Next Tuesday, pay attention to Wisconsin.

The circle is about to be completed. Back in February of 2011, I began this series of emails to WNY retired teachers--which eventually turned into this blog--to warn you of what was happening in Wisconsin.

After campaigning on a platform of "Jobs, jobs, jobs," the first actions of Wisconsin's newly elected governor were aimed at destroying public employee (including teacher) unions. He claimed that he needed "givebacks" from public employees--with the exception of police and firefighters who had supported him for election--to balance the budget.

In addition, he claimed that future budgets would not be possible unless public employee unions were emasculated. Here's what he wanted for public employees:

1) Your union could no longer bargain for your benefits such as health care or pension or working conditions. The only legal item for negotiation is wages.

2) While your union could negotiate your wages, they could never increase more than the consumer price index, unless approved by a public vote specifically about the salary increase.

3) Union membership would be optional.

4) Your union dues would no longer be deducted from your paycheck. If you wanted to be part of the union, you would have to write the union a check for dues.

5) There would need to be a secret-ballot election every year concerning keeping your union.

6) Multi-year contracts would be illegal. A new contract would need to be negotiated every year.

With Republicans in control of both houses of the legislature, Gov. Walker got all of the above, in spite of the fact that public employees had already agreed to the financial givebacks he asked for.

Sadly, it's working. The Wall Street Journal recently reported: "The state's American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, for example, saw its membership cut in half, from 62,818 to 28,745. Another smaller union saw its membership fall by two-thirds."

"In some cases, the drops came because workers lost their jobs, but more chose to leave—which is especially easy now that the state has stopped automatically collecting union dues. Now workers have to specifically opt in, and many aren't willing to do so now that unions have lost their bargaining rights. "It was a hard decision for me to make," says one teacher. "But there's nothing the union can do anymore." [Emphasis mine.]

Luckily, there were enough voters in Wisconsin who were more than a little upset about this "bait and switch" campaign. They organized recall elections and tossed some Republican legislators who voted for these bills. Unfortunately, they came up one recall short of eliminating Republican control of the legislature. 

Next Tuesday, there is a recall election for governor. It's a re-run of the election from two years ago. All polls point to a very close election.

Money has been flooding into the state. Reports indicate that the pro-Walker forces are outspending their opponents by a factor of up to 25-to-1.  Since only 7% of private-sector workers are unionized and only 32% of public employees are unionized nationwide, the union financial resources pale in comparison to the funds available from the corporate side. (So much for the defenders of the Citizens United decision who claim that corporate spending is balanced by union spending.)

As you know, this "plague upon unions" has spread to several other states. This is the first big battle in what is sure to be a long war.