Walker's Wisconsin could be a model for Trump on unions

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's crackdown on collective bargaining could serve as a model for President Donald Trump's plans to overhaul the federal workforce.

Walker, the chief promoter, says he spoke last week with Vice President Mike Pence about "how they may take bits and pieces of what we did" with the union law and public workforce overhaul and "apply it at the national level."

Under Walker, the state's 2011 law barred collective bargaining over working conditions and big pay increases for most public workers.

Republicans in Congress introduced a national version of right-to-work legislation last week that would, for the first time, allow millions of workers to opt out of union membership.

Exit polls from the 2016 election showed people living in union households supported Clinton over Trump by a 9 percentage point margin, down from margins of around 20 points for Democrats in most recent presidential votes.

[...] Trey Kovacs, a labor policy analyst at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute, notes that Trump hasn't given many details about his plans for the work force.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka shrugged off the idea of Trump making a Walker-style assault on the federal civil service — because, he said, even the Republican-controlled Congress won't allow it.