More than a week after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's reelection, the feud between organized labor and the governor still goes strong.
On Wednesday, Walker talked to NBC News about a range of topics, including labor unions. Walker noted that the AFL-CIO and other major unions "all said I was their number one target in the country" during the midterms.
"Because we took their power away," Walker stated. "We took the power away from the big government special interests in Washington, and we put it in the hands of the taxpayers right here in our state. And in the end, the taxpayers decided they wanted the power to stay with them, and not these big government special interests."
"The nice thing is, it's not just about the money saved," Walker continued. "Our schools have no seniority or tenure requirements anymore, they can hire and fire based on merit, they can pay based on performance, they can actually put the best and brightest in the classrooms."
"It's paid off," Walker concluded. "Four years in a row our graduation rates are up, third grade reading scores are up, ATC scores are up and now second best in the country."
Unions were unhappy about Walker’s reelection.
AFL-CIO President, Richard Trumka, declared in a statement, "The defining narrative of this election was confirmation, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Americans are desperate for a new economic life."
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, is worried about Walker copycats.
"They will look at what Scott Walker did in Wisconsin, and they will try to replicate that," Saunders told The Wall Street Journal.
Madison Teachers Inc (MTI), a union representing employees at Madison Metropolitan School District in Wisconsin, blamed the outcome of the election on voter turnout.
"We had a lot of people yesterday who didn't vote in that election, and we can't have that in a recertification election. They have to vote if they want to continue to be represented," MTI Executive Director John Matthews told local Channel 3000.
