Footage of an Oshkosh Northwestern's editorial board meeting with Scott Walker, which took place one week before the 2010 election, has just been released.
In the hour long video, which I have edited down below, Walker has a back-and-fourth with an editorial board member that went like this:
Editorial Board Member: Before, we were talking about state employees contributing to their plan, paying their share of the pension plan. Collective bargaining come into that?
Walker: Yep (nodding yes)
Editorial Board Member: How do you get that negotiated and accepted by the state employee unions?
Walker: You still have to negotiate it. I did that at the county as well.
Walker then goes on to say that he has used furloughs as a bargaining threat at the county level and that "we'd approach a similar strategy for the state," but said that he was open to compromise, saying "we're not locked into saying it has to be exactly the same" and that if unions could provide alternative routes to saving money he would willing to explore those ideas.
Previously, it had been documented that, despite Scott Walker's claims to the contrary, that he had not campaigned on ending collective bargaining. This, however, goes one step further and documents that Walker had not only not said he wasn't going to end collective bargaining -- he explicitly promised to negotiate-- via collective bargaining-- with public sector unions before the election!
This is the King Kong of all bait and switches.
