Frederick M. Arnold: Don’t let Walker subvert process

[Joanne98]

Dear Editor: Gov. Scott Walker has proposed sweeping changes in a long-standing relationship between labor and management in the state of Wisconsin. The relationship is alternately contentious, uncomfortable, bitter, vividly humorous, outrageous, unrelenting, and even tedious. The issues in question are significant. Most generally and at the core is the role of government -- the public sector -- in our personal and professional lives. More specifically, resource allocation is in play. Employee wages, benefits, municipal services, public education, the general array and very definition of public services are determined through a well-defined if complicated institutional process.

The governor and the Legislature now place an immense bet before the entire state. The card being played is “process.” Now in place is a process through which the private sector, public sector, labor, management, and civil society participate in full and open discussion to manage and resolve issues in dispute. There are established rules of engagement. Management of conflict and resolution of that conflict occur through interactions where otherwise grossly unequal concentrations of influence, power and authority prevail.

Walker intends to end it all by replacing Wisconsin’s respected, well-proven application of democratic principles with raw ideology.

Frederick M. Arnold

Madison

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