It's taken two and a half years, but it seems as if Governor Teflon finally tossed off a show-off, talk radio talking point that's going to stick.
Remember when he said he was "not unlike" the great FDR?
FDR's grandson James Roosevelt let the Journal Sentinel know in a letter to the paper for the Sunday edition - - with all Walker's colleagues in town, to boot - - that it's a false comparison:
Walker's distortion of President Roosevelt's beliefs could not be more off base.Read the entire letter. James Roosevelt does not mince words.
Also read this explanation by a national federal employee union official about Roosevelt's position on public union strikes, which Walker cherry-picked to make his flawed comparison:
Roosevelt’s concern was that if federal employees were to strike, it could present a threat to the nation’s security — a legitimate concern for the government, where about half of workers are employed by agencies with a clear national security mission. At a time when the great powers of Europe and Asia were re-engaging the gears of war, it is no wonder Roosevelt would be concerned about the continuity of federal service.
That is precisely why when President Kennedy granted federal workers bargaining rights at the height of the Cold War in 1962, they were not given the right to strike.
It is clear that this letter was written to federal employees about the importance of not having strikes in federal agencies because of national security concerns. Nothing more.
To suggest this is evidence that Roosevelt — the father of workers’ rights to form and join unions — shares an ideological lineage with Walker’s union-busting tactics is outrageous and disingenuous. A voice in the workplace for teachers, firefighters and other public employees is not a matter of national security, it is a matter of dignity for workers.
I can say with conviction and history firmly on my side that if Roosevelt was around today, he would lead the charge for workers’ rights to unionize — public and private.
———
William R. Dougan is the national president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, a labor union that represents 110,000 employees at 40 federal agencies and departments.
I read the letter this morning.
ReplyDeleteSonny had better read up on what grandpa's position was relative to government unions: "The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service," Roosevelt wrote in 1937 to the National Federation of Federal Employees. Yes, public workers may demand fair treatment, wrote Roosevelt. But, he wrote, "I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place" in the public sector. "A strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government."
In Wisconsin's case Scott Walker has not bared the state government unions contrasted to FDR's position of solidly anti-government unions.
Credit: Real Clear Politics
You are duuuuumb.On the SAME LETTER, FDR says public employees have the same rights to "belong to organizations", as private sector employees do, and bargain for items such as benefits and work conditions along with pay- well beyond what's allowed in Act 10. In the paragraph you quote, FDR is clearly referencing "militant actions" like strikes.
DeleteIf you're lying, you're losing. And anyone who thinks FDR opposed collective bargaining rights for piublic employees is flat-out LYING.
"A strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government."
ReplyDeleteSounds like it's more relevant to Congressional Repulbicans.
And let's be clear about what FDR meant in this case; that government employees were subject to commensurate wages, pensions, and health care that made them secure and without need for organizing; Walker's attempt to race to the bottom, trash public employee wages, health care, and retirements is actually antithetical to FDR's ideas.
Antithetical. Look it up. Then pick yourself a nym; own your hatefulness.