The attack on union employees like you are seeing in Wisconsin began over 30 years ago

[LiberalAndProud]

10. Sea change.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_Strike_of_1902
President Theodore Roosevelt became involved and set up a fact-finding commission that suspended the strike. The strike never resumed, as the miners received more pay for fewer hours; the owners got a higher price for coal, and did not recognize the trade union as a bargaining agent. It was the first labor episode in which the federal government intervened as a neutral arbitrator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization_%281968%29
The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization or PATCO was a United States trade union that operated from 1968 until its decertification in 1981 following a strike that was broken by the Reagan Administration.

What you say is true, union-busting is an old sport. Reagan shifted the weight of government, and that has been all the difference. I don't think it's better.