Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Walker Wins, Labor Makes Its Point

Unfortunate news in Wisconsin, with Scott Walker surviving the recall election.

Even with the result as it is, pursuing this wasn't a total loss for labor.  You don't want elected officials to go around thinking that they can attack unions with impunity.  And nobody wants to face a recall election challenge of the sort Walker faced.  This event won't deter a committed union-basher from doing what Walker did.  But any Republican governors out there who are thinking about reducing collective bargaining protections for government employees, but who don't feel that strongly about it, probably don't want to stir up this kind of storm.  Four months ago (or even four hours ago, when the early exit polls were looking 50/50) I wonder if Walker had any second thoughts about the trouble he'd caused himself.

Still, it's sad to see labor throw so much at winning this, and come up short.  

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