Left Losing Wisconsin’s Teacher’s Unions

It’s getting harder and harder to find left-wing activists, even in public school unions in progressive Wisconsin. “In 2011, in the wake of the largest workers uprising in recent U. S. history, I was elected president of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association,” Bob Peterson writes in the journal Rethinking Schools. “Unfortunately, that spring uprising, although massive and inspirational, was not strong enough to stop Gov. Walker from enacting the most draconian anti-public sector labor law in the nation.”

Reality check: “Only 305 Wisconsin school districts’ unions sought recertification this November, dropping from 408 that did the year before,” Diana-Ashley Krach writes in School Reform News. “Additionally, state employees voted to decertify 25 school district unions.”

“Under Act 10, also known as the Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill, which went into effect in 2011, recertification requires a 51 percent “yes” vote from eligible union members.”

“Using those criteria, Walker would never have been elected,” Peterson asserts. Actually, Governor Walker was reelected with 53 percent of the vote.  What’s really astonishing is that the unions cannot even inspire the loyalty of one of the most left-leaning voting blocs in a left-leaning state.

Ironically, by Peterson’s own summary, the reforms were hardly draconian. He writes of Act 10 that “It left intact only the right to bargain base-wage increases up to the cost of living.” Most people think this is the prime purpose of a union.

Peterson goes on to complain that “The new law prohibited ‘agency shops,’ in which all employees of a bargaining unit pay union dues. It also prohibited payroll deduction of dues.” The union members’ freedom of association does not bother him much.

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