He hasn’t been snatching headlines away from Ben Carson and Donald Trump recently, but Scott Walker just offered up an idea that should get him at least a moment’s worth of attention: abolishing public-sector unions entirely.
Walker, who famously fought and won that battle in his home state of Wisconsin, set forth a plan on Monday that not only would ban government employee unions, but would also strip private-sector unions of much of their leverage.
“The proposal, if enacted, would represent the most radical change to federal labor law in almost a century, making Walker’s labor reforms in his home state seem modest by comparison,” the Washington Examiner observed. “They also would be a massive blow to the strength of organized labor, a major player in Washington politics and staunch ally of the Democratic Party.”
Walker’s so-called “Power to the People” plan would put each employee in charge of his own decisions when it comes to private-sector union membership, and it wouldn’t require a lot of soul searching. “Unions would still exist,” reports the Examiner, “but they would be voluntary organizations with workers able to join or leave whenever they felt.”
The plan is massive in its scope: It would dissolve the National Labor Relations Board; abolish federal laws that require government projects to pay prevailing wages and benefits; hand right-to-work powers to all states; and, of course, outlaw all attempts to unionize government workers.
Other media outlets saw Walker’s plan as a desperation move — one that would harm workers’ interests.
Walker, “desperate to revive his sinking presidential campaign, unveiled a plan Monday that would essentially wipe out eight decades of industrial labor relations law, dismantle major public employees’ unions and end a requirement that public works projects pay the prevailing wage to construction workers,” The Fiscal Times wrote.
And The New York Daily News’ Denis Hamill said Walker’s plan would amount to “setting American worker back 100 years.”
What’s that mean? Hamill never said, but he related a pretty gripping personal anecdote involving his own working-class parents and the benefits of union membership in the middle years of the 30th century, and said he takes “personal offence when I hear Walker tell the Associated Press, ‘Many — including the union bosses and the politicians they puppet — have long benefited from Washington rules that put the needs of special interests before needs of middle-class families.’”
We’re looking desperately for some way to be offended by that statement. If you know of one, please share.
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