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On Tuesday, the state Senate Committee on Labor and Government Reform began taking testimony on a GOP-pushed bill to turn Wisconsin into a right-to-work state.
Republicans, including Gov. Scott Walker, claim that Wisconsin needs to further weaken unions so that we can boost our economy and spur private sector job growth.
But is that true? Do Wisconsin’s businesses need a right-to-work law?
Well, it is true that the state’s conservative, big-business lobby, the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), supports right to work.
But what about the smaller chambers of commerce, the ones who are really in touch with the “job creators” they represent?
These local chambers seem to be far less supportive of right to work, according to Lori Compas of the Wisconsin Business Alliance. Compas called local chambers in districts represented by Republican senators Robert Cowles, Scott Fitzgerald, Sheila Harsdorf, Frank Lasee, Terry Moulton, Steve Nass and Jerry Petrowski and couldn’t find any chamber that supports the bill. Instead, Compas heard that they don’t support the GOP and WMC’s right-to-work agenda.
One chamber in Fitzgerald’s district had this common-sense response: “We aren’t officially taking a stand, but why would we support something that makes wages go down? It might help a few really big businesses, but our members are mostly small businesses that rely on customers who can afford to go out to eat and stuff like that.”
Republicans have been in control of Wisconsin for four years, and during that time our economy has slumped. Walker’s Wisconsin lags behind most of the country and our Midwestern neighbors in job growth. But instead of correcting their mistakes and investing in our economy and our workforce, Republicans are further punishing workers and unions under the mistaken belief that employers want to punish them, too.
