Tom Toles for June 07, 2012

Remember, Scott Walker did not attack or weaken all public employee unions. … Only public employee unions made up largely of Democrats (teachers). The public employee unions made up chiefly of Republicans (police and firefighters) he left alone. The unions were prepared to make concessions, but Walker denied them even the right to choose. We talk about checks and balances. There was a time when unions (as flawed as they were) provided some check and balance on the power of concentrated money. But Divide and Rule is an ancient maxim now perfected in labor relations. Unions are now definitely weaker than they have been in a century, and the law (i.e. the government) is now the only protection the working man has left. Maybe that will be enough to prevent a return to the abusive practices that the unions were created to correct. But the decline, and immanent fall, of the unions in the US, makes me think of a community that, discovering corruption in the police force and fire department, and noting that there hasn’t been a major crime or fire lately, decides to disband both as no longer necessary.Or to disband the military after a few years of peace. But who knows? Maybe Wisconsin will soon find that teachers no longer want to work there, or maybe the US will soon find even fewer able young people to go into teaching, and as teachers become less able, the GOP will be able to more easily justify treating them like dirt.