Riding high on his performance in the polls and with a big finish in the most recent CPAC test, Scott Walker has landed another blow against the unions in Wisconsin.
On Monday over protest of union leaders statewide, Gov. Walker signed into law a version of the Right to Work legislation that has already produced economic growth in two dozen states largely in the south and in the plains.
Hailing it as the “freedom-to-work legislation”, the law allows employees to choose whether to join a union when entering new employment. The most obvious impact to unions is in the collection of dues from those employees who, before Monday, could be forced to pay as a condition of their employment.
In addition to offering economic benefits through more competitive labor rates, the law will hamstring the ability of unions to funnel funds into pro-union campaign activity, a financial force with which Gov. Walker is all too familiar.
Walker’s campaign team was quick to capitalize on the win as more fodder for strengthening his conservative credentials hailing the law in an email as a blow to “Big Government Labor Bosses” who will certainly “come after him”.
And the prophecy was quickly confirmed when President Obama directly assailed Gov. Walker after the signing as having won “victory over working Americans”, rhetoric that is likely only to win Walker all the more bonafides among the more conservative Republican primary base.
