With State Senate’s Approval, Right to Work Looks All But Certain in Wisconsin

[marmar]

(In These Times) MADISON, WISCONSIN—Against the wishes of thousands of angry constituents in two days of protests outside the state capitol building this week, the Wisconsin state senate late Wednesday night voted 17 to 15 in favor of a “right-to-work” law. Only one Republican, a former union member from the northern woodlands of the state, joined all Democratic senators in voting against the anti-union law that the Republican leadership has rushed through an “extraordinary session.”

If the Assembly approves the bill next week—and with a GOP margin of 63 to 36, larger than in the Senate, it is almost certainly expected to do so—Gov. Scott Walker has promised to sign it, giving a former union stronghold the dubious distinction of becoming the 25th state to pass such legislation.

The law will make it illegal for unions and employers to negotiate “union security“ agreements. Such contract provisions typically require all employees in a bargaining unit to pay dues, or some fair share of the regular dues, to pay for the work the union does on behalf of all workers in collective bargaining and representing them in the grievance and discipline processes.

After Congress authorized such state laws in 1947, they were largely confined to the extremely anti-union South, where business owners fought to keep wages low and cultural hostility to collective action ran strong. The ranks of right-to-work states grew irregularly after the 1950s, but the political right has sensed a chance to make progress in the traditionally well-unionized industrial Midwest states and elsewhere since 2012, when states like Michigan and Indiana passed right-to-work laws.

If—or, more accurately at this point, when—the Wisconsin law is approved, the right-to-work campaign will have reached a critical mark: half the states in the U.S. and just under half the private workforce will be under right-to-work rules.

Even supporters concede there is little chance of stopping the law in Wisconsin. ...............(more)

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17698/scott_walker_right_to_work_bill

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. I will never, for the life of me understand why people didn't get rid of this jagoff

when the had the chance.

[BlueCaliDem]

2. Just more proof that Americans will always and reliably vote against their own interests

and vote in favor of enriching the already obscenely wealthy in this country. Well-funded propaganda really does work!

[Half-Century Man]

3. Sure is nice to be made into a terrorist and vilified so some someone with few morals can advance.

Walker moves ahead the same way he always has, on someone else's back and on his master's expense account.

[vi5]

4. Maybe if we still had a political party

That still vigorously and powerfully defended unions and organized labor instead of one that despises and wants to destroy them and one that plays tries to play it safe and take a "Well, yes BUT........." approach to the issue.

Republicans always hated unions so I don't expect anything less than that from them and nothing has changed in the past century on that front.

What's changed is the Democratic parties desire to ingratiate themselves with the wealthy and corporations and Wall Street who hate unions also, and then trying to triangulate and third way the issue like they do everything else.

[glowing]

5. And take it from someone who lives in a state like this, it sucks ass

[old guy]

6. Elections have consequences.

[maxrandb]

7. But I thought the Democratic Party and the Republican Party

were both the same????

Or some such shit that folks on here rail about some fucking thing called "3rd Way" Democrats....or whatever

I'm sure that had the Dems still controlled the WI Legislature we'd still see "right-to-work" laws shoved down the states throats....right?

To those that claim the Democratic Party doesn't "deserve" their vote, I say; "Enjoy your fucking protest vote, and your right to work for shit wages!"