Welcome to your Thursday open thread. I learned a lot yesterday. Apparently Mike Matthews is responsible for making KWS Insurance Commissioner. Oh, the things you learn on DL!
Here’s the future if we follow the Republican plan, like in Scott Walker’s Wisconsin.
While Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) law dismantling collective bargaining rights has harmed teachers, nurses, and other civil servants, it’s helping a different group in Wisconsinites — inmates. Prisoners are now taking up jobs that used to be held by unionized workers in some parts of the state.
As the Madison Capital Times reports, “Besides losing their right to negotiate over the percentage of their paycheck that will go toward health care and retirement, unions also lost the ability to claim work as a ‘union-only’ job, opening the door for private workers and evidently even inmates to step in and take their place.” Inmates are not paid for their work, but may receive time off of their sentences.
The law went into effect last week, and Racine County is already using inmates to do landscaping, painting, and another basic maintenance around the county that was previously done by county workers. The union had successfully sued to stop the country from using prison labor for these jobs last year, but with Walker’s new law, they have no recourse.
That’s really quite amazing. No wonder the US is putting so many people in prison. We need cheap labor!
This video is pretty amazing. It’s someone driving into a massive dust storm in Arizona.
