Is "Right to Work" Next on Walker's Agenda?

[marmar]

Published on Tuesday, May 29, 2012 by PRWatch.org
Is "Right to Work" Next on Walker's Agenda?

by Mary Bottari



Many are wondering if making Wisconsin a "Right to Work" state is next on Governor Scott Walker's agenda if he wins the recall election on June 5. Right to Work laws weaken unions by allowing members to opt out of paying dues. Workers get the benefit of working in a union shop (higher wages, better benefits), but are not required to pay their fair share for union representation. Right to Work laws have been used effectively in the South to bust unions and keep wages low, which is why they are dubbed "Right to Work for Less" laws by opponents. The recent push for this legislation is emanating from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), where corporations and right-wing legislators vote as equals behind closed doors on "model" legislation.

This issue is newly on the radar of Wisconsin voters due to a video released earlier this month by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel showing Governor Walker having a frank conversation with his largest campaign contributor shortly after he was elected. Beloit billionaire Diane Hendricks asks Walker how he will make Wisconsin a "red" state and if he will "work on these unions" and "become a Right to Work" state. Walker replies that the"first step" will be "to divide and conquer" Wisconsin unions through a budget bill dealing with public sector workers. One month after the video was filmed, Walker "dropped the bomb" and introduced his bill to strip some 380,000 public workers of 50 years of collective bargaining rights, starting a race to the bottom in wages and benefits. (CMD has embedded a campaign video on left only because the MJS video is not available for embedding.)

In the same video, Walker cites as his role model Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, who first did away with collective bargaining for public workers by executive order, then successfully went after private sector unions with Right to Work legislation.

Right to Work Debate Heats Up in Wisconsin

Representative Scott Walker Walker has a history with this issue and with ALEC, which has promoted a "model" Right to Work bill for decades. Before becoming Governor, Walker was a state legislator from 1993-2002. As a freshman legislator in 1993, Walker joined ALEC and cosponsored Right to Work legislation in Wisconsin. If passed into law, 1993 SB 459 would have applied to public sector as well as private sector workers. That bill failed to pass, but Walker kept trying, sponsoring another ALEC favorite, "Paycheck Protection" legislation (1997 AB 624), which would make it tough for unions to spend money on elections. Immediately upon being elected governor in November 2010, Walker started drafting a bill to strip public workers of their collective bargaining rights, even before he was sworn in. Previously, Walker had told Congress that he decided to move on the bill only after unions attempted to rush final contracts through a lame duck session of the legislature in December 2010. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/29-6

[leftyohiolib]

1. if he beats the recall you can bet on it.

[MrSlayer]

2. Yes. It's on all the baggers' agendas.

Destroying the middle class is a wet dream for these assholes.

[rustydog]

3. Right to work a cheaply as they will pay you? You bet your ass that is in his sights