MADISON, Wis. – The last time President Barack Obama celebrated workers’ rights at a Wisconsin Labor Day event, there was barely a hint of the turmoil that would embroil the state later, when public employees staged massive protests in an unsuccessful bid to keep their collective-bargaining rights.
Now, four years later, he’s returning to the state with the anti-union law’s architect, Republican Gov. Scott Walker, locked in a tight re-election campaign while considering a run for the White House in two years.
Polls show that Walker and Democrat Mary Burke are deadlocked with the election just over two months away. Walker is running on the platform that he turned around the state’s economy, thanks largely to his union-rights law, which was his signature accomplishment.
That law, which put Wisconsin at the center of a national debate about union rights, stripped most public-sector union members of their ability to collectively bargain and required them to pay more for their pensions and health care, which amounted to a pay cut.
Burke, a former state Commerce Department secretary and Trek Bicycles executive, isn’t promising to repeal the law if she’s elected. But she does support the restoration of public workers’ collective-bargaining rights.
Obama’s visit to this year’s “Laborfest” will mark the first time he and Burke have appeared at the same public event, but there are no plans for them to share the stage. Burke will meet privately with Obama, her spokesman Joe Zepecki said, and she will not be speaking at the labor rally because it’s not a campaign event.
Burke has invited Obama to return for a campaign event before the election and is optimistic that will happen, Zepecki said.
Republicans are trying to turn the visit against Burke as Obama’s approval ratings in the state hover below 50 percent. A Marquette University Law School poll released last week showed that just as many likely voters – 49 percent – have a favorable view of the president as an unfavorable one.
