they should organize or not.

But, in the world of these new Republican governors, everyone who's not some uber-rich bastard who pumped bucks into their campaigns are all lumped into a "have not" category and should have what little they have taken away.

[LiberalEsto]

9. And if they're recent graduates

they are probably staggering under the weight of tens of thousands of dollars in student loans, so their take-home pay is FAR smaller. .

[seaglass]

10. Why do you say Repub Governors? Deval Patrick is a Dem.

and he certainly has proposed taking away public unions ability to negotiate.

It's not just a Republican disease.

[tabbycat31]

12. my parents are both public employees

both with Masters degrees in their respective fields.