Patrick disclosed yesterday that several national labor leaders called the White House to express concern about the Massachusetts plans. Nick Rathod, the White House’s deputy director of intergovernmental affairs, then called Patrick.
“There was no message,’’ the governor said yesterday, declining to discuss the call in detail as he signed the collective bargaining changes into law. “They were just checking in.’’
Patrick, who is close to the president’s political team, plans to play an active role in Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012. Political analysts said that if Patrick were seen to be cutting union rights, it could have undercut the president’s ability to attack the GOP on the issue.
“What was going on in places like Wisconsin and Ohio were strong talking points for the president and the Democratic Party going into the next election: that the Republicans want to take away your collective bargaining rights,’’ said Raymond J. La Raja, a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts. “So any indication that there were Democrats loosening collective bargaining rights undermined that message.’’
A Patrick aide said the White House did not attempt to coerce or lobby the governor, but simply wanted to find out more about the changes that he and the Legislature were contemplating.
In recent weeks, Patrick has silenced almost all of the union opposition without alienating more conservative taxpayer groups, an accomplishment that will no doubt relieve any concern the White House might have felt.
“It’s a big win for the Democrats, because they want to avoid the kind of spectacle you’re seeing in Wisconsin,’’ said Peter Ubertaccio, a political scientist at Stonehill College. “It would be very difficult for the president and Democrats in Washington to use [Governor Scott] Walker as a foil, if Massachusetts, a Democratic state with a Democratic governor,’’ was also sparking union protests, he said.
