Prison inmates replace unionized workers in Racine, Wisconsin

Source: Raw Story

Prison inmates have replaced union workers in Racine County, Wisconsin, thanks to the changes to the states collective bargaining laws that went into effect at the end of June.

The Journal Times reported prison inmates will now be able to do tasks such as landscaping, painting, and shoveling sidewalks in the winter that were previously performed by unionized employees.

Inmates are not required to do any work for the county, but can receive time off their sentence if they do. Racine County Executive Jim Ladwig said the use of prison labor would not result in any public works staff reductions.

"We're gonna have them do landscaping at county buildings, have them pick up trash on the roads," he told local Fox News 6. "So we can use some of the county personnel to do difficult tasks, such as putting in a parking lot at the park."

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/07/06/prison-inmates-replace-unionized-workers-in-racine-wisconsin/

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Lock everyone up, free health care and guaranteed jobs for all!

I 'saw' this happening. I also saw the youth of this country having so few alternatives to choose for their livelihood that the few ways to make a living would be to join the military.

Once they get us down to size they'll bring back the jobs because we'll be paid less than they pay overseas. Cheer up.

Thanks for the thread, cory.

This is a hugely important story. It needs to hit the MSM and become an issue. Seems Walker is not the first; the corporations are way ahead of hm in using slave labor to save costs.

IT'S ALL ADDING UP NOW AND TAKING FORM WITH GREAT GEOMETRICAL PRECISION. THE CORPORATIST RACKETEERS SENSE OF SYMMETRY AND PROPORTION SEEMS A FAIR REFLECTION OF THEIR MORAL SENSE (RIGHT AND WRONG).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-H6bldEvqI

are not exactly the type of high-skilled jobs that come to mind when I think about union workers.

In my view, there is nothing wrong with giving inmates the opportunity to reduce the time it takes for them to repay their debts to society.

The particular skills of the job or industry aren't an issue.

Computer programmers or general laborers can be unionized. Generally, lower skill jobs benefit more than high skill jobs from unionization, as the supply/demand factors are usually less positive for low skilled labor, which diminishes the individual workers bargaining power with employers. Collective bargaining can make up for that power imbalance. However, if the supply/demand factors are unfavorable even highly skilled workers (like IT) can benefit from unionization.

If I were an inmate, I'd tell them to shovel their own goddamned sidewalk.