Friday, August 19, 2011

Big Labor Bet Big, Lost Big in Wisconsin


They spent well in excess of $15 million and did not win the majority in the State Senate.  Here’s the updated Money Matrix Graphic we produced at the MacIver Institute, which tracked Big Labor’s fund transfers.



As I write in today’s Washington Examiner:
Wisconsin Democrats’ inability to defeat three Republican incumbent state senators in the recent recall elections here in Wisconsin is a devastating loss for Big Labor. These recalls were Big Labor’s last stand and will have national ramifications for years to come…
…The early results have been staggering. Ninety-three school districts have restructured benefit costs, saving taxpayers more than $150 million. If each of Wisconsin’s school districts achieve this level of savings, statewide savings would cross the $500 million mark.

And just this week, WEAC announced it has to terminate more than 40 percent of its employees this month. Without the forced conscription of union dues from the paychecks of the state’s public school teachers, WEAC will no longer have the funding to pay for business-as-usual. This is the first, but certainly not the last of such announcements by public employee unions here.
Which explains why Big Labor fought so hard, and spent so much money, in an off-election year no less, trying to obtain control of one branch of one statehouse in one Midwest state.
It wasn’t about evil corporations or the super-rich. For Big Labor, it was about the survival of Big Labor.
Read more.

Big Government