Green Bay Packers cornerback Charles Woodson released a statement in support of Wisconsin workers over the weekend.
Here it is in its entirety.
Last week I was proud when many of my current and former teammates announced their support for the working families fighting for their rights in Wisconsin. Today I am honored to join with them.
Thousands of dedicated Wisconsin public workers provide vital services for Wisconsin citizens. They are the teachers, nurses and child care workers who take care of us and our families. These hard working people are under an unprecedented attack to take away their basic rights to have a voice and collectively bargain at work.
It is an honor for me to play for the Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers and be a part of the Green Bay and Wisconsin communities. I am also honored as a member of the NFL Players Association to stand together with working families of Wisconsin and organized labor in their fight against this attempt to hurt them by targeting unions. I hope those leading the attack will sit down with Wisconsin’s public workers and discuss the problems Wisconsin faces, so that together they can truly move Wisconsin forward.
Hey woodson, these union rats are only being askewd to contribute a small amount. I am tired of dishing out for these deviants freaks and liberals. If you want to pay up, please do so. Put up or shut up.
It’s not about the money, it’s about the rights. The packers are a state owned team, not a private business. If you can’t handle that, then your not a packer fan.
State-owned? What?
They’re a privately held non-profit “corporation,” owned by the shareholders, not the state.
Lambeau is owned by Brown County, I believe, however.
That a boy!
Woodson, I love ya, but you’re an athlete. Not a politician, not an economist. Please keep this nonsense to yourself in the future.
Who the fuck are you, Boston? Only politicians and economists can have an opinion on this far-reaching debate? You’re statement stinks more than swiss cheese and has more holes in it too. You must be a politician or an economist? Let’s hope not! Maybe it’s you who should keep that nonsense to yourself.
Who am I? I’m a private citizen that no one looks to as a role model (and did major in economics, actually).
Woodson, like all celebrities that feel the need to spew their political views, has no rational reasoning and is simply using his status to push one side. That’s annoying, because odds are he has no idea what he’s talking about.
lol I’m sure the timing of this endorsement is “coincidental” given the looming NFL lockout! And the headline here is grossly misleading too. Woodson supports Wisconsin public employees….not workers (yes, there is a difference although promoting class warfare by lumping everybody together under “workers” is a common tactic) because most Wisconsin “workers” would take the deal being offered to the public employees by their BROKE employer and Run! Atleast anybody without a sense of entitlement, that is.
Nah, it’s good to hear Woodson’s opinion. He’s free to it.
Ultimately, it is the opinion of a member of a completely unnecessary union regarding another unnecessary union.
Anybody that comes on here having a problem with Charles Woodson can leave. You are indeed fuck faces and need to take your asses elsewhere.
@#1, the unions have agreed to paying the extra amount for benefits, they just want their right to collectively bargain to remain intact, however Walker refuses to make any concessions
IBEW local 2150 ok I understand contribution. It’s harder on the ol timers since they can’t accept change. Walker needs to at least humor the union and sit and talk. To fix this states budget it’s going to take everyones contribution not just state workers.
One difference, Chuck, between your union beef and the state employees. Your employer, the NFL owners, ain’t broke…Wisconsin IS. fans who buy tickets and merch have the option to NOT buy their product.
taxpayers have no say when their money goes to bad labor deals that are no longer feasible. I saw many of my co-workers laid off. I was happy to have my benefits slashed, and take a 10% cut in compensation just so I could keep my job. And now the state workers want taxes raised in this economy just so they can keep their sweetheart deal?!?!?
Good for Charles. I hope this bill stays in suspension and then drops in the garbage where it belongs.
Good luck with that happening.
It’s sad to see so many of these people scared senseless about losing their right to collective bargaining when they willingly voted this guy into office just months ago. Many people will take a lesson from it at least. You must prioritize your interests before voting and carefully view the candidates’ agendas.
Mainly for boston, but directed at retards who are all about “union bashing”
1. If it wasn’t for unions no one would be offered health. dental vision or life insurance from work
2. it’s because of unions why we have a minimum wage scale, although it’s impossible to live on your own making minimum wage still, thank the unions for that
3. it’s because of unions why some people actually make decent money (i.e. teachers in Wisconsin making on average 35k a year) still 15k under the median income in the US.
4. There’s a direct correlation between stagnant wages and the collapse of unions, in 2000 the median income was 50,557 and actually dropped to 50,233 in 2007 according to census.gov, and the amount of union workers in the US make up 9% of organized labor, down from 13% in 2000.
oposing that is from 1990-2000 where unions made up on average 15% of the work force, wages went up from 46,049 to 50,557 not to mention clinton raised taxes AND created 24 million jobs (as a liberal I had to get that in there) on the other hand, bush (lol) lowered taxes and 8 million jobs were lost even before 2007
Now all you dumb fucks that are against unions and public protest, or 1 man voicing his support for a cause that most, if not all of americans should be behind, by all means move to china. But here in AMERICA it’s a RIGHT to be able to talk about what-ever-the-fuck you want, and stage public protest for your voice to be heard. As well as be able to be part of a union. We all know retardicans hate unions and spend ALOT of money breaking them up, thats why there is such an income inequality plaguing America today.
and to ‘boston’ if you actually majored in “economics” (probably an associate’s degree or a week at a tech school lol) it would not be hard for you to state facts, instead of typing nonsense that has no place in an educated debate, and by the way, odds are, you have no idea what you’re talking about, Because attacking someone for practicing their constitutional rights has NOTHING to do with economics. So you “majoring in economics” again has no bearing on what you said.
1. Benefits you described came into existence because FDR put wage controls in place during the great depression. At this stage it is highly unlikely companies would cut benefits for the majority of workers without unions (keep in mind less than 15% of the country is unionized).
2. The minimum wage is a failed policy that hurts the people it’s supposed to help. This current recession has been felt abnormally strongly by the poor, whose high rates of unemployment are partially a result of our recent federal minimum wage hike.
3. Unions, in general, raise wages and lower employment. They are a distortion in the market, and specific to public education do very little other than keep incompetent teachers employed at the expense of excellent ones.
4. Correlation is not causation, your statement ignores two recessions and is statistically wrong anyway – our median GDP/capita has increased over the last 10 years.
Finally, of course this has to do with economics. What do you think is going to happen when yields on Wisconsin munis double because the budget is such a mess? The public sector needs to significantly grow in size in all states, at all levels, or the cost of borrowing is going to go through the roof and the government services you undoubtedly rely on will disappear.
Or you can cry for a federal bailout, meaning people like myself who live on the other side of the country have to pay for your stupid mistakes.
whoops… by “grow” I meant “shrink” in reference to the public sector
“FDR put wage controls in place during the great depression”
1. was this part of “the new deal” or aptly named “Second new deal” If so please post a link, if you are correct I appreciate being told so.
2. I can see the burden put onto the system because of this policy. But my contention is that while employment is offered, and we do not suffer a horrific recession like this current one, it is beneficial, especial to women in the work force who are hardly offered “competitive wages” as opposed to their male counterparts.
3. Again I see your point, and I submit the UAW, but the way that union handled its CBA was a travesty bankrupting the companion. I am speaking about companies that don’t and do not want to offer pay comparable to people with similar jobs in similarly sized cities, where the price of living is close to the same if not exact. I am by no means saying someone in a town with a population of 2000 should be paid the same as someone in NY.
4. I was speaking about the average income, not the Gross Domestic Product, which I agree the GDP has trended upwards throughout our most recent decade. Except 2008-2010 it went down but still up from 2000
For your final remarks, I am afraid I can’t comment as I am not very knowledgeable in that area. But can I say; why pick on just the teachers, who IMO hold one the hardest jobs there are? Why not involve the fire departments and police departments (which I also support, respect, and value and acknowledge have just as hard, if not harder, job than the teachers) who also derive their salary, pensions, and health care from the state? Or are their benefits that much less then teachers? Are there no useless “pork-barrel-esk” programs that the Wisconsin legislature cannot cut? And no, I am not in a favor of a bailout, I like to handle things on my own and feel each individual state should handle their budget short falls on their own.
Finally, I do appreciate the educated debate, it is always fun! And await your rebuttal. Until next time…
1. Here’s your link:
http://www.nber.org/aginghealth/2009no2/w14839.html
Employers couldn’t raise wages, so they offered more benefits instead. It’s not because unions demanded it.
2. Minimum wage is mostly aimed at minorities and youths, to keep their living standards up. Women are more and more reaching higher wage levels, so it doesn’t really do much for them. Regardless, anyone that would be receiving minimum wage is at a higher risk of being laid off and it harms the employer, so it’s a net negative to society.
3. Why does that have to be corrected? If a company offers lower pay than their counterparts you would expect them to either struggle to find labor or go bankrupt, right? A union would simply force the cost of labor above market rates and hurt the employer (see: GM).
4. Average income has stagnated for the lower class for the last 30 years or so, but GDP/capita has not. Is this a problem? Maybe, in the name of fairness (which I admittedly don’t really care about), but their quality of life – the amount of “stuff” they have access to, has increased by absurd proportions. GDP/capita at Purchasing Power Parity is the best way to measure economic quality of life.
My reference to WI munis – when cities and towns need to finance a project, or pay for operations or whatever they issue (meaning sell) bonds on the market. These bonds are usually considered very safe (how often does a city go bankrupt?), so they can be sold for a lot and then repaid for slightly more. However, because of major budget problems people aren’t willing to buy the bonds at such high amounts, meaning the city gets a small amount to finance their project and then has to pay back a far bigger amount.
Essentially, they’re seen as high-risk, so people demand more return for investing.
And I agree, it should not simply be focused on the teachers – every piece of the public sector needs to be cut down, at all levels. But that includes teachers, and their unions are usually very aggressive when it comes to defending against even the slightest of pay cut (or smaller pay increase).
Thank you for the link, it was very insightful, unfortunately I need to head to work, and again thank you for the debate and thank you for keeping it more civil than my previous posts as I admittedly posted “in the heat of the moment” lol if i get time at work I’ll sing in and make an attempt at a rebuttal
Boston, towards your 3rd point, if a CBA is handled correctly it would not bankrupt the company nor attempt to. The only CBA I was part of was when I worked at Amron LLC we just wanted competitive wages, and get paid appropriately for the type of work we were doing How that’s a “bad thing” I don’t think it is (obviously). And no, not everyone can work for a certain company that pays more, there are hundreds of people applying for work in companies that offer lower wages compared to the average pay for the same type of work. It is impossible for everyone at company A to say “hey company B pays more lets ALL quit and work there” that doesn’t happen. The companies that pay substandard wages will always be around because there’s always someone willing to work there.
On your fourth point the ages have not been stagnant for 40 years http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_household_income … as you can see from the graph yes Median income has ebbed and flowed for the past 40 years but has definitely trended upwards looking at the big picture. I and a lot of my friends can’t pay bills and put food on their table with PPP and GDP, but we can when average pay goes up with the price of living. Also I am glad you admitted you don’t care about being fair, but I congratulate you for being able to not to have to worry about the small things like a lot of Americans have too. Like the ever escalating cost of food, fuel, heating oil, rent, or cost of housing.
WOW. I read all these posts again, and can’t believe the uneducated ramblings taking place against unions. When did it become a BAD thing to want wages to escalate as much as the cost of living? Again if it wasn’t for unions, what do you think the median income in America would be? 20,000? 25,000? The richest 400 people in America have as much wealth as the bottom 50% if it wasn’t for unions I’m pretty sure those 400 people would have as much wealth as the bottom 65-70%. And these are teachers you are hating against, you all should know how ignorant, self indulged, disobedient, hateful, spiteful, and suffice it to say, complete fucking ass-holes kids are in school. 90% of 6th graders to seniors only care about fucking, getting drunk, or doing drugs, and it’s up to these IMO, UNDER-FUCKING-PAID teachers to have to deal with and teach them. Parents definitely share responsibility, but it’s not easy being a teacher, my sister is a teacher in Wisconsin and so is my friend‘s wife, and they have a hell of a time TRYING to teach kids, and most the time they want to give up because it isn’t even close to being worth the pay. But they continue on because they CARE about the kids… But these people (you know the ones that have children’s futures in their hands) are the ones you are targeting and basically saying ‘fuck em’ get your hand off from Sean Hannity’s balls and take Glenn Becks cock out of your mouth and read up on the importance of unions from let’s say from the 50’s to 80’s, and then come back and say they are for shit and shouldn’t be around. /end rant
Yeah!
What he said!
doesnt matter is a fool. do not try to reason with the clueless idiot. he makes a living off the tax payer. he is a leech. parasites like him will never figure it out. the Deviants Freaks and Liberals party have him because he is a leech. somehow he thinks he is owed something. most teachers are in the business for june, july and august. nothing more. i went to college with a bunch of these morons who are now teaching. most could not be employed in the private sector. no people skills and zero common sence.
“doesnt matter is a fool. do not try to reason with the clueless idiot. he makes a living off the tax payer. he is a leech. parasites like him will never figure it out. the Deviants Freaks and Liberals party have him because he is a leech. somehow he thinks he is owed something. “
1. You don’t know me, I work as a setup and operator for CNC and NC gear hobbers / gear shapers and in a non union company, as well as going to college 3/4 time, for a bachelors in system technologies no grant, no loans.
2. Obviously I don’t live off the tax payers. Where you got that is beyond me
3. Explain to me what “I will never figure out”
4. I am not “owed” anything, nor do I demand anything.
5. Please attempt to explain to me how you derived such a brilliant rebuttal, I am in awe at your immense knowledge on this subject. I seek explanation for your god like wisdom, logic, and intellect, as no mere man could form such perfect conclusions, and offer so much factual insight. I am indeed envious of your knowledge and bow down to you kind sir, touché …Sarcasm intended, I await your school yard name calling and I am in suspense to see what your ‘jump-to-conclusion-mat’ has in store for me!
Teachers are more than fairly compensated. They have a great career – where else can you be mediocre to bad at your job and have the following apply:
1) Can’t be fired
2) Never work more than a 40-hour workweek
3) Make $60-$80K/year, with enough experience
4) Not work 3-4 months of the year. Seriously, pro-rate their salaries for working 6-7 hours days and 8-9 months out of the year, they make absurd money.
And hey, like the guy above said – you don’t need to be especially talented to do it. Sure, it takes some skill to be a GOOD teacher, but thanks to unions any jackass can become a teacher and stay one for 30 years.
Again I have to agree with your first point. You literally have to have sex with a student to get fired.
2. Are you taking into account the work they take home with them most of the time? Grading papers, setting up and constructing of the next class assignments? Granted some of this is handled at school but definitely not all of it
3. My friend’s wife has been a teacher for 16 years and makes 42k a year and that’s working on a reservation with Potawatomie’s
4. I wouldn’t go as far as calling it “absurd”… paid adequately given what they are doing for a living? Yes! Again I feel a teacher should be paid a very good salary because they hold a lot of futures in their hands.
Again back to your first point, without any threat of losing their job a lot of teachers probably don’t care to excel at what they do because they have very high job security and not much incentive to strive to be the best because: it’s hard to grade a teachers performance with a given class room, so comparing inner city teachers and teachers that work with smaller class sizes, is not a feasible way to determine the type of work each teacher does throughout the state or the country for that matter. So it’s hard to structure a pay scale by the type of performance their respective students have. Both the teachers I know get a raise every time they spend a summer going school and attending a ton of seminars. Again, if I am missing something please point it out, or if you disagree please voice your opinion or facts. Thanx again for the debates
For the sake of all taxpayers in WI, I hope Gov. Walker does not cave. Union leadership = Socialists.
I think Boston is referring to total compensation in #3. Salary, pension, health insurance, other misc. benefits. I have seen these numbers in the last few weeks. I wouldn’t call it absurd but more than fair would be very accurate.
Average teacher in Wiscon makes 35k a year?, You have to be kidding me, I know a great # of teachers, and they all far exceed that amount, where does that average come from? I’m thinking they must include substitute part time teachers in that average. They have great pensions and INS, summers off, and almost CANT get fired….boo hoo
Thats the only profession i know where you dont have to be accountable for your performance, that and Shawn Slocum’s inept job performance
I agree, But in actuality you could be the best teacher in the state, and have a room full of kids that don’t want to learn, and don’t care to learn. There by “making the teacher look bad” Or you could have a mediocre teacher and a class of kids thirsting for knowledge and be perceived as a “great awe inspiring teacher”. As I stated in my earlier post, it is very hard to decipher a teacher’s performance. And yes there “great teachers” “decent teachers” and “piss poor could give a fuck less teachers”, the latter should not exist, but unfortunately they do.
Here you go average salary. For those too lazy to check or before they spout off.
http://dpi.state.wi.us/lbstat/xls/tasr10.xls
http://dpi.state.wi.us/lbstat/newasr.html
If you include “administrative” salaries it does escalate the average. But unfortunately we are talking ONLY THE TEACHERS.
Calling people names is the lowest form of critical thinking. Empathizing with those not like yourself is the highest form of critical thinking.
Thank-you Mr. Woodson for not only being my favorite Packer, but also for being a very smart man.