Koch Brothers Behind Wisconsin Effort To Kill Public Unions

Koch Brothers Behind Wisconsin Effort To Kill Public Unions

blogs.forbes.com

As the nation focuses on the efforts of Governor Scott Walker to take away collective bargaining rights from public employees in Wisconsin, new information is coming to light that reveals what is truly going on here.

Mother Jones is reporting that much of the funding behind the Walker for Governor campaign came from none other than uber-conservatives, the infamous Koch Brothers.

(visit the link for the full news article)



Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Koch Brothers Conference - What Is The Agenda?

For those like myself who do not exactly know who/ what the Koch Industries are.

en.wikipedia.org...

Koch companies are involved in core industries such as the manufacturing, refining and distribution[1] of petroleum, chemicals, energy, fiber, intermediates and polymers, minerals, fertilizers, pulp and paper, chemical technology equipment, ranching,[2] finance, commodities trading, as well as other ventures and investments.

In 2008, Forbes called it the second largest privately held company in the United States (after Cargill) with an annual revenue of about $98 billion,[3][4][5] down from the largest in 2006. If Koch Industries were a public company in 2007, it would rank about 16 in the Fortune 500.[6]

How do I find that this is absolutely not a surprise? Money hungry corporate pigs looking to turn workers MORE into slaves. As if we weren't slaves enough. As if we had any rights to begin with. It is the TPTB slowly turning us into mindless drones for their agenda.

Walker is threating to send in national guard to guiet the protests
Please watch the video , it is so important to our future.


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reply to post by fordrew


Great find. This may help convince the supporters of the anti-human Republicans what they are all about.

The Koch brothers are prototypes of the greedy brothers in the Eddie Murphy movie TRADING PLACES.

Recall they were greedy, selfish and manipulative and willing to do anything for money.

The Koch brothers also finance the Tea Party and have two supreme court justices in their pockets

veracitystew.com...

Kind of makes a person,, long for the good ole Henry Ford days, boy they knew how to get rid of a bunch of commie bastards,, oh wait i see that there gonna send in the national guard, so yup nothing changes,,, nothing to see here , same ole, same ole.

I think the Koch Wonder Twins demonstrate the double edged sword of capitalism and economic competition. Everybody buys into the Walt Disney side of it: build a better product at a reasonable price and people will buy it over your competitors. This feels good but it is not much more than a misleading talking point.

Maximizing your bottom line and power base is the finish line; the natural end state of competition. There is only one winner at the end. No other explanation holds water. The product is merely a means to an end. The Koch Bros have done a great job of eliminating their competition to become such a megalithic economic powerhouse.

They perceive Unions as merely another obstacles to their wealth/power generation. Investing in a politician (the governor of Wisconsin in this case) to make it happen is a cheap win. It costs peanuts. On top of that, the teacher's union in this case is making some serious strategic errors. Kids not going to school? Please, who is going to side with that one? Well played indeed.

Don't get me wrong, I do not feel one iota for the Koch Bros or their current stooge in the Governors office. If those protesting in Madison are a thorn in their side, great. More power to them.But do I buy into one side holding the moral high ground here? Not a chance.

These guys have a lot of nerve getting uppity with the Left! I am sure the corporate friends of Mr. Obama (Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, GE, Bankstes, Soros, etc.) are angry, too! These Koch guys are a danger to all that is civil and apple pie!

reply to post by inforeal


No wonder why there are Tea Partiers launching counter protests. Absolutely despicable.


www.abovetopsecret.com...

So because Libertarian think tanks like Cato and Heritage have long sought to reduce the power and influence of public employee unions and these same think tanks recive some of their funding from libertarians like Koch, its natural to assume that the Koch brothers are directly responsible for whats going in Wisconsin.

That’s rather specious.

... libertarians like Koch...

Are you kidding me? These Koch brothers are only out for greed, they are far, far, from being "libertarians", please tell me your comment was a joke, right?

Koch Brothers out to destroy unions altogether and usher in corporatocracy: $65,000,000

Libertarians out to reign in unions and usher in free-market: $5,000,000

Republicans pretending they are free-market while taking orders from Koch Brothers: $450,000

Americans getting screwed: Priceless.

It is worth mentioning that the Koch Brothers are the MAJOR FUNDING source behind Dick Armey's faux grass-roots Freedom Works. You know the "astro-turf" group that organized and bused in protestors to disrupt all the Town Hall meetings.

The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party

The other major sponsor of the Tea Party movement is Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks, which, like Americans for Prosperity, is promoting events in Washington this weekend. Under its original name, Citizens for a Sound Economy, FreedomWorks received $12 million of its own from Koch family foundations.

SOURCE

Union busting and suppressing the right of collective bargaining are but a few of their nefarious goals. The article above spells it all out pretty well.

Nice thread OP.

reply to post by SirMike


You didn't even read the article, did you?

Wow.

Originally posted by ABNARTY
Maximizing your bottom line and power base is the finish line; the natural end state of competition. There is only one winner at the end. No other explanation holds water. The product is merely a means to an end. The Koch Bros have done a great job of eliminating their competition to become such a megalithic economic powerhouse.

I had an economics professor who used to work at Goldman Sachs as a bond trader for a decade. He emphasized to the class that in most industries, there really is not much competition. Just a handful of firms consolidating power and doing whatever it takes to extract maximum profit. Only a select few markets fall under the heading of "perfect competition", the textbook example that most people think of when they conjure up an image of "free" markets.

Instead of trying to make this into a political talking point why not look at the motivation behind the governors actions.

1. Wisconsin is dead broke.

2. The average compensation for the members of the union when including benefits is over $80,000 a year - over $15,000 a year more than workers in the private sector.

Use common sense, the union workers deserve to have their benefits cut, and they will be soon enough even if they get their way for now. Stop thinking emotionally about this and deal with the facts - money does not grow on trees.

It is only fair they take a pay cut as they are getting more than they deserve now. If they are not willing to, I am really hoping they all get fired, I know there are thousands of unemployed workers who would love to take the median salary right about now.

Corporations are unions of capitalists. Thats what they are, unions where a group of people pool their capital to form an entity of a size that allows them more power in the market.

For those of you who are anti union, why should one group of humans be allowed to form unions and others not? Unions are just labor, workers, coming together to form an entity, (the union) to give them more power in the market. It is not oppositional to free markets to allow unions, particularly if you allow other organizations to use size to achieve market power and influence. Surely you must understand that to compete with unions of capital (corporations) and stand a chance you need something with some size and market power of its own.

Its just a shame that people feel that what these greedmongers are doing has anything at all to do with free market capitalism, and that unions somehow represent socialism.

They (people like the Kochs) want to play by a set of rules they deny their competitors. The propaganda machine has been for years priming people to believe that unions are evil, costing them their jobs, when in fact it was people allowing unions to be busted and weakened over the last 40-50 years that has allowed the mass exodus of jobs, the lowering of the standards of treatment, wages, etc.

Unions havent destroyed America, unrestrained Corporatism has.

reply to post by proximo


I am not here to side with the unions but some facts need to be looked at. The idea of unions is good but the current state of affairs in most unions is questionable, the teachers union is no exception.

www.epi.org...

1. Wisconsin public sector workers make on average 11% less than their comparable counterparts in the private sector.

www.wisconsinbudgetproject.org...

2. Wisconsin ranks 43rd, 8th from last, on number of public workers per capita.

So the talking point that there are zillions of over paid teachers running around demanding more money is a non-starter. The facts do not bear it out. The union has already agreed to the financial aspect of the bill but the protest is over the barging rights.

If Americans perceive injustice, I am glad someone is finally getting off the fat a*** and doing something about it.

Look at it this way, folks like the Koch Bros (Gov. Walker's handlers) and Warren Buffet already use their money and influence to maximize their profit at the expense of everybody else. This is not the Henry Ford days when a company owner might actually care about the welfare (and buying power) of his workforce. You and I can vote for whomever we want but it makes no difference because they get bought off. So what other way do we have to defend our welfare? The deal in Madison may not be perfect. I agree. But after the complacency of the American public on the Gulf Spill, the Wall Street bailouts, and the Supreme Court ruling a corporation has the same rights as you or I, I will take the non-perfect over silence any day.

reply to post by ABNARTY


People need to look at who funds the organizations that make the claims that there are zillions of overpaid teachers running around.

But they wont.

Originally posted by proximo
Instead of trying to make this into a political talking point why not look at the motivation behind the governors actions.

1. Wisconsin is dead broke.

Instead of just repeating the talking points given to you by the Right, why not look at the facts:

1. Wisconsin was on track to have a $120 million surplus at the end of the year before Walker enacted his fiscal policy which includes, among other right-wing Xmas presents, a $67 million tax incentive for businesses that will benefit business but not enough to spur any new hiring.

2. The pubic workers union officially offered to make concessions on contributing to their health and retirement benefits, but Walker refused to even meet with them ONCE to discuss anything.

Get your facts straight or you'll look mighty ignorant.

Unions have a place. They are for private sector employees. Public sector employees have no need for a union. They are working for the public, at tax payer expense. There is no "profit motive". Public sector employees, by definition SHOULD receive less pay. Their jobs are almost 100% guaranteed to be there for life. ZERO Chance of a merger. They are the last and only bastion of a defined benefits pension. Meaning you work for 20 years or more, put ZERO of your money into a retirement account, and magically get a pension for the REST OF YOUR LIFE. It is almost impossible to fired from a govt job. The govt sets the rules for the hiring, and govt jobs are the most protected.

If public sector employees should have union negotiating even more benefits for them from the taxpayers supply base, why not have the military unionize? I mean they all work for less, have crappy conditions, even get exposed to hostile fire and experimental drugs. Where do you draw the line with pay, benefits, and tax payers paying for it all?

How do you get more benefits for public sector employees when the local, state and Fed govts are spending more than they take in?