I’m sorry, did Terry McAuliffe just reveal that if he’s elected governor, Virginia might no longer be a right-to-work state?

“Listen, I’m not going to answer specifics on projects,” he said in response to a question about what is known as a project labor agreement. “You clearly don’t talk about specifics on future projects until you even know what the projects are and what the bidding process will be.”

McAuliffe also declined to say whether he would protect the commonwealth’s status as a right-to-work state or search for ways to make the state more friendly toward organized labor.

“I’m going to work with management. I’m going to work with labor. I’m going to work with everybody to move Virginia forward,” McAuliffe said. “It’s not ‘either-or.’ We are a right-to-work state that has been here for many years, and it’s not going to change. But the focus has got to be not on trying to divide folks. [It] is, how do we work together to grow the Virginia economy to have the most diverse economy to bring in those 21st-century jobs?”

A right-to-work state is one where a worker does not have to join a union to perform a job; union membership (and dues collection) cannot be mandatory.

Virginia’s existing law is clear:

No person shall be required by an employer to become or remain a member of any labor union or labor organization as a condition of employment or continuation of employment by such employer. . . . No person shall be required by an employer to abstain or refrain from membership in any labor union or labor organization as a condition of employment or continuation of employment. . . . No employer shall require any person, as a condition of employment or continuation of employment, to pay any dues, fees or other charges of any kind to any labor union or labor organization.

UPDATE: The Washington Examiner’s Sean Higgins writes that McAuliffe’s other statements suggest that he won’t change the state’s right-to-work laws, but that he was “obviously trying to delicately tip-toe around the whole issue of how far he would go in backing union rights.”

Number of workers in the U.S. workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics: 155.5 million.

Number of public-sector employees who belonged to a union in 2012, according to a new report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics: 7.3 million.

Number of private-sector employees who belonged to a union in 2012, according to a new report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics: 7 million.

All told, union membership dropped by roughly 400,000 from 2011 to 2012.

Union members are also generally among the oldest members of the workforce, and/or near retirement: “The union membership rate was highest among workers ages 55 to 64 (14.9 percent). The lowest union membership rate occurred among those ages 16 to 24 (4.2 percent).”

This is an astonishingly politically powerful movement, considering how it only represents 11.3 percent of U.S. workers.

From the last Morning Jolt of the week:

Here’s What Happens When Government Stops Collecting Dues for Unions

Wow. Just . . . wow.

Wisconsin membership in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — the state’s second-largest public-sector union after the National Education Association, which represents teachers — fell to 28,745 in February from 62,818 in March 2011, according to a person who has viewed Afscme’s figures. A spokesman for Afscme declined to comment.

Much of that decline came from Afscme Council 24, which represents Wisconsin state workers, whose membership plunged by two-thirds to 7,100 from 22,300 last year.

A provision of the Walker law that eliminated automatic dues collection hurt union membership. When a public-sector contract expires the state now stops collecting dues from the affected workers’ paychecks unless they say they want the dues taken out, said Peter Davis, general counsel of the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission.

In many cases, Afscme dropped members from its rolls after it failed to get them to affirm they want dues collected, said a labor official familiar with Afscme’s figures. In a smaller number of cases, membership losses were due to worker layoffs.

Looks like a lot of public sector workers may like their unions . . . but not enough to keep paying the dues if they have the option. Like, two-thirds of them.

Apply this across the country . . . and you’re talking about the evisceration of one of the Democratic Party’s most important political allies — a game-changer in politics in so many states. Compulsory union-dues collection was the glue that kept the whole operation together. Ed Schultz may be exaggerating when he says a Republican win means America will never elect a Democratic president again . . . but his vision might not be that wildly exaggerated.

Over at the lefty blog FireDogLake, David Dayen notes, “The state president of the American Federation of Teachers is quoted in the article saying that a failure in the recall spells doom for unions nationwide. There’s a lot of truth to that. And that’s why it was so important for the national funding to flow into Wisconsin to take a stand here . . .”

Rick Moran writes:

There is a lot at stake for organized labor in this recall vote. But perhaps not unexpectedly, the voting public has largely moved on from the collective bargaining controversy and now see jobs and jobs creation as the primary issue for the recall vote. A win will be interpreted by labor bosses as vindication rather than a general unhappiness with the Wisconsin economy. That only proves how truly out of touch they are with ordinary people who don’t see the unions representing their interests anymore.

Our Bob Costa takes a closer look at the phenomenon of shrinking unions in Wisconsin on NRO today.

This morning, new numbers from Quinnipiac suggest that the political muscle of unions in Ohio may be less resilient than last fall’s referendum suggested:

Despite the overwhelming victory by organized labor and its allies in repealing SB 5 in this past election, by 54 – 40 percent Ohio voters favor the idea of passing a “right-to-work” law that would ban workers from being required to join a union as a condition of employment, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today…

Gov. John Kasich’s job approval numbers remain poor, although they are getting better, as 40 percent of registered voters approve of how he is doing his job compared to 46 percent who disapprove of how he is running the Buckeye State.  Those numbers are little changed from the negative 39 – 48 percent job approval rating in a January 19 survey by the independent Quinnipiac University, but are better than the negative 36 – 52 percent approval rating in an October 25, 2011, poll.

“Given the assumption that the SB 5 referendum was a demonstration of union strength in Ohio, the 54 – 40 percent support for making Ohio a ‘right-to-work’ state does make one take notice,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.  “In the SB 5 referendum independent voters, who are generally the key to Ohio elections, voted with the pro-union folks to repeal the law many viewed as an effort to handicap unions.  The data indicates that many of those same independents who stood up for unions this past November on SB 5 are standing up to unions by backing ‘right-to-work’ legislation.”

Support for “right-to-work” is 77 – 20 percent among Republicans and 55 – 39 percent among independent voters.  Democrats are opposed 61– 31 percent.

The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees offers a video explicitly comparing protesters supporting public-sector unions in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, and Florida to Martin Luther King Jr.:

Indeed, when King was assassinated in Memphis, he had traveled to the city to support AFSCME sanitation workers. But the issues of dispute in Memphis were pretty distinct from the issues of dispute in the states today.

From the National Archives:

During a heavy rainstorm in Memphis on February 1, 1968, two black sanitation workers had been crushed to death when the compactor mechanism of the trash truck was accidentally triggered. On the same day in a separate incident also related to the inclement weather, 22 black sewer workers had been sent home without pay while their white supervisors were retained for the day with pay. About two weeks later, on February 12, more than 1,100 of a possible 1,300 black sanitation workers began a strike for job safety, better wages and benefits, and union recognition. Mayor Henry Loeb, unsympathetic to most of the workers’ demands, was especially opposed to the union. Black and white civic groups in Memphis tried to resolve the conflict, but the mayor held fast to his position.

Despite a great deal of overheated rhetoric, the legislative efforts in Wisconsin and other states in no way eliminate the right of any worker to join a union. In Wisconsin, unions would retain the right to collective bargaining on salaries. Public-safety employees are completely exempted.

Of course, the legislation in Wisconsin stops the state from collecting union dues, making these dues much harder to collect. The furious reaction from union leadership seems to suggest a lack of faith that their members will happily, quickly, and gladly donate their dues to their local union representative with the absence of the automatic dues collection from their members’ paychecks. It’s almost as if the union leadership fears that their members will find membership in the union not worth the smaller paycheck every month.

In the AFSCME video, King declares, “we are tired of working full-time jobs for part-time income.” Depending on your perspective, the comparison of the conditions that King denounced in Memphis in 1968 to the condition of unionized state and local governments today is either appalling or laughable. There’s been much dispute as to whether public-sector salaries and benefits in these states are comparable to private-sector ones or whether state and local workers are wildly overpaid (in addition to being largely unaffected by this grueling multi-year recession). But without the slightest sense of their own self-aggrandizement, the AFSCME quotes King on “full-time jobs for part-time income” and finds it applicable to their current fight.

Highlights from today’s Wisconsin-centric edition of the Morning Jolt:

WI Senate Majority Leader Fitzgerald Unleashes the ‘Cee Lo Green’ Option in Standoff

. . . That title courtesy Morning Jolt reader Matt F.

Here’s the dramatic turn of events:

With Democrats still in Illinois, the state Senate abruptly voted Wednesday night to eliminate collective bargaining provisions for most public workers that have stood for decades, sending a flood of angry protesters into the Capitol . . .

Some of the Democrats who have been boycotting the Senate for three weeks said they would return to Wisconsin once the bill passes the Assembly. But they had not crafted their exact plans for return, and Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller (D-Monona) issued a statement saying they would not return on Thursday after earlier indicating they might.

And did they ever return? No, they never returned, and their fate is still unlearned . . .

Doug Powers, writing at Michelle Malkin’s site: “Woody Allen once said that 80 percent of success is just showing up. And if you’re in the Wisconsin Senate, the other 20 percent is having a firm grasp on the rules in order to work around those who don’t show up.”

Meanwhile, Scott Walker takes to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to explain why he’s fighting in Wisconsin, in an op-ed entitled . . . “Why I’m Fighting In Wisconsin.” . . . Now all he needs are a series of Frank Capra films.