The era of Big Labor: What does the future hold for unions?

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," June 8, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: This week will likely be remembered as a very rough couple of days for the Democratic Party and its allies in Big Labor. Now on Tuesday, despite a vicious smear campaign that was waged by the left, Republican Scott Walker of Wisconsin became the very first governor to survive a recall in American history. Now, Governor Walker will be my special guest later in the program.

But I am also joined this evening in studio by an audience of business experts, political commentators and others. And over the course of the next hour, we're going to examine the influence that unions have over our elected representatives, the dirty tricks that they have used to support left-wing politicians, now, the impact their agenda is having on our public schools and much, much more. And here to help kick things off, we bring in live our studio audience. Good to see you all. Thank you for being here. Bright, smart, the best and brightest in business and politics.

All right. Let's start, Jennifer Stefano, Tea Party member, on the ground, five days in Wisconsin.

JENNIFER STEFANO, AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY: Yes.

HANNITY: All right. Scott Walker ended up with a much bigger margin of victory than he did in 2010. What was going on on the ground?

STEFANO: It had nothing to do with Scott Walker or the election and it have everything to do, Sean, with whom what we are as Americans. People are tired of working to feed a union boss and a bureaucrat and that corrupting relationship between the both of them. This is about our children's future. And that, I was on the ground in Wisconsin. That's what we talked about. And I think that's what won the day, far beyond any election.

HANNITY: Mike Gallagher, you talked to people on the radio, national syndicated radio talk every single day. And I have often discussed what I call an unholy alliance between the unions and the Democratic Party. How do you describe this quid pro quo? Because they take rank-and-file money, they give it to the politicians. What do the unions get in return for that?

MIKE GALLAGHER, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Well, the exciting thing is that it was reported that 38 percent of union households in Wisconsin supported Scott Walker, so the tide is turning in a huge way. And while I certainly love everything that Jennifer stands for in the Tea Party movement, I do think it begins and ends with Scott Walker. He is the Ronald Reagan of our time against Pacco (ph). I mean, this is a Pacco kind of battle. An epic victory that this guy had the courage to achieve.

And so, he emerges as a huge player in the national scene for the GOP and I don't think, you know, Rich Lowry is wrong when he says this is the deathnel now for public unions.

HANNITY: I think it's the deathnel as well. Now Clint, it's interesting to me. I think two things out of the election in Wisconsin. One, a courageous principle politician that didn't backed down, didn't equivocate enormous pressure brought to bear on him. I take that out of it. And also, I am inspired by the people of Wisconsin. It seems that fiscal responsibility won the day, not special interests for once.

CLINT BOLICK, HOOVER INSTITUTE: That's right. Don't forget, Wisconsin is the land of Bob La Follett, this is a union state.

HANNITY: Progressive movement started in Wisconsin.

BOLICK: It is not just Democrats who are beholden to the union, it is Republicans who are weak-kneed and won't stand up to them. And Scott Walker, I think has so much back bone to spare that he may buck up a lot of other Republicans, including -- I hope -- Mitt Romney.

HANNITY: You see, I agree with you. I think the message is sent is that if voters put you in to institute tough reforms, that if something happens, they were there for him. Monica, what do you think?

MONICA CROWLEY, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: That's right exactly right. The vote in Wisconsin showed that if you have the back of the taxpayer, the taxpayer will have your back when push comes to shove and the unions put the screws to these politicians. The fact that Scott Walker did not back down, the fact that he held to his guns on this and protected the taxpayer, which has been a novel concept. I mean, mostly Democrats have had this corrupt, incestuous relationship with the government-sector unions. And by the way, they are government-sector unions, not public-sector unions. We ought to call them by their proper names. Government-sector unions. They have had this incredibly corrupt relationship, been in bed with the Democrats for decades. And what Scott Walker did was slam a padlock on the door of the candy store at which both sides have been gorging for decades. And of course, the unions went bananas. But again, the taxpayer said, finally, we have somebody in office, who is protecting us and our interests. The American taxpayers, Sean, we are not going to see it not just in Wisconsin but nationwide.

HANNITY: I agree with you. David Limbaugh, you just wrote the encyclopedic dependent book that just came out this week on Barack Obama. Talk about the relationships that he has, you know, when you go back in his background and social justice and ACORN. Is it all intertwined here?

DAVID LIMBAUGH, AUTHOR, "GREAT DESTROYER": Yes. He views this as a class struggle. When he wants to pit labor against business, it's "The Great Destroyer" is the book I would famously promote. I would agree with my two colleagues on the elitist back row upper tier here, but I would like to merge their two ideas.

HANNITY: In other words, you are the once you want to take their seats and redistribute it. Isn't that it?

LIMBAUGH: Next time.

HANNITY:Everybody will be sitting on the top row, David.

LIMBAUGH: If we can do that next time, I would appreciate it. But I want to merge their two ideas that has to do with both the triumph of Scott Walker and a national referendum on Barack Obama. People are tired of fiscal irresponsibility. Scott Walker said I am going to balance his budget, I'm going to get the economy growing. The democratic machine threaten, they even stop the legislature, they ran out -- the reason they ran out in Wisconsin is not, because they're babies --

HANNITY: Because they're going to lose.

LIMBAUGH: No, they ran out. So, Obama could community organize and bring his thugs in and organize this recall. Well, the lesson here we need to take is Mitt Romney needs to be watching. You stand up for principled conservatism, you don't grovel to this amorphous, non-existed independent center, you become a principled conservative, people rally around you because all principle conservativism is is fiscal responsibility, national defense, adhering to our values that made America great, entrepreneurism, individualism, rugged individualism. Go forward, stick to your guns and you will win. We're the odds on favor to win this thing.

HANNITY: Let me turn to Amilya Antonetti, you are a millionaire at 19-- I always like to tell that story. Business. The relationship. How does big labor impact business, from your perspective? Because you are -- you are not a takeover specialist, that's a wrong word.

AMILYA ANTONETTI, CEO, AMA PRODUCTIONS: I'm a turnaround specialist.

HANNITY: You're turnaround specialist. OK. So, it's parted, your job is to take companies that are about to go bankrupt, all the jobs are lost. And you go in there and you try to save the company, sounds a lot like what Bain Capital does, right?

ANTONETTI: Exactly.

HANNITY: And you bring an infusion of capital into these companies. How does labor impact your ability to save a company?

ANTONETTI: It is critical. It is how a company is spun. A company is not spun by throwing more money at it, the company is spun by bringing people together and say, this is the goal and this is the objective. And if we are aligned that this is the goal, we can only do one thing at a time, and we take a little small chunks at a time, and we spin the company very, very quickly. And when you talk about the unions, the unions are counterintuitive to the free market. The free market will correct itself if you let it be free. And when it's free, it shows where the demand is. And when you see where the demand is, small business goes in and they capitalize on that demand. If you try to regulate it, in any way shape or form, you will have a slow death that is the death of a business, every single time. It's the death of a country. We do not live in a country. We live in a global economy. The union cannot regulate the global economy. Not now. Not ever.

HANNITY: All right. Politically speaking, Charles, you also study the markets every day. Is this election now coming down to Obama's vision, $5 trillion in debt, spread the wealth around, it's our patriotic duty as Joe Biden said, versus austerity, fiscal responsibility and capitalism, is it socialism, capitalism? Is that simple?

CHARLES PAYNE, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK: Absolutely. In fact, it's a global war right now on both sides of the Atlantic. It is all about doing the right thing. And you said the word austerity. Now, people spin it to mean different things. But everyone here touched on the more important aspect. There has been a general epiphany by the public. And we have gotten over the guilt trip. You know, the guilt trip, hey, do you want to take money from your kids' teachers? Do we want to short-change the policemen? Do we want to short change the firemen? And at some point, people say, we love the civil servants, we love them. But we can't deal in a nation where the public sector worker makes more than I make, where the pensions are lavish and guaranteed, where the bad workers can't be fired, where they get to retire before I do and I fund all of this. So, there is a general global battle right now between these two forces and this is why this election is so, so critical, so important. Because if people choose the way it's been, then we are just doomed. We're absolutely doomed.

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