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In the United States several rising Republican governors are keen to turn the short-term struggle over pay and benefits into a bigger battle about trade-union power. New Jersey’s Chris Christie (see article) and Minnesota’s Tim Pawlenty have both eagerly taken on the new “privileged class” of public-sector workers. Do the public exist to serve public-sector workers with their high pay and inflated benefits, they ask, or do public-sector workers exist to serve the public?
Even people on the left are beginning to echo these complaints. Andrew Cuomo, the incoming Democratic governor of New York, is rattling his sabre against public-sector unions despite the fact that they make up an important part of his base. Davis Guggenheim, an impeccably liberal film director whose credits include Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”, subjected the teachers’ unions to a merciless critique in “Waiting for Superman”, flagellating them for perpetuating a broken system and presenting Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, as “something of a foaming satanic beast”, as the Variety reviewer put it.
The unions have responded by proclaiming war on cost-cutting governments. They have already organised strikes and protests. Millions of French workers marched against Nicolas Sarkozy’s modest plans to raise the retirement age by two years. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Ireland and Greece against austerity measures. London Underground workers have repeatedly paralysed transport in the city. But this is a mere prelude. Unions across Europe have promised strikes in 2011 on a scale not seen since the 1980s.

A. 어휘
Republican governors 공화당 주지사. keen 열심히 하는, 갈망하는, 예리한.
take on 도전하다, 덤벼들다. “privileged class” 특권계급.
inflated 부푼, 팽창한, 우쭐해진. complaints 불평.
incoming Democratic governor 후임 민주당 지사.
rattle 휘젓다, 덜걱덜걱 소리 나다. sabre 騎兵刀(기병도).
impeccably 흠이 없는, 나무랄 데 없는. liberal 진보적인.
credits 칭찬받는 작품, 공적, 명예. Al Gore 민주당 前(전) 부통령.
“An Inconvenient Truth” 불편한 진실.
subject A to B→ A에게 B를 퍼붓다.
merciless 무자비한. critique 비판. flagellate 매질하다.
perpetuate 永續(영속)시키다, 不朽(불후)하게 하다.
foam 게거품을 품으며 성내다, 거품. satanic 악마 같은.
Variety =Variety Show. put it. 언급하다. proclaim 선포하다.
austerity measures 緊縮政策(긴축정책). Underground 지하철.
paralyse 마비시키다. prelude 序幕(서막), 序曲(서곡), 前奏曲(전주곡).