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Teachers union leader says battle’s just begun
Predicts labor inroads against GOP
NEA President Dennis Van Roekel isn’t holding out much hope that sweeping changes to education laws can be enacted before the 2012 presidential election. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)FOLLOW US ON
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The head of the nation’s largest labor union says Republican efforts to restrain the power of unions has produced a middle-class backlash across the country that could cost Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and other GOP politicians their jobs.
National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel told editors and reporters at The Washington Times that Mr. Walker, OhioGov. John Kasich and other Republican politicians who have moved to rein in the bargaining power of teachers, firefighters and other public employees instead will galvanize working men and women nationwide. Such a movement is already under way in Wisconsin, where a week-old petition drive to recall Mr. Walker has garnered more than 100,000 signatures.
Mr. Van Roekel said the initiative has a good chance of succeeding. He noted the recent voter repeal of Ohio’s law limiting collective bargaining rights of public employees as proof that a major fight is brewing.
“It goes way beyond labor unions,” he said. “It was the people who said