It started in Wisconsin.

Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican with Tea Party ties and grand promises of fiscal responsibility, in February launched what’s become a nationwide political assault on unionism by forcing through a bill that strips public workers of almost all of their union rights.

The law, passed by lawmakers and signed by Walker in March, restricts collective bargaining to wages, limits raises to inflation and forces 175,000 state workers to contribute more for pensions and health insurance. Walker said the “budget repair bill” was needed to help cover a $137 million budget shortfall.

Badger State labor unions—rebuffed by Walker after offering to pay more for pensions and health insurance in trade for retaining union rights—didn’t see it that way. Instead, they came by the busloads, shouting their disapproval at daily rallies in the state Capitol. The protests attracted thousands of unionists from across America—including several UUP members—to Madison.

Wisconsin’s blatant union-busting move sparked nationwide solidarity rallies, including several in New York attended by UUPers. UUP’s Geneseo Chapter organized a March 22 rally for labor on campus, and UUPers took part in rallies in Albany, Buffalo, Plattsburgh, and the massive “We Are One” event in Times Square April 9.

Labor is under attack in almost half of the 25 states where public employees can collectively bargain; 12 other states restrict those rights to select public employees, like firefighters and teachers, and the rest bar the practice. Twenty-two states have so-called right-to-work laws, which make it illegal to require employees to join a union or pay dues.

Senate Republicans joined the fray in May, introducing federal legislation to strengthen right-to-work laws by clarifying a state’s ability to enact them. The bill, which stemmed from a complaint filed against Boeing by the National Labor Relations Board, prompted South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham to criticize the Obama administration for being pro-union and anti-business, according to news reports.

MIDWEST LABOR KNOCKS

Ohio Republicans approved tough measures in March that limit public employees’ power to bargain for benefits, increase mandatory pension and health care contributions, eliminate automatic raises, ban strikes, and end automatic dues deductions from employee paychecks.

In Michigan, the new emergency manager law, approved in March, allows the governor to appoint a manager who can break collective bargaining agreements in cities or school districts in a “financial emergency.” Bills to ban unions from paying members for time spent on union business and to levy hefty fines on striking unions are also being discussed.

Illinois Republicans have floated two anti-union bills; one would prohibit public employees unions and union-affiliated political action committees from contributing to elections for statewide candidates. The other would make Illinois a right-to-work state.

If that’s not enough, Illinois lawmakers want public employees to pay more for pensions and retirees to pay more for health insurance to help close a $4.2 billion budget gap.

MORE LABOR WOES

In Florida, anti-union proposals would decertify unions with less than 50 percent membership by July 1 and prohibit automatic payroll deductions for public employees’ union dues (see related story, page 17). The GOP-led Legislature passed a March bill to end tenure for new teachers, and to base job security and salary on student assessment test grades.

In Massachusetts, the Democratic-led House of Representatives is behind a bill that would limit unions in bargaining for health insurance. And Tennessee’s Republican- led Senate voted in May to repeal collective bargaining for teachers, the only group in the state with those rights. The state’s House of Representatives has the bill in committee.

That’s not all. More than a dozen other states, including New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Indiana, have bills designed to impinge on union rights, ranging from right-to-work legislation to forcing unions to submit annual financial reports listing salaries, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Collective Bargaining Legislative Database (http://bit.ly/iRkV9b).

“Union-busting is more subtle than it was 100 years ago, but no less repugnant,” said UUP President Phil Smith. “The Pinkerton thugs of the early 20th century are gone, replaced by right-wing politicians on a mission to take down unions and send labor reeling into the past. But unionists have never stood still for this treatment and never will.”

NOT GONNA TAKE IT

Unions are fighting mad—and fighting back.

In Wisconsin, intense pressure from unions resulted in an April restraining order that halted Walker from enacting his budget repair bill; the case won’t be argued until May 23 at the earliest. Wisconsin Democrats, with strong union backing, forced recall elections for six Republican senators.

President Barack Obama came out against anti-union laws in Wisconsin and Ohio in a late April White House interview with a Cleveland television reporter. “Let’s certainly not blame public employees for a financial crisis that they had nothing to do with, and let’s not use this as an excuse to erode their bargaining rights,” he said.

In Ohio, labor leaders have been collecting signatures to stage a referendum to repeal SB 5, Ohio’s anti-union law. Working with We Are Ohio, a coalition of union supporters formed to turn back the law, unionists were closing in on the 231,000 signatures needed for the referendum as The Voice went to press.

In Florida, public employee unions relentlessly lobbied Senate Republicans, managing to persuade enough of them to derail—for the time being—a bill that would require unions to get members’ permission to spend dues money for political uses and to bar automatic payroll deduction to collect dues.

Unions like United Faculty of Florida, which represents faculty at Florida’s state universities and colleges, have undertaken a systemwide recruitment drive to get chapters above the 50 percent membership threshold. Three UUPers traveled to Florida in April to help sign new members.

Here’s how unionists in other embattled states are fighting back:

• We Are One Illinois, a coalition of Illinois unions representing a million unionists, formed in May to protect public workers’ pensions from state cuts. The group has launched a $1 million multimedia ad campaign.

• In Idaho, the 13,000-member Idaho Teachers Association sued Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter in early May over the constitutionality of anti-union laws that end collective bargaining agreements for Idaho teachers June 30.

• A political action committee called Reclaim Michigan is spearheading a recall election for GOP Gov. Rick Snyder. The union-supported group needs 1.1 million signatures by Aug. 5 to get the question on the November ballot.

— Michael Lisi