Scott Walker promised $500k donor he would "divide and conquer" unions

[KingOrfeo]

Breaking story:

Scott Walker Promised $500K Donor He Would "Divide and Conquer" Unions

John Nichols on May 11, 2012 - 12:20 AM ET

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has long denied that he has a secret strategy to destroy public sector unions as part of a long-term plan to make Wisconsin a "right-to-work" state where unions are dramatically weakened.

But, with the recall election that could replace Walker barely three weeks away, a remarkable videotape of the governor describing just such as a strategy has surfaced. In it, Walker is seen promising a billionaire campaign donor that the attack on collective-bargaining rights for public-sector unions -- which sparked demonstrations and the movement that has forced the recall election -- was only "the first step" in a grand plan.

The billionaire would eventually give Walker more than $500,000 -- the largest donation in Wisconsin history -- to help him advance his agenda. That donation made her the largest single donor to the governor's effort to beat the June 5 recall vote.

The videotape, shot on January 18, 2011, just days after Walker was sworn in as Wisconsin's Republican governor and several weeks before he proposed to use a "budget repair" bill to gut union rights was released Thursday by the documentary filmmaker who filmed it.

The video is part of a documentary, "As Goes Janesville," which will be shown this fall at film festivals and at PBS stations. (Full disclosure: Filmmaker Brad Lichtenstein filmed me several times as part of the making of the documentary. I did not, however, know about the Walker footage until he shared it this week with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.)

In he video, Walker is shown meeting with Beloit billionaire Diane Hendricks before an economic development session at a the headquarters of a firm Hendricks owns, ABC Supply Inc., in Beloit.

After Walker kisses Henricks, she asks: "Any chance we'll ever get to be a completely red state and work on these unions?"

"Oh, yeah!" says Walker.

Henricks then asks: "And become a right-to-work (state)?"

Walker replies: "Well, we're going to start in a couple weeks with our budget adjustment bill. The first step is we're going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employee unions, because you use divide and conquer… That opens the door once we do that."

Though he has become known nationally as a militant foe of unions, Walker has always denied that he attacked public sector unions to achieve a political end. He has also denied that he would seek to enact the sort of "right-to-work" legislation that has been used in southern states to prevent unionization in the private sector.

His recall opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, has said he believes that Walker has a long-term anti-union strategy and that it is part of a broader plan to divide the state for political purposes. In the video, there's no mistaking the fact that Walker is engaging in a conversation about making Wisconsin a "completely red (Republican) state" by attacking unions.

And he is doing so with Hendricks, a notoriously anti-union employer, who would donate $10,000 to Walker's campaign just days after the January 18, 2011, conversation. A year later, as the recall loomed, she would up the ante with that $500,000 donation -- making her the top donor to the embattled governor.

Though Hendricks did not respond to calls from the Journal Sentinel and other news outlets for comment, it is fair to say that she must have liked what she heard from Walker. And she must have been pleased his "first step" in the "divide and conquer" strategy of attacking Wisconsin unions.

 

[Peregrinator]

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/s320x320/547322_406373406049505_243722972314550_1306185_2003132502_n.jpg

Thought this was a good place to repost.

 

[RoryN]

Busted!

 

[unregistered]

 

[KingOrfeo]

Seems to me the economic conditions in that state are vastly improved since Scott took over.

Based on what?

 

[unregistered]

 

[KingOrfeo]

Check it out on your own. Relieving the long suffering taxpayer of the economic burden of 18000 public employees and their unsustainable fringe benefits is a good start . . .

Not as enonomic stimulus, it ain't.

. . . and the unemployment numbers have improved from 7.6% to 6.8%.

And why ain'tcha givin' Obama the credit for that, eh? Federal policies generally have more effect on the jobless rate than state.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Walker is facing a recall election on June 5 -- save the date! His opponents are Tom Barrett (D; currently mayor of Milwaukee) and Hari Travedi (Independent).

 

[richard_daily]

Walker is facing a recall election on June 5 -- save the date! His opponents are Tom Barrett (D; currently mayor of Milwaukee) and Hari Travedi (Independent).

Walker is done. He was done a year ago...

 

[Sean Renaud]

Dunno. Walker has 2 opponents not one. That could easily work in his favor.

 

[busybody..]

Good

BREAK THE UNIONS

 

[busybody..]

Thought this was a good place to repost.

I degrade NIGGERZ, when I call you NIGGERWHORE

that poster shows why

but you are so vapid, you wont even see this

 

[Frizzle_Fry]

Not as enonomic stimulus, it ain't.

How so?

I really would like to know how your rationalize paying excessive and un-necessary employees with imaginary money we don't have as being better for the economy than cutting them loose.

And why ain'tcha givin' Obama the credit for that, eh? Federal policies generally have more effect on the jobless rate than state.

So is that why people are fleeing Cali for Texas as fast as they can? Austin stole silicon valley and half of the film industry already. Guess Obama did that one too eh?

 

[busybody..]

How so?

I really would like to know how your rationalize paying excessive and un-necessary employees with imaginary money we don't have as being better for the economy than cutting them loose.




So is that why people are fleeing Cali for Texas as fast as they can? Austin stole silicon valley and half of the film industry already. Guess Obama did that one too eh?

you are a BIG DUMMY

you know that?

 

[Sean Renaud]

How so?

I really would like to know how your rationalize paying excessive and un-necessary employees with imaginary money we don't have as being better for the economy than cutting them loose.

All money is imaginary. The more people who believe the better it works. It's silly but we have hundreds of years of experience based on make believe money.

So is that why people are fleeing Cali for Texas as fast as they can? Austin stole silicon valley and half of the film industry already. Guess Obama did that one too eh?

Show statistics or shut the fuck up. Actually just shut the fuck up moron.

 

[richard_daily]

So is that why people are fleeing Cali for Texas as fast as they can? Austin stole silicon valley and half of the film industry already. Guess Obama did that one too eh?

Are you claiming that Austin is representative of the rest of Texas?

I think some of the good 'ol boys on here would take issue with that.

 

[Type_O_Negative]

You are right !!

Scott Walker is doing a great job. Forget the bullshit that the left spews.

 

[trysail]

This is priceless:

Hoffa Warns of Potential Strike in Teamster’s Washington Office

Aug. 10, 2009 (Bloomberg) -- James Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, is bracing for what he called the “embarrassment” of a potential strike by his own employees.

Hoffa, in a letter to officers of the union, warned that contract negotiations with workers in the Washington office “are not going well.” The workers “refuse to acknowledge the current economic conditions,” he said.

About 150 workers in the Washington office of the Teamsters, whose contract expired June 30, are represented by the Office and Professional Employees International Union, said Bret Caldwell, director of communications at the Teamsters.

Hoffa wrote that the union members “have a right to take strike action, and their union knows the embarrassment that such an event would create.”

“However, no amount of embarrassment will cause us to commit to a collective bargaining agreement that jeopardizes the financial health of your international union,” he wrote.

The union, which has negotiated previous contracts with the Teamsters, needs to share in “prudent belt-tightening,” Hoffa said...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=aoZGDDDAJT_0

 

[unregistered]

 

[unregistered]

 

[richard_daily]

Obama made promises he didn't keep but you insist on another term.

Ronald Reagan made promises he couldn't keep... So did W. You voted for both of them for a second term.

 

[unregistered]

 

[Comshaw]

Obama made promises he didn't keep but you insist on another term.

And that's different from every other politician....how? There are few, if any who don't do just that. Any else-wise assertion is either blindness or stupidity. On this board I will not discount the possibility of either.





Comshaw

 

[Comshaw]

Christ! Look at the alternatives we had to choose from.

Wonder of wonder's....that's exactly what a lot of the electorate said in the last election and are echoing now!

Comshaw

 

[miles]

Obama made promises he didn't keep but you insist on another term.

He needs another term to fulfill them.