Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is showing no signs of abating his anti-union policies should he win the presidency, an initiative that is galvanizing labor groups to defeat Walker’s bid,
The Hill reports.
"Since I’ve been governor, we took on the unions and won," Walker said Monday during his announcement to run. "If our reforms can work in a blue state like Wisconsin, they can work anywhere in America."
Walker’s efforts to cripple unions' power have become legendary and,
according to Yahoo News, catapulted him into "a conservative star and a fundraising heavyweight."
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called Walker a "national disgrace" while Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin branch of the federation of trade unions, said "a Scott Walker presidency is a scary, scary thing for America."
And Sheila Cochran of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council characterized Walker’s labor policies as "idiotic."
"It concerns me that he’s hit the national stage," she told The Hill. "I pray he never becomes president. This is a man that just cannot lead this country. I would be terrified."
As governor, Walker has "eliminated collective bargaining rights for most public employees," and "withstood protests and a backlash and a recall effort in 2012 that might have undone his work," Yahoo reported.
And this spring, Walker signed right-to-work legislation giving private-sector employees the right to opt out of paying union fees.
"You can’t actually outlaw unions, but he did everything in his power to weaken unions in Wisconsin," an unidentified labor official told The Hill.
GOP strategist Ford O’Connell told The Hill that Walker’s bold and unwavering opposition to unions is likely to bolster his standing with potential Republican voters.
"This is political gold for Scott Walker in the Republican primary," O’Connell said. "The fact that unions are attacking him and that he even won a recall election shows conservative voters that he’s a fighter who doesn’t back down and gets results."
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