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.
2 comments:
It's a novel approach but, I'm certain the WI Supreme Court will strike it down in the name of their owners, the Koch Brothers.
But, what this highlights is that Unions need to get more creative in their approach, The Reactionary Right didn't sit back after losing to Unions. They invented new language, worked tirelessly for decades to undermine and out-flank Labor Leaders and Law.
Unions got complacent and the left-wing Millenial Generation (if they want Labor Protection) are going to have come up with new avenues of attack.
I think getting rid of fair share would be a good start because it would allow Unions to defend their members and tell the others work out your own contract and see how well you do.
Of course, Conservatives are just one more death on the US Supreme Court from rushing through law that eliminates Unions all together.
Good comments, Gene. Perhaps the elimination of fair share would be the beginning of a wake-up call to those who want union services, but don't want to pay for them or join. Unions are at their most vulnerable in 100 years. There was hope that the economic collapse under Dumbya would revive union recruitment, but that didn't happen.
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