by Jules Witcover

Republican Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin has finally outmaneuvered the state Senate Democrats, who took refuge in neighboring Illinois to stall a bill that would diminish public employees' collective bargaining rights. But in passing the bill achieving that end, Walker may have given beleaguered organized labor an issue to revive a sleeping giant.

Generations of working stiffs in America have taken for granted the right to organize to press employers for higher wages, better working conditions and a decent retirement in their old age. They may be too far removed from the hard times in the 1930s, when workers got their heads busted and worse for that right, to truly appreciate it. Walker's actions could be a dash of cold water in their faces.

Since those days of union-busting, the percentage of workers belonging to a union has plunged from about 35 percent -- itself a dismal figure -- to only about 12 percent, roughly half being in the public sector and half in the private. The decline of American manufacturing is partly at fault, but so is a widespread feeling that unions aren't needed anymore.

Walker's assault on collective bargaining rights, already being duplicated in other states with Republican governors such as Ohio and New Jersey, is being waged on grounds of fiscal necessity, as state payrolls are a chief hindrance to balancing budgets as required by state law. While that fact is undeniable, it has become clear that another motivation is present -- to break the political power of organized labor as a critical element in the Democratic base.

Although the union movement was a factor in the election of Barack Obama in 2008, its political clout otherwise has been considerably diminished, as seen in the Republican takeover of the House last November and its struggles to reverse its own membership slide.

It's long been a successful political tactic in both parties to demonize the opposition. Richard Nixon made a career of doing it to liberals, to the point that they were driven to abandon the label in describing themselves. Now the Republican governors are putting horns on public-employee union members in the same way.

Walker, with his successful attack on the public-sector unions, characterized its members as greedy hogs feeding at the public trough at the expense of victimized taxpayers. In doing so, he brushed aside the fact that members of the teachers' unions in Wisconsin had already agreed, as Walker said he wanted, to contribute more to the cost of their state-financed health-care and pension plans.

The governor's ploy may not have played as well with voters as he hoped. The popularity of organized labor today is a mixed bag -- only 33 percent in the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll expressed favor, as opposed to 25 percent with an unfavorable opinion. But voters aware of the Wisconsin fight came down on labor's side in the same survey by 60 percent to 33 percent. The Pew Research Center also reported support for labor over Walker, though only by 42-31.

Historically, after the early years of strikebreaking and head cracking, organized labor has had difficulty building and holding its strength. The American South has always effectively resisted union organizing against state right-to-work laws, and the effort to boost union membership through the so-called card-check has run into fierce Chamber of Commerce opposition.

The Employee Free Choice Act, supported by President Obama but with little push behind it, would grant unions employer recognition if a majority of employees signed an enrollment card, as opposed to the current system of a secret-ballot National Labor Relations Board election. The Chamber and other business organizations have been effective in casting card-check as a denial of the secret ballot and as an opportunity for union coercion.

The denial of public employees' right to bargain collectively, as in the new Wisconsin law, apparently has struck a negative chord not only with union members but beyond as a challenge to a basic American concept, and one that could rally wider public support for organized labor.

Passage of card-check probably remains organized labor's best bet for revival, but the time to have achieved it, unfortunately for the unions, was before last year, while the Democrats still had filibuster-proof control of Congress.

 

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Demonizing Organized Labor | Politics

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