Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s successful battle to keep his job during this week’s Wisconsin recall election got a lift from an unexpected quarter — voters from union households.
And Republicans nationally took heart yesterday from the labor support, with exit polls from Tuesday’s recall election showing that 38 percent of Walker’s voters came from homes that include union members.
Walker’s labor vote was a surprise for the first-term incumbent, given the outcry over his policies that wiped out collective-bargaining rights and automatic dues collection for public-employee unions. And that chunk of the union vote contributed to his comfortable 7 point win, 53-46, over Democrat Tom Barrett.
Tom Fabitz, 66, a retired machinist and member of the United Steel Workers Union, said he voted for Walker because he brought taxes and spending under control. “Walker is saving the state money. You have to trim the fat someplace,” said Fabitz, a Marine vet and football fanatic.
And there you have it. The recall vote in Wisconsin, and all the discord and chaos sown over the last year-plus, has not be driven by "the unions", but simply the public-sector unions. It was strictly the employees of the government - and their paid-for representatives within the Democratic party - which usurped the democratic process in order to put their own personal needs over the public good which they claim to serve.
Ironically, Scott Walker may have to thank a few "Locals" for helping him finally slay the undead...
What private sector union members are beginning to realize is that every taxpayer dollar that is committed to feathering the bed of public-sector unionists is a dollar that is taken away from other things the government can be - and needs to be - doing, such as, oh...desperately needed infrastructure projects, perhaps? New roads to replace crumbling ones, improved public transportation networks, remodeled schools, revamped public spaces...you name it, we need it.
And who would get hired to do those jobs? Union carpenters, electricians, communication workers,construction workers...you know, all those blue-collar jobs that the government cannot seem to create, only destroy.
In fact, cutting government employees and reducing the benefit packages to a private-sector level would likely act as a stimulus all of its own, freeing up money to rebuild local and national infrastructure. It would lower unemployment levels, reduce government spending, and create a trickle-down economic benefit as well, as thousands of furloughed union members could finally get off the dole and back to work.
The next union battle will not be against the Republicans, but among themselves, as more and more private sector unionists realize they have everything to gain, and nothing to lose, by cutting the freeloading members of the public sector unions loose.
Which bodes very well for the Republicans this fall...
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