Saturday, April 9, 2016

A Win For Wisconsin's Workers


One of the hallmarks of Wisconsin Governor and Koch Industries' Employee of the Decade Scott "Koch Head" Walker's has been an unrelenting attack on unions, starting with his assault on public employee union bargaining rights which culminated in a recall election in 2012. Despite surviving that recall, Koch Head's approval ratings are in the 30s, and he was an early drop out in the Rethuglican clown car sweepstakes for President.

Koch Head suffered a reversal when a Dane County Circuit Court judge struck down Wisconsin's 2015 "right-to-work (for less)" law, declaring it violated the state's constitution. The law permitted private sector non-unionized workers to avoid paying the equivalent of union dues, despite the provision of services by the union, such as collective bargaining for higher wages and representation in management disputes. Unfortunately, while this is a setback for Rethuglican efforts to bust unions, it's expected that the conservative state supreme court will reverse the decision.

We recall the prank phone call that was placed to Koch Head early in his administration, where he thought he was taking a call from David Koch and proceeded to brag how he was going to take down unions. He's the worst kind of reactionary, coin-operated politician, and he's doing real damage to his state.