Who Suffers Without Collective Bargaining in Wisconsin? Families

A new development in the Wisconsin union story occurred a few nights ago when Wisconsin's Republican state senators discovered a roundabout way, without any of their Democratic colleagues present, to pass a bill that will strip collective bargaining for public sector employees in the state. The state senators took out the "financial" aspects of the bill and voted to strip collective bargaining rights from public sector employees separate from the budget bill. But banning collective bargaining will have financial ramifications -- especially for family budgets.

Collective bargaining allows for workers to negotiate more effectively for things like higher wages and better benefits. Wisconsin's bill limits collective bargaining over wages and eliminates the power to collectively bargain over benefits and pensions. Without collective bargaining, workers have fewer options for recourse against unfair wages or low benefits, issues women are more likely to face. As has been noted elsewhere, state and local public sector workers are actually paid less than their private sector counterparts, once their qualifications are taken into account, and as we pointed out last week, the majority of public sector workers at the state and local level are women.

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