Supporters of organized labor were dealt a major blow this week, when a largely union-funded effort to unseat Wisconsin's Republican governor, Scott Walker, failed in a recall election. After a vote widely seen as a referendum on Walker's anti-union policies, voters kept him in office by a margin of 7 percentage points over his Democratic challenger, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

Democrats and labor unions were angry over Walker's bill to slash collective bargaining rights for public employees, a move that inspired weeks of protests in Madison last year. After gathering more than 1 million signatures to initiate the recall, Walker remains in office.

In interviews with Bloomberg BNA, labor analysts said the recall election could foreshadow coming action by anti-union politicians and groups, who may become bolder in their policy goals.

"This tells Republicans they can do the talk radio agenda or Tea Party agenda and survive politically," Mordecai Lee, a professor of governmental affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said.  "So I think Republican governors and Republican legislators around the country are saying, 'let's do what Walker did because if he could survive after everything they threw at him, we can do it too.'"

Lee added that he would not be surprised to see further efforts to implement state right-to-work laws, and more attacks against public sector unions.

But AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka emphasized the positive, including the fact that Democrats gained a majority in the Wisconsin Senate. He said he was proud that so many union members and progressives had fought hard in Wisconsin to make Walker account for his anti-union agenda.

"We knew a recall election would be tough and we knew we would be outspent,'' Trumka said. "In the end, though, the best-funded politician in state history spent more than $50 million to hold on to state office, but he could not hold on to a majority in the state senate.''

And, Trumka said, the state saw that workers and unions won't take attacks against them lying down.

It will be interesting to see how organized labor rebounds from the defeat in Wisconsin going into the heat of the presidential race, especially after many observers start declaring unions down for the count. In the Washington Post, blogger Chris Cillizza said organized labor had "the worst week in Washington."

But what happens between now and November is anyone's guess.

In other labor news this week:

• SAG-AFTRA, the newly merged entertainment industry union, announced a tentative agreement with several major record labels on a first contract for performers in music videos.

• The Utility Workers Union of America and NSTAR reached a tentative contract covering 1,900 employees of the eastern and central Massachusetts utility company.

• Hyatt Hotels Corp. sent letters to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, accusing the agency of colluding with UNITE HERE to investigate hotels where the union is engaged in labor disputes.