Immediately after the budget vote last month, employees and members of Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24 began making visits to business owners in Wisconsin asking them to support public unions with a sign in their window. And if a business owner declined, as many did, they got a letter from the union about their refusal to post the sign stating, “failure to do so will leave us no choice but (to) do a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means ‘no’ to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members.” Almost immediately the fur began to fly as business owners, the press and even AFSCME members called out the union on what some have argued amounts to illegal conduct. This prompted Council 24 Executive Director Marty Beil to write an e-mail to the local newspaper saying, “There was some unfortunate over zealousness in the field. We have made clear all along that we see small business as a partner, and ally in getting Wisconsin back to work.”[15] Moving beyond all the heart warming stories of communities banding together to stand up to union coercion — we should all take a moment to reflect on what this incident teaches us about who and what really got us all here, and it wasn’t Scott Walker, the Koch Brothers or the ghost of Ronald Reagan. Union leaders don’t try to win or earn support – they simply demand it. And when they don’t get their way they won’t try to better understand objections or work to reach some shared resolution – they just make threats. And when called out on their bad behavior they generally don’t apologize or indulge in any much-needed self-reflection – they just blame some low level staffer.
