Wisconsin Recall Outcome to Set the Tone for November
Last August, Big Labor attempted to undue Governor Scott Walker’s initiative to cure Wisconsin’s massive debt, incurred as a result of years of Big Labor collective bargaining gone wild. The plan was to hold recall elections on six state Senate Republicans in order to regain the majority in the Wisconsin senate, but the plan failed miserably. Big Labor was confident that the pressure created through its foot soldiers would encourage voters to oust all six Republicans. However, only two were defeated, leaving the majority of the state Senate to the Republican Party and preserving the Governor’s laws to reign in Big Labor and its collective bargaining monopoly.
Now Big Labor is after Governor Scott Walker in a recall election which is certainly The Most Important Non-Presidential Election of the Decade. Democrats, however, can’t seem to get on the same page. Big labor’s candidate, Madison County Executive Kathleen Falk, faces opposition from Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barnett, who recently shot himself and the Democratic Party in the foot when he proved Governor Walker’s point by utilizing the Governor’s union reforms to balance his city’s budget. Interestingly enough big labor seems tied to the same old insanity of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results despite the fact the Union Backed Candidate in Wisconsin Recall Faces Fight. A reader of my blog, and an excellent businessman in his own right, recently described Big Labor’s refusal to recognize individual achievement and to provide services its members would embrace.
“One of the key Democrats who might run against Walker used Walker’s reforms to balance his own city’s budget. Wow!”
I like to say no one ever complains about being in a 401k after a year of participation. A solid 401k savings plan leads to capital accumulation opportunities amongst workers that are simply invaluable.
The same can be said of unions, but in reverse. No one misses them when they are gone, never. Even the union members who run around like zombies feel much better when they are vaccinated and wake up to their own amazing human potential.
And that’s the fundamental issue. Unions deny the immense human potential of the individual and insist society must be governed and organized through the collective. That way of thinking sounds anachronistic and silly today. No one really thinks we are “cogs” in a machine any more. Businessmen who think that way, well, they don’t stay businessmen very long (they go work in the government). The only people who continue to spout the “workers are replaceable cogs” bit are the union leaders. This thought process is anachronistic and outdated, which is why no one ever misses unions when they are gone.
Wisconsin’s teachers, appear to agree and are growing tired of Big Labor tactics and control (see Teachers Losing Love for Unions). They are realizing it is not they whom the public despises, but the big labor organizations that represent them. If teachers had the true ability to opt out under a state or federal “Right to Work” law, they would most likely vote with their feet and leave. While many states allow teachers to abstain from union membership, they are tethered to the union by still having to pay union dues or adhere to collective bargaining unit terms. This is just another form of perpetuated forced unionism.
Forced unionism is the goal of Big Labor. This is true both in the public sector, as described in Public Unions: Last Hope for Big Labor at America’s Expense, and in the private sector as chronicled in my new book The Devil at Our Doorstep. Big Labor has nothing tangible to sell in this day and age, so it increasingly relies on thuggery instead of salesmanship or finesse, to force employees into unionism against their own will (see Union Thugs Know Where You Live). Big Labor depends on employee and employer intimidation and crony politics to survive, as they are nothing more than Gasping Dinosaurs, attempting to avoid extinction. Bravo to Governor Walker and the citizens of Wisconsin for seeing the light, looking the bully in the eye, and not flinching during the August recall elections. Will the citizens of Wisconsin to stand behind the man that had the intestinal fortitude to make it all happen and re-elect Governor Walker? Will the rest of the states follow Wisconsin’s lead and keep the tsunami moving by curtailing public sector collective bargaining, and enacting RTW laws?
About the author: David A. Bego is the President and CEO of EMS, an industry leader in the field of environmental workplace maintenance, employing nearly 5000 workers in thirty-three states. Bego is the author of “The Devil at My Doorstep,” as well as the just released sequel, “The Devil at Our Doorstep,” based on his experiences fighting back against one of the most powerful unions in existence today.