Saturday, February 19, 2011

Can The Protests That Are Happening In Wisconsin Happen In Nevada?

Much of what is happening in Madison WI. is getting covered in blogs like mine and in the local and national press. (Funny, the Sun and LVRJ barely mention what is going) But can the same kind of protests happen in Nevada where public employees are being threatened with layoffs and/or pay cuts.
The governor, Brian Sandoval, a Republician, has put forth a budget where he calls for a 5% decrease in wages for all government employees, including teachers and local government employees and taking away furlough days that were given last year to most state employees.
The governor has not threatened to take away collective bargaining rights, but trust me, employee rights for government employees in Nevada aren't even close to the collective bargaining rights they receive in Wisconsin. Having been both a government employee in Wisconsin (State employee and teacher in two school districts) and a teacher in Nevada, I have experienced both worker rights in both states. For instance, state employees in Nevada do not have collective bargaining rights. They were not given the right to negotiate the furlough days and cut in pay. Teacher's don't have it much better but we do have some collective bargaining rights.
So, will we see protests because of the latest cuts to employees pay and rights?
No. First, the majority of government employees reside in Southern Nevada and the State capitol is in Carson City, about an 8 hour drive. People are not going to travel that far to protest and then stay over night and protest the next day. It can get expensive and most government employees don't have that kind of money to spend. They can protest in Las Vegas, but other than the sympathetic media, who is going to listen?
That being said, most government employees are well paid, some of the highest paid government employees in the country. They are not going to bite that feeds them. Further, many, around I would say, at least 33%, are conservative and they support the governor, even if it hurts them financially. Most of the teachers I hang around with have worked in the private sector, so they know what it is like in the real world- the pay and benefits. Further, even most liberals in Nevada are pretty strong and are not complainers like they are in Wisconsin.
Further, if the government workers protest, they would get very little sympathy from the public. With 14.5% unemployment in the State, there is no way the public will feel sorry for the public employees.
Finally, most state and local government employees, unlike their counterparts in Wisconsin, know the State is having severe financial problems and most are willing to help out, as long as they don't get screwed over.
So, there won't be any major protests about the state budget cuts in Nevada, except for some small rallies on the campuses of colleges, which are pretty much insignificant anyways. This will not make the media and some liberals very happy.

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