Sunday, October 23, 2011

Walker's Double Dipsy Doodle

Before becoming governor and proving to the world that labor relations was a foreign concept to him and something that he couldn't wrap his little pea-brain around, Scott Walker was doing much the same thing as Milwaukee County Executive.

Through excessive and illegal furloughs, cuts to pensions and the continuous threats of layoffs (sometimes just as a manipulative "joke"), Walker made Milwaukee County an unpleasant and unhealthy place to work for.  Understandably and not surprisingly, many workers who were eligible for retirement took it.  Some even took an early retirement just to get away from the miasma Walker was making of Milwaukee County.

Walker, however, would not hire new recruits to replace these workers as they left.  Instead, if the need was great enough, the county would hire the retirees back through a temp agency specializing in professional staff.
That way he could brag about how he kept county staffing levels down while "saving money."  They were obviously great political talking points.  Too bad they weren't exactly true.

What Walker would do was hire the retirees back through Personnel Specialists, LTD, a temp agency that dealt with professional and white collar workers. (I've heard some workers were told to apply there by management after they retired.)  And Walker paid this agency well for their role in bringing back the retirees, in the tune of more than $5 million in the past three years.

Click on picture to embiggen

The retirees made out very well also.  They were able to collect their pension and free health insurance and receive a salary on top of it. They were double-dipping* with Walker's blessing.  Not a bad deal if you could get it.

Of course, the unions were none to happy about this, since it was taking work away from current and potential county workers, but Walker kept doing it anyway, squandering tax dollars for political gain.

Given this history of Walker's, it was mildly bemusing to find out that now, as governor, he has come down against the practice.  Of course, when one gets into the details of the bill Walker is supporting, it's quickly obvious that it doesn't have that much teeth to it and is more for show than practical use.

For someone who has only been aware for a few months of just how horrible and destructive Walker this might seem amazing hypocritical of Walker.  And they would be correct, of course.

But for those of us that have suffered long-term exposure to Walker, there is not one thing surprising about it.  Walker's propensity for hypocrisy and flip flops are nothing new for him.

*I can't help it, but whenever I hear Wisconsin and double-dipping, this always comes to mind.

2 comments:

  1. Walker's new puppet, sponsor of the new stupid bill on this that is unneeded -- except that the Republicans need something to distract from the fact that they are not taking up any jobs bills in this special session to create jobs -- is Duane "Duey" Stroebel of Cedarburg.

    At least retiree rehires are earning their salaries by doing something.

    What is realtor and parttime legislator "Duey" Stroebel doing with his land, when he's not writing bills that aren't needed, when the law we have just needs enforcing (by . . . Walker)?

    Why has "Duey" gotten almost $60,000 of our taxes for this farm welfare program?: http://farm.ewg.org/persondetail.php?custnumber=A03893232 Are those the subsidies "farmers" (actually realtors, legislators. . . .) get for not growing crops?

    Is "Duey" getting federal welfare? and his state salary at the same time? and while we're paying even more a lot of his benefits, too?

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