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By Lauren | June 7, 2012
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker made history this week, becoming the first U.S. governor ever to survive a recall election. You?ll recall that Governor Walker drew the ire of state workers when he all but eliminated their collective bargaining rights. Their fury led to the recall election, which Walker handily won. The political pundits are scrambling to predict what Governor Walker?s fairly comfortable margin of victory means for the upcoming Presidential election. (Why are those folks always in such an all-fired hurry to risk being wrong?) Personally, I think his success has less to do with whether voters are leaning blue or red and more with a generally-held sense that it?s not fair to recall a recently-elected politician just because you don?t agree with his policies, but we?ll find that out in November.
Meanwhile, I?m a lot less interested in prognosticating an election that?s months away than in assessing how badly Wisconsin?s civil service workers will suffer because Governor Walker survived. Apparently the election produced a shift in the state legislature that will make it more difficult for his administration to strip state employees of their remaining rights and benefits. That?s a good thing, because government employees work hard for the public welfare, often at salaries well below what private industry would pay. They rarely have much individual power to negotiate their compensation packages, and they don?t deserve to be deprived of the right to join together to bargain for a decent livelihood for themselves and their families.
Governor Walker undoubtedly enjoyed his election victory, and probably felt great as he swaggered into his office the following day. I just wonder how Wisconsin state employees in the building felt when they saw him. Just imagine how you?d feel if you knew that your boss was out to cut your compensation and that voters who are also your friends, family members and neighbors didn?t value your efforts enough to protect your right to make a reasonable living. How enthusiastically would you report to work in the morning? Maybe that doesn?t matter to Governor Walker, but it probably should matter a lot to Wisconsin citizens who expect state employees to produce the range of services that government is supposed to provide.
Topics: Business Ethics, Social Ethics, customer relations, ethics |
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