Crushing the unions

It seems not long ago that we started watching mass protests shake up regimes across the Middle East and North Africa, even toppling Egypt's government. Now we're witnessing protests across the United States in response to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's attempt to strip collective bargaining rights from state workers. The protests probably won't lead to regime change in Wisconsin, but they have lit a fire under union supporters across the country.

Things have gotten very interesting since the GOP-sponsored bill was introduced in Wisconsin's Legislature. Republicans control the executive office, the House and the Senate in the Badger state, and it seems that they are using the opportunity to force their agenda through. Wisconsin's 14 Democratic state senators fled the state in order to keep the Senate from having a quorum, thus keeping the bill from coming to a vote.

Walker says the state's financial crisis calls for draconian measures. Some say that Walker created the financial crises by cutting taxes in the state. Regardless of the cause, Wisconsin public unions have actually agreed to all the economic provisions of the bill, wage cuts, and paying more for pensions and health care. But Walker's continuing insistence on curtailing collective bargaining rights makes this move look like bald-faced union busting.

"Walker is showing unwillingness to compromise," says John Beck, director of Labor Education at Michigan State University. "He has no intention to negotiate. The fiscal crisis only exists in Wisconsin because he got into office to cut taxes. They actually had a surplus before he came in. It's nothing but an attack on organized labor."

Republicans and their corporate allies have been pretty successful in attacking unions for decades. In 1945, union members made up 33.5 percent of the workforce. Today that number is about 12 percent; however 35 percent of public sector workers belong to unions while only about 7 percent of private sector workers are organized. Those numbers show where anti-union forces see their opportunity. If they can bust the public sector unions, they can effectively smash the union movement.

"A blind man can see it," says Beck. "Unions have already conceded that they're willing to talk about economic concessions. Going after the heart of organized labor is what he's really trying to do."

But why?

"Of the top 10 financiers of the 2010 elections, seven of them were right-wing, the other three were unions — AFSCME, NEA and SEIU," says Beck.

So it looks like a strategy for political domination: Take the financial backing away from your opponent. And if you don't believe that right-wing corporate money backs this move, consider the billionaire Koch brothers.

Charles and David Koch — whose Koch Industries has business interests from oil and petrochemicals to forest products — were principal financiers of Walker's campaign through contributions from their company and secondarily through the Republican Governors Association. A Koch spokesman at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference is reported to have said that their goal was to take the unions down "at the knees." The Kochs are also major Tea Party financiers.

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