You know, I was just thinking about "Rae days" while waiting for your post to pop up. In the early 90s, legislation passed by the one-term gov't iof Bob Rae gave workers much more power in organizing and building unions, but it was also a period of provincial deficits...the deepest recession since the 1930s and now the second deepest (after the Great Recession of 2008-2010). But in asking provincial workers to work some unpaid time...share the pain, in what were called "Rae days"..labour left the New Democrats in droves.
And of course, many of them were soon to experience "No Days", as government was shrunk by Mike Harris and his crew. It just goes on, along with the bellyaching, like an aching tooth.
But since only Republican/Conservative elements can benefit from the internal backbiting among progressive people over such absence of understanding among the workers, the social democratic and purely democratic parties have to slog on, hoping for political growth out there:
March 11, 2011
Democrats See Wisconsin Loss as Galvanizing
By KATE ZERNIKE and MONICA DAVEY
Even as the Republican governor of Wisconsin was signing a bill Friday that all but ended collective bargaining for state employees, Democrats nationally had put out advertisements and letters to use his own success against him.
In a push to raise money for their candidates, Democrats hope Wisconsin will be for them what the health care overhaul was for Republicans in last year's midterm elections: a galvanizing force for their base, and an example of overreaching that will win them crucial independent voters, not just in Wisconsin but also in Congressional races and the presidential election next year.
They point to polls showing that the same level of intensity that helped Republicans campaigning against health care is now behind Democrats on the issue of collective bargaining. Gov. Scott Walker's refusal to compromise with Democrats has given them a vivid way to demonstrate the point they tried unsuccessfully to make during the midterms: that Republicans are motivated by ideology, not just budget balancing.
"This is one of the uglier examples of the tyranny of a temporary majority, and I think it's going to backfire badly," said Gov. Martin O'Malley of Maryland, the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association.
"Democratic governors are facing some of the same budget challenges, and we're asking for some of the same concessions, but we're staying at the table and working with our work force and their union representatives," he said. "The Republicans are taking advantage of the economic downturn to sharpen their ideological axes and settle old scores."
In a push to raise money for their candidates, Democrats hope Wisconsin will be for them what the health care overhaul was for Republicans in last year's midterm elections.
