The nation has been given a crash course in collective bargaining thanks to the battle going on in Wisconsin between union workers and the governor, who says he wants to kill employee collective bargaining rights.

But it turns out Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker may not really know what it is. While he wants to take away state workers’ collective bargaining rights, he’s actually posting things on Twitter that say otherwise.

Yesterday he tweeted this:

With all the people for & against the budget repair bill at the Capitol today, I pray that everyone is respectful 2 those w/different views.

OK, Gov. Walker, that’s at the heart of what collective bargaining is all about. Two sides sit down and listen to each other, and should be respectful of each other.

And it’s also about negotiating, which is sort of what Walker is doing indirectly on Twitter. Ten hours ago he tweeted:

Union leaders SAY they r open 2 pension & health care payments but they can’t guarantee budget savings 4 schools & local gov’ts.

And then, he tweeted…

These r same union leaders who tried to ram through employee contracts in Dec (after election, but before I took office).

He’s engaged in a back and fourth that is just what you might hear during, dare I say, collective bargaining sessions. And tons of Wisconsin state workers have been tweeting responses to Walker’s words and tweets, so essentially, the parties are engaged in collective bargaining, no?

I know it’s not face-to-face at a bargaining table, but this cyber bargaining table shows that even if the state legislature is successful in stripping state workers’ rights away Walker may end up missing negotiating just as much as employees. In fact, thanks to social-media collective, the negotiations may never end.