Major Project Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Major Project - Research Paper Example Wisconsin in February 2011 fell under a dispute of collective bargaining and budget deficit. The governor of the state, Scott Walker introduced a bill regarding the budget shortage of $3.6 billion over the subsequent two fiscal years and said that it would be overcome if certain measures were followed. The governor in order to balance the budget deficit of the state proposed to confiscate collective bargaining from the public sector employees. The negotiation would only be restricted to their wages but it would only be increased up to consumer price index. The employees need to contribute more for pension and medical benefits but there would be no bargaining power. The employees in their working period had made a few contributions for pension benefits and now it is not possible to remove such benefits. The unions were of the opinion that the issue was a political attack to weaken the substantial support of the government workers from the public employee union. However, the government said that they were just conducting their duty for the welfare of the state otherwise the state would suffer from budget pitfall. If such proposal is approved, then it would affect the government workers, teachers, nurses and various other professionals. However, the government had decided to prepare the ultimate proposal related to the collective bargaining and would not accept the proposal of union members. The governor was of the opinion that stripping the public employees of the rights of collective bargaining and restraining the subjects of basic wages would provide the state a flexibility regarding the finances to be attained in sequence and also spare the tax payers from misery (Williams, 2011). These types of issues can be solved by logical obligation of cost on each side. Such issue can arise in any situation in the state but it would need to be solved by negotiating, taking into concern the welfare of both sides. The eligible public employees are also required for the gov ernment sector. Thus, the favorable decisions from the part of government are important for heartening the employees. This type of union is organized in order to improve the public service related to their improvement of wages, general welfare, working conditions and collaboration between employees and employers (Public Employee Union Local 1, n.d.). The collective bargaining right was given to the employees by law. The governor of a state suddenly could not remove such right of bargaining power from the employees. The paper covers the historical context of public employee union by citing examples. In this paper, the entire dispute of Wisconsin and their results has been discussed. Finally, the summary of the paper is discussed with critical analysis of both negative and positive basis. 2.0 History of Public Employee Unions Labor unions have been termed as "private combinations of workingmen" that endeavors to raise wages and boost the working conditions of the union members. The jo bs of Government constituted the ‘healthy’ part of structured labor where outside competition provides little or no discipline against union incompetence, privilege and price. In 1960, the union members were 900,000 which became 4 million by 1970, 6 million by 1976 and in the