In Wis. Standoff, AP Reporter Claims Pending Legislation Would ‘End Collective Bargaining,’ Then Contradicts Himself
The Associated Press's Scott Bauer opened his report (“Wis. lawmakers flee state to block anti-union bill”) from Madison, Wisconsin today by completely misrepresenting the nature of the legislation involved in the current standoff: Faced with a near-certain Republican victory that would end a half-century of collective bargaining for public workers, Wisconsin Democrats retaliated with the only weapon they had left: They fled. Wow. That's pretty serious. Any reasonable reader of that paragraph would believe that evil Republican Governor Scott Walker and the GOP-controlled legislature aim to end all collective-bargaining rights, break up the Badger State's pubic-sector unions, and relegate them to the ash heap of history. But that's not what's at stake, as Bauer himself, after repeating the falsehood in his 34th paragraph, finally revealed what his definition of “elimination” is in Paragraph 36: In addition to eliminating collective-bargaining rights, the legislation also would make public workers pay half the costs of their pensions and at least 12.6 percent of their health care coverage – increases Walker calls “modest” compared with those in the private sector.
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on February 18, 2011. Filed under