john maddente | midwestern clarity

Published at Examiner.com 3.31.2011 Dear Madam or Sir, I take issue with the way Dennis Cauchon (and others in the media) have reported upon public opinion in Wisconsin, and summarized results.  Consider your USA Today/Gallup poll asking, “ Would you favor or oppose a law in your state taking away some collective bargaining rights of most public unions, including the state teachers union ?”  Apparently, 61% of your respondents answered “oppose” and so Mr. Cauchon’s February 23rd piece blared, “Poll: Americans favor union bargaining rights” Not so fast.  In the first place, “right” is an emotionally-laden word and also an inaccurate one when used to reference collective bargaining, since no such right is enumerated in either the U.S. Constitution or Wisconsin’s Constitution (or any other state constitution that I have yet to discover) .  A more accurate and reasonably framed question would have been, “Would you favor or oppose a law in your state th...

By Tim Peterson, Robert J. Simandl And John J. Maddente  Published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 3.15.2011 R ight , noun : A just claim or title, whether legal, prescriptive or moral. That's the definition of a word used by Wisconsin's public-sector unions demanding to retain all collective bargaining privileges. For weeks, we've heard demonstrators beating drums in Madison alongside equally vocal sympathizers in the media talking about "rights" of public-sector union employees and "attacks" on "the middle class." We respectfully disagree with them. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, collective bargaining is "A process of negotiation between representatives of workers (usually labor union officials) and management to determine the conditions of employment. The agreement reached may cover not only wages but hiring practices, layoffs, promotions, working conditions, hours and benefit programs." West's ...