Opinion

Labor’s last shot

Madison, Wis. On Tuesday night, shortly after Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett was announced as the winner of the Democratic primary to take on Republican Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin’s June 5 recall election, the White House quickly expressed its delight. President Obama announced he was “proud to stand with Tom Barrett and the hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin families who are coming together to move Wisconsin forward.”

It makes sense that Obama would be intensely interested in the outcome of the June recall election. Obama won Wisconsin handily in 2008, but the state’s voters overwhelmingly threw Democrats out of office in 2010. Now it’s one of the swing states that will decide whether the president is re-elected; if Democrats can carry Wisconsin in June, they’re more likely to do so in November. A Barrett administration would certainly provide more electoral lubrication to his efforts in the Dairy State.

But that’s far from the only national significance of this fight. After all, this wasn’t the first time Obama had gotten involved in the long Wisconsin imbroglio. Early last year, as tens of thousands of angry protesters marched in the snow around the state Capitol, the president stoked the unrest, calling Walker’s reform plans an “assault” on government workers.

The governor had proposed a number of reforms, including requiring higher health care and pension contributions from state and local government employees and drastically reducing public-sector unions’ collective-bargaining powers. Democrats and labor pulled out the stops to try to prevent the reforms — but failed.

So Wisconsin filled a $3.6 billion deficit without either raising taxes or hemorrhaging government employees. None of the disastrous consequences the unions promised has come to pass.

Then why is Walker facing a recall effort? Because he dared to touch a sacrosanct issue for public unions: mandatory dues. Under Wisconsin’s new law, union membership for state and local government employees is no longer compulsory, and the government no longer automatically deducts dues on unions’ behalf.

Forced-unionization laws are a gold mine for public unions across America. In 2010, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees reported income of $211,806,537; the National Education Association raised $397,953,771; the Service Employees International Union got $318,755,793 from members.

By making unionization optional, Walker has threatened this money machine; for that reason, tens of millions of those very dollars from across the country will be spent trying to defeat him on June 5.

A Walker loss would place a neon sign on the desk of any elected official looking to balance a budget by reining in union power. But AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, while still vowing to “take out” Walker, recently said the recall effort had already intimidated lawmakers around the country. After what Walker’s been put through, Trumka argued, no “sane” or “rational” elected official would take on bargaining rights.

Yet Barrett’s win was an embarrassing defeat for the public unions; they spent more than $5 million to support his most serious primary challenger, ex-Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk.

Falk had signed a pledge to veto any future budget that didn’t fully restore unions’ collective-bargaining powers; Barrett merely promised to hold a special session to reverse Walker’s law. Barrett also used many of Walker’s provisions to balance his own city budget in Milwaukee — which is why union workers picketed several of his campaign appearances.

But they’ll still back him now. AFSCME issued a statement Tuesday night declaring that its members were “unified” in their support of Barrett and would do “anything we can to make sure he defeats” Walker.

It may take a lot. In a Rasmussen poll conducted Wednesday, Walker led Barrett by a 50 percent to 45 percent margin. In a poll done shortly before the primary, he held a 47 percent to 35 percent lead among independent voters. On election night, Walker collected more votes than both of his Democratic challengers combined, despite running virtually unopposed in the GOP primary.

There’s also a huge funding gap. Since January, Walker has raised $13.2 million; Barrett, only $831,000. On the other hand, the challenger knows organized labor will jump in and pick up the rest of the tab.

Christian Schneider is a senior fellow at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute and contributor to National Review Online.