At Glacial Speed
The Los Angeles Times carried a report yesterday on a Gallup poll which seems to indicate that the American public is waking up a little.
More Americans back public employee unions than governors seeking to balance strained budgets by demanding givebacks, including a curb on bargaining rights, according to a Gallup poll released Friday.
The poll, which showed that 48% agree with public employee unions compared with 39% who back the governors, marks somewhat of a leveling of the political playing field on an issue that the GOP has pushed, most noticeably in the Midwest. The issue has also played well into the overall national Republican posture of being fiscally conservative and pro-business.
The numbers aren't staggering, but it does show a shift in opinions which, if it continues to hold, may mean trouble for those Republican governors who sailed into office promising parsimonious budgets balanced on the backs of working people. The governor of Wisconsin faces the loss of the Republican majority in the state senate via current recall efforts, and may himself face recall next January.
The news out of Wisconsin is that recall workers have reported enough signatures in one district to hold a recall election and did so 30 days earlier than the time allotted. Other recall efforts in the state report encouraging results in their drives as well. As a result of those efforts, even the brash Majority Leader of the state senate admits that if the vote on Gov. Walker's bill to effectively root out state employee unions were held today it would not have the votes to pass.
This is good news for working people, and speaking of "news", the Gallup Poll had something to say about that as well:
The poll also found that 28% of Americans said they followed the news about the union battles closely and 32% said they followed it somewhat closely. That represents a typical response to a major news story, according to Gallup.
Again, the numbers aren't staggering, but it does show what happens when the press does its job: people are moved.
I am guardedly optimistic on both aspects.
More Americans back public employee unions than governors seeking to balance strained budgets by demanding givebacks, including a curb on bargaining rights, according to a Gallup poll released Friday.
The poll, which showed that 48% agree with public employee unions compared with 39% who back the governors, marks somewhat of a leveling of the political playing field on an issue that the GOP has pushed, most noticeably in the Midwest. The issue has also played well into the overall national Republican posture of being fiscally conservative and pro-business.
The numbers aren't staggering, but it does show a shift in opinions which, if it continues to hold, may mean trouble for those Republican governors who sailed into office promising parsimonious budgets balanced on the backs of working people. The governor of Wisconsin faces the loss of the Republican majority in the state senate via current recall efforts, and may himself face recall next January.
The news out of Wisconsin is that recall workers have reported enough signatures in one district to hold a recall election and did so 30 days earlier than the time allotted. Other recall efforts in the state report encouraging results in their drives as well. As a result of those efforts, even the brash Majority Leader of the state senate admits that if the vote on Gov. Walker's bill to effectively root out state employee unions were held today it would not have the votes to pass.
This is good news for working people, and speaking of "news", the Gallup Poll had something to say about that as well:
The poll also found that 28% of Americans said they followed the news about the union battles closely and 32% said they followed it somewhat closely. That represents a typical response to a major news story, according to Gallup.
Again, the numbers aren't staggering, but it does show what happens when the press does its job: people are moved.
I am guardedly optimistic on both aspects.
Labels: Free Press, Union Busting
posted by Diane at 5:43 AM
1 Comments:
I'm cautiously optimistic too, and I agree with you.
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