Union-busting Scott Walker wants unionized NFL refs back to work

Boy, Republican Gov. Scott Walker sure has some gall….

Wisconsin Gov.Scott Walker, famous for his crackdown on state unions, called for the referees to return to their jobs on Twitter. The refs, it should be noted, are unionized and currently locked out due to their demands for wage increases.

“I don’t think this has anything to do with unions, but has everything to do with refs making bad calls,” Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie told Sports Illustrated after the game.

While Cullen “prosecutorial immunity” Werwie wants to spin the absolute farce that occurred at Monday night’s game between the Packers and the Seahawks as not having anything to do with unions, the fact is what happened Monday night had everything to do with unions. Scab referees made a bunch of bad calls in that game – not to mention a number of other games over the past three weeks – and I’d argue the outcome of the Packers/Seahawks game would have been much different.

Or as Matthew Rothschild of The Progressive wrote, if you hire scab labor you get a scab product..

There’s a lesson here, and not just for the NFL: Workers are not fungible. Anyone who has mastered his or her job cannot be replaced, at a moment’s notice, with someone off the street or with someone in the same field with much less experience. It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about NFL refs or air traffic controllers or autoworkers or schoolteachers. You pay a price, and the public pays a price, when you hire scab labor.

While scab labor may certainly be cheaper than unionized workers, there’s a price to be paid for that cheaper labor, whether that price is a bad decision on the football field, a shoddy product, or inferior service.

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8 thoughts on “Union-busting Scott Walker wants unionized NFL refs back to work

  1. OPEN LTR TO ROB ZERBAN campaign

    Through Lisa Mux, Blogging Blue I learned of R ZERBAN’S mtg 092612 at Genesee Depot, WI.

    I intend to attend.

    I would like to meet candidate ZERBAN and or his rep(s) in order to turn over shocking docs including from the National Labor Relations Board, about the WI private sector Local 139, OPERATING ENGINEERS, union boss, Gooch McGOWAN’s violent and threatening intimidation tactics used against rank-and-file dissident members such as me, for openly advocating openness, transparency and accountability in unions. We also openly do NOT support boss McGOWAN’s support of anti-worker WALKER (the only private sector WI union boss to do so) and anti-worker RYAN.

    Please read the Aug 13, 2012 IN THESE TIMES article by Mike Elk “Paul Ryan Closely Tied To Corrupt Union Accused of Violently Threatening Dissidents (Updated)”
    http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/13669/paul_ryan_closely_tied_to_union_that_violently_threatened_union_dissidents/

    PLEASE ALSO BE ADVISED – I spoke with WI rep Mark POCAN (as you know currently running for T BALDWIN’S congressional seat) at Fighting Bobfest Sept 2011. I was openly handing out flyers about union boss McGOWAN’s support of WALKER.

    POCAN feigned interest and sympathy with the plight of the disenfranchised rank-and-file union member. POCAN then took this feigned union member sympathy to boss McGOWAN, who, 10 days later according to campaign contrib records, gave $1,500 to POCAN’S campaign. Less than a month later, boss McGowan gave POCAN …another $3,500… for a total of $5,000. Not bad for a little pacifier cash.

    BTW – the above POCAN tactic also works for rank-and-file local 139 members who boss McGOWAN knows or suspects of working with me for union openness and transparency. The difference – these union members are bribed with great union job dispatches from this union that has a documented, decades long history of rewarding the union bosses supporters and retaliating against dissidents.

    I have been dispatched by local 139 to 4 DAYS work in 2012. And 6 WEEKS work in the last 4 YEARS.

    S Fred HIGGINS
    tellfredtellfred@gmail.com

  2. My main concern is always the integrity of the union worker for the public. Because if a worker is 100% dependent on the whim of the employer, who’s to say he won’t be more likely to jeopardize the product to make more money for the employer?

  3. The analogy is far from perfect. It has nothing to do with being union or scab. Are you saying a worker at a non-unionized auto plant in Tennessee could not fill the shoes of a union worker in Detroit? Certainly could. Now if Detroit filled the job with the guy bagging groceries, you have a problem. Same with teachers. I know plenty of parochial school teachers that could run circles around their unionized public school counterparts. The problem with teachers is that they can be easily replaced because we allow virtually anyone to teach. That might be the problem.

    But if you want to draw analogies, I can only assume you and your union “brothers” haven’t been and won’t be watching or going to any NFL games, buying or wearing NFL merchandise, or supporting any of the businesses that sponsor the NFL until your “brothers” get what they demand! You also need to storm Lambeau Field and camp out there indefinitely, bang drums, and be generally obnoxious until you get what you want. Come on, STAND with your union brothers (you know, those part time “real” officials that have other full time jobs and have recently been anointed to sainthood, because we all know they never ever made a bad call when they were on the job).

  4. What a stinking hyprocracy. Scott Walker wants to bust unions and have a huge impact on familys,all over the state, but when it comes to football, he wants union refs to call the shots. and this is the mentality that is runing our state.

    1. Cheryl, what about the hypocrisy of all the union members who are still going to the games or watching them on TV and supporting the advertisers? Where is their solidarity? I thought you all marched as ONE VOICE. So turn off your TV, put down that soda or beer, return your smart phone, and take off your NFL sweatshirt and gear. Then we’ll talk.

  5. I am having a tough time breathing cause I have to actually partially agree with FMSN. Experience is the key issue in ability not union membership on this one.

    And I don’t think Gov. Walker is smart enough to make the connection that the refs are union thugs when he’s making political hay with GB Packer fans.

    But the union brothers who should be ashamed of themselves are the players…they shouldn’t have participated in the season during the lock out…that would be solidarity!

    1. Yes! You are so right ED! the players should have shown their solidarity and I might have had some admiration for them at that point.

  6. I WAS A UNION EMPLOYEE in 1980’s and I had a much better attitude on the job because it was Union. the employer can pay u more if he likes – it is just at a set wage (hopefully with some cost of living raises), and I earned every penny I made. I was a grocery checker. $12.00 and hr. and full medical,dental and vision benefits. 1982. things today (cars, gas, food,utilities) are way more expensive and the checkers here at Safeway in 2012 make less than what I made in 1982. I didnt mind paying dues. I was able to support my 3 kids. My hubby also had a union job…we werent rich though. I felt so secure in my job. I am a gramma now and I amvery concerned for everyone’s grandchildren now. Jobs went overseas. Stuff made in China. I guess we are all to blame.

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