Governor Walker's Victory Spells Doom For Public Sector Unions

Forbes ^ | 6/05/2012 @ 9:36PM | Bill Frezza

[Hunton Peck]

Public sector unions have reached their high water mark. Let the cleanup begin as the red ink recedes.

Despite a last-minute smear campaign accusing Scott Walker of fathering an illegitimate love child, the governor’s recall election victory sends a clear message that should resonate around the nation: The fiscal cancer devouring state budgets has a cure, and he has found it. The costly defeat for the entrenched union interests that tried to oust Walker in retribution for challenging their power was marked by President Obama’s refusal to lend his weight to the campaign for fear of being stained by defeat. We’ll see how well this strategy of opportunistic detachment serves in the fall as Obama reaches out to unions for support.

This fight is not without precedent. Progressive patron saint Franklin Delano Roosevelt—who more than any other president set our country on a course away from the founding principles of limited government—knew that public sector unions would be the death of the social welfare state he worked so hard to create. Hence, he consistently opposed allowing government employees to unionize. Today, Greece sets the example of what happens when public sector unions gain the upper hand. Can Big Science Bypass Congress and Help Itself to Cash? Bill Frezza Bill Frezza Contributor Prediction: Romney Crushes Obama In Presidential Election Blowout Bill Frezza Bill Frezza Contributor Marriage Laws Must Not Discriminate Against Anyone, Including The Unmarried Bill Frezza Bill Frezza Contributor Stephen King Horrified By His Low Taxes. What's Next? Bill Frezza Bill Frezza Contributor

In 1959 Wisconsin became the first state to allow collective bargaining by government employees. The projected cost of supporting Baby Boomer union retirees now threatens to bankrupt the state, as it does many others. Scott Walker ran for office promising change. The fiscal medicine he is...

[rhema]

Give me your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

Best of all, the myth that union bosses represent their members’ interests has been exposed as a lie. Now that union dues are voluntary, tens of thousands of union members have stopped paying them. Membership in the Wisconsin chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union (AFSCME) has dropped by half. Membership in the state’s American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is down by over a third. Given unions’ influential role in most elections, the national implications of this trend are staggering.

[longtermmemmory]

WI union membership (public) is plunging because the workers are keeping the money the union would have wasted.

The beast is starving.

I have seen posts that as much as 50% are no longer participating in auto deduct.

[Jacquerie]

I am certain the teachers unions are every bit as concerned with educating students as the UAW is with building fine autos.

[Hunton Peck]

It pretty often happens, in copying and pasting an article, that extra stuff (links to “related articles”, photos, ads and the like) gets copied as well without my noticing it, because its distinctive formatting disappears when it’s pasted so it looks like the rest of the text.

Sorry ‘bout that.