Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker is hoping to pull his campaign off the mat by taking on unions — a familiar foe for the Wisconsin governor — in a sweeping plan to upend pillars of organized labor nationwide.

Walker's plan calls for eliminating unions for employees of the federal government, making all workplaces right-to-work unless individual states vote otherwise and scrapping the federal agency that oversees unfair labor practices.

Union leaders are livid. Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union that represents 150,000 federal workers, said Walker is "declaring a war on middle-class workers." And Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton accused him of bullying union members.

One of Walker's Republican rivals challenged the plan, too, saying it is the wrong message for the GOP to send to unionized workers. "Instead of treating all union members like they are the enemy," said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, "it's time we invite them to give some of us in our party a try."

In an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, Walker said no one should be surprised.

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Chicago Tribune