House Of Cards For Real

In the first season of House of Cards, the teacher's union strikes.  A big point of contention is teacher evaluations.  The head of the union is a man of honor and holds his ground until he is goaded into hitting Francis Underwood, the congressman in charge of settling the strike.  He is then blackmailed into giving in on every point and ends the strike.

True House Of Cards is fiction, but it is loosely based on real life politics.  Someone must have a hold on Mulgrew to make him so willing to sell out the people he represents.