AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka served up sour grapes for Sunday brunch when he reacted to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s recall victory on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“What did he win? He got the right to serve the rest of his term,” Trumka said. “What he hasn’t done is create jobs. Again, he has the worst job-creating record out there.”
He called Walker’s victory “a defeat for were the people who got hurt, were the working people on the ground in that state.” Organized labor put a massive, organized effort into trying to oust Walker.
“It’s true that the people in Wisconsin didn’t recall Governor Walker, but he spent over $50 million on this. He has lost control of the state senate so his agenda is stopped dead in its tracks,” Trumka said.
“He went after unions. He went after immigrants. He went after seniors. He went after students. He went after all of those things,” the union boss added. “And he didn’t do what he was supposed to do. And that’s try to create jobs. We wish he had the best job-creating record in the country and we wish we could help him get there.”
Trumka said the results showed that “the money edge is really dangerous to democracy.”
“This isn’t about giving corporations more power. They have too much now. This is about giving the 1 percent too much power. What we do, we do people power,” he said.
“By the way, the Wisconsin fight really did provide a spark for the labor movement in Wisconsin because we’re organizing more than we have in the past,” Trumka added.
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