I do not claim to be an expert on many affairs that afflict the human condition, but I do claim some expertise in the field of labor relations.  I spent nearly 17 years working with grievances and bargaining and all the politics that go with labor relations.  My best guess is that I spent six years immediately after World War II working for the union before taking management responsibility for labor relations for another 11 years.  In the years when I was in the union movement, I moved through all of the stewardships plus the vice-presidency and the presidency of a local in the telephone union.  So I think it is fair to say that I understand the subject.
Now we find that since last November, there is a new governor in the cheesecake state of Wisconsin.  His name is Scott Walker.  Walker could have followed in the footsteps of the legendary Wisconsin senator and governor, Robert La Follette.  La Follette is widely revered as a paragon of the working man.  Instead, Walker has chosen to follow in the footsteps of the ugly monster Joseph R. McCarthy, a senator from Wisconsin who saw communists behind every bush.
In his first months in office, Walker has determined that the enemy is the union representing Wisconsin state employees.  Through political chicanery, he has moved to not only humiliate them, but to annihilate them.  These two factors give rise to the title of this essay.
The bill that he has had passed, using only the Republican Party, would require the unions to conduct annual elections to maintain their status as bargaining agents.  And further, the bill relieves the state of deducting union dues from wages.  And most importantly, the unions are barred from bargaining on benefits, pensions and can only bargain on wages under Walker’s salary cap.   Further, the bill also permits the governor to sell off state assets with no bidding.  This man is a dictator, the likes of which we have not seen for many years.  McCarthy must be looking up from his special place in hell admiringly.
I hope that you are aware that the Koch brothers, who are wealthy industrialists and who own power plants, will be among the first to benefit from Walker’s sale of state utilities because of their financial backing of Walker.  Not long ago, a reporter was able to call Governor Walker and pretend that he was David Koch.  A twenty-minute conversation followed, during which Governor Walker admitted that he had planned to put some trouble makers in among the demonstrators who sympathize with the unions.  Apparently this never took place.  But the fact that he took a call from the fictional David Koch was played on many of the newscasts that day, making it clear that Walker is in the hip pocket of the Koch brothers.
There is much more to say about Governor Walker, but it will be held in reserve because I believe that the developments in Wisconsin are far from over.  Among other things, there are recall petitions for some of the senators to be followed shortly, I suspect, by an attempt to recall the Governor.  My hope is that the turmoil in Wisconsin will end with Walker’s recall.
My assessment of the situation in Wisconsin is that from a labor relations point of view, it could not have been handled worse.  But this is only one chapter.  
My belief is that there will be other chapters to follow.  You may be assured that the editor of Ezra’s Essays will be involved in the efforts to right the wrongs of Walker’s attempt at castration and annihilation.  I look forward to this fight with great anticipation.  My belief is that before it is done, justice will prevail for the state workers in the luscious state of Wisconsin.
 
E. E. CARR
March 6, 2011
Essay 539
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Kevin’s commentary:  Unfortunately, Walker did survive the recall, and is governor of Wisconsin to this day. And, as a function of being out-funded 3 times over, this issue was also lost for the unions. Money and politics are inseparable now and have created a feedback loop where no effort to change the relationship between the two can succeed because it would financially harm those who would nominally be in charge of passing it.  Not new, but incredibly frustrating.