No, it turns out that Cain supports collective bargaining rights for public employees—or at least, the week after Ohio voters upheld that right, he's not willing to completely condemn it. So, collective bargaining, yes:
"But not collective hijacking. What I mean by that, if they have gotten so much for so many years and it's going to bankrupt the state, I don't think that's good. It appears that in some instances, they really don't care." [...]Asked if the Ohio Legislature had gone too far in stripping collective bargaining rights for public employees, including fire and police personnel, Cain said that Ohio legislators "may have tried to get too much in one bill."
Ohio's collective bargaining law differed from Wisconsin in at least one key aspect: Wisconsin exempted police and fire personnel from the law.
In an interview with the Journal Sentinel last month, Cain said that he was "right in the corner of Gov. Scott Walker 100%" in Walker's battle with public employee unions.
The more issues we see Cain actually answer questions on, the more clear it becomes that he just hasn't thought about his positions: In the case of abortion, it should be illegal but it's the family's decision. In the case of Libya, it's a visible internal monologue going "Libya, shit. Libya. Um, Gadhafi, right? He was there? But he's dead now, and Obama... ummm ..." And in the case of collective bargaining, he triangulates between Ohio's massive rejection of a Republican attempt to take collective bargaining rights and the fact that he's talking to an editorial board in Scott Walker's home state and comes up with, basically, "full collective bargaining rights are too hot, Ohio's Issue 2 is too cold, but Scott Walker's assault on collective bargaining is just right." It's Ubeki-beki-beki-stan-stan on everything.
Where Mitt Romney has a grasp of what the issues are and just tailors his position to suit the moment, Herman Cain appears not to know enough about anything beyond the meaning of the number nine to have a comprehensible position on it.