HuffPo | Spelling more trouble for organized labor in the U.S., Republican
legislators in the Wisconsin state Senate approved a right-to-work bill
here on Wednesday, sending the measure to a GOP-controlled Assembly
where it's also expected to pass. Republican leaders chose to fast-track
the bill in what's known as an extraordinary legislative session,
allowing for less debate than usual.
Debate over the bill drew an estimated 2,000 protesters
to the state Capitol on both Tuesday and Wednesday, reminiscent of the
passionate labor demonstrations surrounding Act 10 in 2011, though
vastly smaller in scope. As with that earlier legislation, which
stripped most collective bargaining rights from public-sector employees,
vocal opposition from the state's unions wasn't enough to stop the
right-to-work bill in its tracks.
Legislators are expected to take
up the measure early next week in the state Assembly, where Republicans
enjoy a comfortable majority. The office of Gov. Scott Walker (R) has
already said he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk.
The fight in Madison is just the latest indication of how state
Republican leaders, often controlling both the statehouse and the
governor's mansion in their respective states, are managing to enact
laws that weaken the clout of organized labor. If the Wisconsin measure
is approved, the Badger State will become the 25th right-to-work state in the country, following two other Midwestern states, Michigan and Indiana, that passed such laws in 2012.
"It
is a symbolic tipping point, or an inflection point," Paul Secunda, a
labor law professor at Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee,
said of potentially half the states in the country being right-to-work.
"For the longest time there were 22 right-to-work states. Now the
right-to-work people have the momentum."
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