Skip to footer

Wisconsin Governor Walker signs bill that incenses organized labor

Scott Walker signed a "Right to work" bill into law Monday, which stanches the flow of members and dues into labor unions.

|
WGBA - Green Bay, WI
Passing of Right-to-Work Showcases Shift in Power Now that Wisconsin is officially a Right-to-Work state taking effect immediately, what does this say about the state's balance of political power?
  • By Brendan O'Brien Reuters

| Milwaukee

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a Republican presidential hopeful, signed a bill into law on Monday that stops private sector workers from being required to join a union or pay dues as a condition of employment.

The law takes effect immediately, making Wisconsin the 25th state to approve a so-called right-to-work law and marking the latest victory for Republicans targeting labor unions, following adoption of similar laws in Michigan and Indiana in 2012.

"It sends a powerful message across the country and around the world," Walker said, adding that what he called freedom to work is one of the three or four things that people ask about when he is on trade and investment tours for Wisconsin.

Walker became a hero to conservatives when he pushed for a law to limit the collective bargaining rights of public-sector employees shortly after taking office in 2011. His stature grew when he survived a union-backed recall election in 2012.

"This is one more tool that will help grow good paying, family supporting jobs here in the state of Wisconsin, particularly in the areas where you need them in manufacturing," Walker said.

Wisconsin's Republican-led legislature approved the bill in an extraordinary session, with representatives voting on Friday along party lines for the measure just two weeks after the Senate majority leader said the bill would be introduced.

Supporters said the law would attract businesses and jobs, while opponents said it was a thinly disguised assault on organized labor that will drive down wages and leave workers vulnerable.

Thousands of workers demonstrated at the capitol in Madison as lawmakers debated the bill, but crowds were far thinner than four years ago, when tens of thousands of people protested the push for changes to public sector collective bargaining rights.

About 8 percent of private-sector workers in Wisconsin are union members, down from about 22 percent three decades ago, according to the Unionstats.com website that tracks membership.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Wisconsin Governor Walker signs bill that incenses organized labor
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2015/0309/Wisconsin-Governor-Walker-signs-bill-that-incenses-organized-labor
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe