Milwaukee Union Leader Says Her Mission This Fall Is To Help Defeat Walker

There appears to be no solidarity between a local Wisconsin union leader and Gov. Scott Walker on this Labor Day.

Sheila Cochran, who heads the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, was asked Friday if President Barack Obama’s visit to Laborfest in Milwaukee on Monday will help energize her members to work harder to defeat Republican Gov. Scott Walker this November.

“My job is to help get rid of Scott Walker,” she said. “Now (with) that, I didn’t need a presidential visit to do.”

Cochran said that she’s been trying to keep or remove Walker from the governor’s chair since 2010. Walker’s attack on collective bargaining for public-sector employees fueled a lot of Cochran’s disdain.

Now, she said if Walker is re-elected to another term and Republicans keep control of the state Legislature, she believes the GOP will push to enact a “right-to-work” law that would make it illegal to force employees in an organized workplace to join the union.

Cochran was asked for evidence for her assertion.

“They’ve already done push polling. They’re already getting themselves ready. A portion of the business community wants that. We don’t and we’re going to fight back at it,” she said.

Walker said there will be no right-to-work push on his watch.

“(That’s) absolutely wrong. It couldn’t be more inaccurate,” he said. “That’s the kind of scare factor and distortions that they tried to put out before. It’s the same sort of scare tactics that they’ve used to try and frighten their own folks. And in fact, many of the labor leaders are responsible for I think much of the tension in this state.”

Unions suggest the governor helped create the tension — tension that will last from Labor Day through at least Election Day, Nov. 4.