What's really going on in Wisconsin

All of the teachers (and their poor pupils) manning the barricades in Madison think that they are fighting for their pay and benefits.  But the reason the mobs have been bussed into Madison is rather different:  the Walker bill directly targets the Union Bosses' power and money.  John Fund explains:

Labor historian Fred Siegel offers further reasons why unions are manning the barricades. Mr. Walker would require that public-employee unions be recertified annually by a majority vote of all their members, not merely by a majority of those that choose to cast ballots. In addition, he would end the government’s practice of automatically deducting union dues from employee paychecks. For Wisconsin teachers, union dues total between $700 and $1,000 a year.

“Ending dues deductions breaks the political cycle in which government collects dues, gives them to the unions, who then use the dues to back their favorite candidates and also lobby for bigger government and more pay and benefits,” Mr. Siegel told me. After New York City’s Transport Workers Union lost the right to automatic dues collection in 2007 following an illegal strike, its income fell by more than 35% as many members stopped ponying up.

Union bosses can live with pay cuts for their members - just ask the UAW.  What they will not tolerate is a dimunition of their power, wealth and perqs.