Skip to main content

This Just In: Wisconsin Becomes the 25th Right to Work State


Yesterday, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed legislation which made Wisconsin the 25th state to approve the Right to Work Act.  

For those unfamiliar with the Right to Work Act, the Act makes it illegal for private sector companies to enter into Collective Bargaining Agreements which contain Union Shop clauses which require all workers within the bargaining unit to be members of and pay dues to labor unions.  Right to Work laws prevent unions and employers from requiring employees to join a union or pay dues for representation.    

For those unfamiliar with Governor Walker, a recall effort was led in 2012 in an attempt to remove him from office.  A lot of the support (and money) to remove him came from labor unions after Governor Walker had taken a hard line anti-union approach in regard to collective bargaining by state workers within the state.  Of course, Governor Walker's signing of the bill has brought about a lot of opposition, namely from those who criticize the Governor for signing the Act as a way to boost his political clout ahead of an expected 2016 Presidential run.  Given that Republicans are traditionally anti-union, critics of Governor Walker have accused him of singing this Act as a way to boost his stature within the Republican party. 

Regardless of his motivation, this is a big piece of anti-union legislation to come out of a state that has been a traditional union stronghold for many, many years.  


Additional information can be found here:  http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/scott-walker-signs-right-to-work-bill-b99457819z1-295609181.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum, it was noted that emplo
Post a Comment
Read more

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

A few years ago, I remember when the “Fight for $15” movement was taking off around the country.  Lo and behold, it appears that a $15/hour minimum wage is not the stopping point, which should be no surprise.  As the below article notes, New York is aggressively moving to ramp up hourly wage rates even higher.  While all the  below articles are worth a read, I called particular attention to that one. As always, below are a couple article that caught my eye this week. Disney World Workers Reject Latest Contract Offer Late last week, it was announced that workers at Disney World had rejected the most recent contract offer from the company, calling on their employer to do better.  As Brooks Barnes at The New York Times writes, the unions that represent about 32,000 workers at Disney World reported their members resoundingly rejected the 5 year contract offer which would have seen workers receive a 10% raise and retroactive increased back pay.  While Disney’s offer would have increased pa
Post a Comment
Read more

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies in the state, to per
Post a Comment
Read more