The protests in Wisconsin are just the most visible public manifestation of recent conflicts between Republican governors and public sector unions. The political reasons why Republicans are so quick to try to eliminate public sector workers’ bargaining rights, and Democrats so eager to defend them, is that public workers tend to support Democrats.
It’s certainly true that there are times when the interests of public workers clash with those of the taxpayers, ICE’s preemptive revolt against the Obama administration’s plans for reforming the immigration system and corrections’ workers obvious interest in maintaining the growth of the prison system come to mind. But it’s also true that more accountability for public workers can be achieved without simply obliterating their freedom of assembly, as former DC Schools’ Chancellor Michelle Rhee‘s deal with the local teacher’s union showed.
The fundamental issue for me, is that those policy problems don’t mean that public workers lose their First Amendment rights of assembly and association. I think it’s odd that the same First Amendment “fundamentalists” who believe it’s self-evident that corporations have the right to anonymously funnel billions into whatever political causes they please think public sector workers can’t get together and make collective decisions about their jobs.
Governor Scott Walker says his attempts to limit public worker’s collective bargaining rights is about Wisconsin being “broke,” but it isn’t. It’s simply about crushing the other side’s political constituency.
