Yesterday sure was an interesting day in Wisconsin and here in Toronto, and the events that occurred share an interesting synergy.
In case you missed it, the Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, ran on a promise to cut spending and dismantle public sector unions and collective bargaining. Sound familiar?
Walker was elected Governor, and proceeded to introduce some of the most drastic anti-collective bargaining legislation seen in the past century anywhere in the
Western world. For example, he passed a law banning public sector collective bargaining over all issues except wages, but a wage increase above cost of living could only be given to public sector workers after a public referendum approved it. The law would also require annual decertification votes by public sector workers, even if no employees expressed a wish to be decertified. Read a review of the changes in this Guest Blog by Professor Paul Secunda. This provoked a huge resistance movement and mass protests around the state. Then, in November of that last year, a campaign began to “recall” the governor. Recall legislation is usually backed by conservative politicians as a way to allow the public to oust a politician midterm that does something–like raising taxes–that voters don’t like. This time, the recall targeted not a high tax politician, but a cost-cutting one who attacks unions.
The recall movement garnered a shocking number of signatures, over 1 million, according to recent reports. Only 540,208 signatures are needed to require a vote to replace Walker. Only 3 times in the history of the United States have Those petitions were filed yesterday. This means it is very likely that the Governor will face a recall election this spring. Of course, the Republicans plan to drag this out as long as possible by insisting that every single signature be verified, while the Governor continues with his multi-million dollar advertising campaign funded by huge corporate donors.
Meanwhile, back in Toronto, our own Mayor lost a big battle in Council yesterday over his desired spending cuts. Council turned against the Mayors’ Ford, and voted 
against some $15 million dollars in service cuts that the Fords and their allies had expected to be approved. Ford’s popularity has plummeted since his election. If we had recall legislation for Mayor’s here, I’m pretty confident a movement would have begun.
In both Toronto and Wisconsin, populist politicians who ran on cutting public spending and destroying unions have run into an unexpected backlash. History shows us that when you swing the political pendulum too far in one direction, it always swings back. We may be seeing that now in Toronto and Wisconsin.
The next question for Toronto is whether the Mayors Ford can succeed in their promise to eliminate the job security provisions in the public sector collective agreements. Already, the City is pulling back. In it’s last offer to CUPE 416, it proposed keeping the job security but only for workers with more than 25 years’ service instead of the 10 year cutoff in the old agreement. The union is offering a three year wage freeze.
Can the City win a public relations battle if it forces a work stoppage over job security protections for workers with between 10-25 years’ service?
