Scott Walker claimed on the campaign trail that he would create 250,000 jobs by the end of his first term. This oft-repeated claim was brought up again during the protests of February and March when Walker was threatening layoffs of public employees if he did not get the "tools" he needed to "repair" the state budget.
Walker got his tools and Wisconsin is on its way to recalling Walker; however the damage may already be done. On Monday, WEAC (Wisconsin Education Association Council) issued layoff notices to 42 employees, or about 40 percent of their staff.
If you did not know, WEAC is one of the State of Wisconsin teacher unions. Why the cuts? According to the executive director of WEAC:
"Across the state, school districts are eliminating positions either through layoffs or not hiring staff," Burkhalter said in a conference call with reporters. "Fewer school employees means loss of revenue for WEAC that represents them."
Before the new law, WEAC represented about 98,000 public education employees. But about a third of those employees are no longer under contract with the state, which means that WEAC needs to get those individuals to sign up as members.
It was really quite evident from the start that this is exactly what Scott Walker and the Republican Cabal wanted with the so-called budget repair bill. The death of public sector unions.
This may be the first of many layoffs that we will hear of from the public sector unions. I hope that the members who are not under contract continue to pay union dues voluntarily. If they do not then the fight to restore collective bargaining rights may already be lost.
One thing we can be sure of is that Walker is not going to be able to keep his promise of creating 250,000 jobs. So far his "tools" are costing the state of Wisconsin jobs.