The Reason behind the War in Wisconsin

On Tuesday, the recall elections in Wisconsin go to the voters. At the moment, governor Scott Walker is ahead in the polls by between five and seven percent. The Republican state senators who are challenged are also comfortably ahead of their Democrat challengers with one exception; in that contest, the polls show the GOP candidate leading but within the margin of error. In short, it is looking like the Republicans will win this epic battle. Perhaps the most amazing thing about these elections is that the cause of the recall movement, Walker's changes to the benefits of public employees and the removal of benefits from collective bargaining, are no longer being mentioned in the campaign. It seems that Wisconsin has accepted the clear success of these moves.

News was also out yesterday that made clear exactly why the recall effort has continued despite its likely defeat. According to the Wall Street Journal:

Wisconsin membership in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees—the state’s second-largest public-sector union after the National Education Association, which represents teachers—fell to 28,745 in February from 62,818 in March 2011, according to a person who has viewed Afscme’s figures. A spokesman for Afscme declined to comment.

Much of that decline came from Afscme Council 24, which represents Wisconsin state workers, whose membership plunged by two-thirds to 7,100 from 22,300 last year.


That's right, membership in the public employee union, the union whose members were supposedly so outraged by the Walker moves, has vallen by over 50% over the last year. How could that happen? It was Walker! The new laws passed last year stopped the practice in Wisconsin of requiring public employees to be union members. Individual workers gained the right to decide whether or not they wanted to be union members. Monthly dues were no longer automatically taken from their pay checks and sent by the state to the union. More than half of the work force dropped out of the union.

This change in union membership is a direct threat to the strength of both the union and the Democrat party in Wisconsin. For decades, the dues taken from public employees paychecks by the state were recycled by the unions into Democrat campaigns for public office. These same Democrats then made sweetheart deals with the employees all at the expense of the folks that the Democrats were supposedly representing. It is a disaster of the highest magnitude for Wisconsin Democrats.

There are still many states across America where public employees are forced to be union members. Just imagine what will happen if Wisconsin's move towards freedom for the workers is replicated across the country.