Lying Bastards!
State Senate to quickly take up right-to-work legislation
By Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel
Madison — After years of seeking to change the subject, the top leader in the state Senate made clear Thursday that lawmakers in his house would debate the issue of so-called "right-to-work" legislation within weeks and bring the volatile issue of union law back into the statehouse.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) told conservative talk radio host Charlie Sykes of WTMJ-AM (620) that he was considering so-called "open shop" legislation to prohibit employers from striking deals with private-sector unions to require workers to pay dues. He said he was considering making Wisconsin the first state in the nation to attempt to exempt certain private workers such as the operators of earthmovers who have supported Wisconsin Republicans in recent years.
It was a complete shift from the general election rhetoric of Republicans in recent months who have said that the issue is a distraction and not a priority.
lying bastards! clo
"We can't tiptoe through this session without addressing this. We're not tackling this six months from now. We're not tackling this a year from now...there's no way we avoid this issue. We have to deal with this issue right now," Fitzgerald said.
His comments come as conservative state Rep. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) vowed this week to introduce a bill to do that and as a longtime activist in the state with ties to national groups has started an organization to promote the legislation.
Fitzgerald said that he would be willing to have the Senate vote first on the measure. Given that the support for it is even stronger in the state Assembly, that was a powerful statement that support among conservative lawmakers for the idea could be too strong to stop.
Gov. Scott Walker and GOP lawmakers already banned such requirements for most public employees in Wisconsin, but their 2011 law known as Act 10 didn't affect private-sector unions or police and firefighters. Tens of thousands of workers protested for weeks and Walker later became the first governor in the nation to win a recall election because of it.
Advocates say that prohibiting employers and labor groups from making these agreements would give workers more freedom. Opponents of the measure say it dramatically weakens union finances and clout by allowing workers to get any potential benefits from a labor group in their workplace without having to provide anything in return.
Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, said that further weakening unions was the wrong prescription for an ailing middle class.
"It's a sad day for workers and the middle class," he said. "Right to work is bad for everybody, no matter how you slice it."
Walker and GOP leaders in the Legislature have repeatedly said that extending Act 10 to private sector and public safety workers is not a priority for them and that their focus is on taking other steps that they say would help the state's economy.
As recently as Wednesday, Walker said in a stop in Milwaukee that he did not want to take up a right-to-work bill at this time.
"As I said before the election and have said repeatedly over the last few years, I just think right-to-work legislation right now, as well as reopening Act 10 to make any other adjustments, would be a distraction from the work that we're trying to do," Walker said, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.
One key impediment to passing legislation to weaken union power has been the support Republicans have received from police and firefighter unions in Milwaukee and from a few private-sector unions like the International Union of Operating Engineers, whose members operate the heavy equipment used to build roads and other infrastructure.
In Act 10, Walker explicitly exempted local and most state police and firefighters.
Thursday, Fitzgerald said Republicans could do the same for labor groups such as the operating engineers and some other trade unions such as pipe fitters. Rather than their support for GOP lawmakers, Fitzgerald cited the training that these unions do for workers and employers as a reason for exempting them.
"If you have a bill and you carve out the trades unions, is that something you could get the votes for? The changes you make would certainly bring people on or get people off the bill," Fitzgerald said. "That's my point, there's a lot of different ways of doing that."
A spokesman for the National Right to Work Committee said that of the 24 states with right-to-work legislation, none had ever exempted any private-sector unions, though Indiana had considered doing so.
"It frankly would make the law more susceptible to a legal challenge," said Patrick Semmens of the committee. "Why would you want to leave some (workers) out as a favor to union officials?"
Walker co-sponsored right-to-work legislation in 1993 as a freshman in the Assembly.
As governor he has consistently downplayed seeking any restrictions on private unions in public statements while at the same time declining to say whether he would sign such a bill.
In late 2012, for instance, during the lead-up to Michigan joining Indiana as a right-to-work state, Walker said that he was not worried about competition from Wisconsin's neighbor to the east.
Walker said then that he viewed Illinois and Minnesota, and not Michigan and Indiana, as competitors in the business marketplace.
"We already have a competitive advantage over Illinois," he said. "For us to be competitive, we need to improve our business climate."
The governor has also said that he doesn't want a repeat of the large protests that accompanied the passage of Act 10, saying in December 2012 that such a move could create uncertainty and cause employers to hesitate on hiring as he believes businesses did in 2011.
An extension of Act 10 to the private sector could gain considerable ground in the Legislature after November's election, particularly in the Senate, where outgoing GOP moderates Mike Ellis of Neenah and Dale Schultz of Richland Center were replaced by more conservative lawmakers.
Van Wanggaard of Racine was also elected to the Senate after promising to support a right to work proposal.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/state-senate-to-quickly-take-up-right-to-work-legislation-b99402895z1-284760711.html
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