Roger Bybee says that as state workers continue to protest the governor's anti-union proposals in Wisconsin, the stakes get higher and higher.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is just the first Republican governor to try out a new anti-public-union game plan that has been brewing among right-wing funders like the Koch brothers, the Club for Growth, and Karl Rove. Numerous other Republican governors, most notably John Kasich of Ohio and Chris Christie of New Jersey, seem to be looking to Wisconsin for signs of or tips on a successful strategy.
What's heartening is that, instead of slyly gutting Wisconsin's public unions, Walker is now facing tens of thousands of public workers and their supporters in the Capitol in Madison -- along with shutdown school districts; protests around the state; criticism from religious figures, Super Bowl heroes, and President Obama; and editorials in national papers.
The stakes in Wisconsin could not be higher, as both the right and labor view the state as the most committed stronghold of public-sector unionism. The virtual eradication of public unions in Wisconsin would instantly trigger campaigns by Republicans in dozens of states where the public-sector labor movement is less entrenched. If successful in Wisconsin, the right's drive against union rights among public workers would mean the eventual loss of any standard for living wages, good benefits and working conditions in which workers have a voice. It would mean the further political fragmentation of a working class already fractured by de-industrialization and the demise of cohesive working-class neighborhoods.
