Union Contract in Wisconsin Gets Some Bus Drivers Six Figure Salary

I bet the folks paying to ride the bus wish they got that kind of sweetheart deal!

Ann Coulter exposes why unions are so desperate to hoodwink the public into thinking the Wisconsin protest is about fairness and rights....

MSNBC is covering the fight in Wisconsin as if it's the 9/11 attack -- and the Republicans are al-Qaida. Its entire prime-time schedule is dedicated to portraying self- interested government employees as if they're Marines taking on the Taliban. The network's Ed Schultz bellows that it is "morally wrong" to oppose the demands of government employees.
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Public sector workers are pursuing their own narrow financial interests to the detriment of everyone else in their states. That's fine, but can we stop pretending it's virtuous?

Because of the insane union contracts in Wisconsin, one Madison bus driver, John E. Nelson, was able to make $159,000 in 2009 -- about $100,000 of which in overtime pay. Jackie Gleason didn't make that much playing bus driver Ralph Kramden on "The Honeymooners." Seven bus drivers took home more than $100,000 that year.

When asked about the outrageous overtime pay for bus drivers -- totaling $1.94 million in 2009 alone -- Transit and Parking Commission Chairman Gary Poulson said: "That's the contract."

It's ludicrous to suggest that these union contracts were fairly bargained. Only one side was at the negotiating table. Ordinary people with jobs were not at the meetings where public sector compensation was discussed.
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Why do public sector employees have absurd overtime rules? Why don't they pay for their own health insurance? Why do they get to retire at age 45 with a guaranteed pension of 65 percent of their last year's pay -- as state police in New Jersey do?

This is asymmetrical warfare. Seven percent of the population cares intensely about public sector union contracts -- and nothing else. The remaining 93 percent of voters can't be bothered to care.

Meanwhile, state after state spirals into bankruptcy.

Hard Working Union Members?

The Dem counterargument might be that these poor union workers need to make all that overtime because they work so hard. Not if they are anything like the transit workers in New York City:
Typical two hour work day for many transit workers
And in one recent year 97% of retiring Long Island Rail Road employees got disability payments in addition to their retirement. The New York Times caught up with these "disabled" retirees at the golf course.

The Wisconsin union protest is about GREED! Pure and simple!