Walker's Right To Freeload Law Struck Down

On Friday, the Honorable William Foust ruled that the so-called Right to Work law ramrodded through by WISGOP and Scott Walker was unconstitutional.

The gentle reader can read Foust's ruling here but in brief, he found that the law illegally forced unions to represent non-members without just compensation. To make it worse, this was mandated by the state for the "benefit of the public," even though doing so was in direct violation with state and federal labor laws.

In other words, per the standing law, if a union is representing a majority of workers at a place of employment, it is because the majority of workers voted for it.  The law also forbids unions from discriminating against nonmembers when they represent them in contract negotiations, grievances and/or disciplinary hearings.  In compensation for their services, nonmembers are required to pay a nominal "fair share."

The Right to Freeload law was just that.  It said that unions had to provide these services without being compensated for it.  In other words, it was legalized theft.  It would be like a person taking a taxi but then refusing to pay the fare because they chose not to.

The really ironic part which the ruling didn't address is that the Republicans were authorizing the theft of the unions' services because it would benefit the public by creating a more favorable business climate for the state.

However, the proof is that it did anything but that.  Wisconsin is still lagging behind the rest of the nation in economic growth and job creation.  Of course, this is not surprising unless one was gullible enough to think that Walker and the other corporate puppets were actually being honest about their reasoning for it.

Scott Walker Boldly Caves In To Extortion

By now, the gentle reader is probably aware that the Teapublicans in the Wisconsin State Legislature have all hopped in the corporate clown car and passed Right To Work Woe legislation despite people coming out 70:1 against it. And that doesn't include the more than 400 companies that formed a coalition in an effort to stop it.

Scott Walker was originally for it and introduced a similar bill when he was a legislator. Then, while running for reelection, called it "a distraction" and said it would never get to his desk because he didn't want it. Now, he is all for it again and is planning to sign it on Monday, with all the grandstanding and showboating he can muster.

In fact, Walker has decided that he is going to sign the bill into law at the company of one of his biggest supporters, Badger Meter.

To show what a disgusting, vile, little man the owner of Badger Meter, Rich Meeusen, is, one does not have to go any further than his comments on Right to Woe:

"For the last 10 years, I have systematically reduced employment in Milwaukee, from 350 union workers 10 years ago to 120 today," Meeusen said. "If Wisconsin didn't go right-to-work ... and our contract is up November of 2016 ... we have plans we could be down to zero by then."

Indeed, Badger Meter has a history of shipping good paying jobs to Mexico. Even worse, Meeusen extorted Right to Woe laws by threatening to ship more jobs there if he didn't get to screw over his workers here.

It's not like the company really needed it. The company has gross profits of nearly $31 million. Meeusen personally raked in $1.3 million in 2013.

While the legislature was busy rushing this piece of malfeasance through at breakneck speed, Walker has been traveling the country that he needs to be tough on Wisconsin workers and their unions to send a message to ISIS terrorists.

But just what is that message that he is sending them? That if he were president ISIS threatened to attack the United States, he would attack his own people first? That he would destroy the United States in order to save it? Or that he would have to get back to them after he finds out what his campaign donors want him to do?

With Walker, as the entire world is beginning to see, it's all about freedumb and demockracy.

Cross posted at Crooks and Liars.

Minnesota Republicans Look To Gain From Walker's RTW Folly

Wisconsin and Minnesota have a long, storied tradition of being border rivals. Whether its Badgers versus Gophers or Packers versus Vikings, people of both states look forward to finding bragging rights over their next door neighbor.

Increasingly over the past few years, Minnesota has been kicking Wisconsin's butt on almost every economic measure. Minnesota has lower unemployment, higher wages and a better gross domestic product.

With Scott Walker poised to ram Right To Woe down Wisconsin's collective throat, the gap between the two states are about to grow even bigger as Minnesota State Representative Pat Garofalo, a Republican, seeks to capitalize on Walker's folly:

Minnesota Rep. Pat Garofalo, the Republican chairman of the Minnesota House Job Growth and Energy Affordability Committee, sent letters this week to two Wisconsin businesses offering assistance in relocating their headquarters to Minnesota.

The letters went to Hoffman Construction and Rock Road Companies, Inc., both union contractors who privately contract with the International Union of Operating Engineers.

Owners of both businesses testified against the Wisconsin Legislature's fast-tracked right-to-work bill in public hearings before lawmakers.

"Wisconsin's right-to-work legislation would negatively impact the private contracts between these companies and the unions they have voluntarily decided to partner with," Garofalo said in a statement. "It's heavy-handed and the wrong for Wisconsin to inject government into these private contractual relationships that has worked well for private companies for decades."

In the letter to Rock Road President Bill Kennedy, Garofalo wrote that many Republicans in Minnesota believe such a law interferes with a business's right to set terms and conditions of employment in the workplace.

"That Republicans in Wisconsin would inject the heavy hand of government into this relationship is regrettable and quite inconsistent with the principles of free enterprise and limited government," Garofalo wrote in the letter.

One would expect Democrats to make hay out of Walker's blunders, but when even his fellow Republicans have stopped taking him seriously and start to capitalize off of his mistakes, you know it's not looking good for Walker's presidential aspirations.

It's also a bad sign that Walker hasn't figured out that when you're in a hole, you should stop digging.

More Proof Showing #RTW = Right To Woe

Via the Cap Times, another report, this time done by UW-Extension shows what our "representatives" in state government are going to do to us:

In right-to-work states, Diller says, economic policies are geared toward lowering the cost of doing business — cutting taxes, driving down the cost of labor and limiting regulation. But such policies also are at odds with promoting high-growth and high-wage industries.

"This would help explain why income and education levels tend to be lower in RTW states," Diller writes. "Firms that are attracted to RTW states prefer to keep costs as low as possible."

The study compared the 22 right-to-work states that existed prior to 2012 — when both Michigan and Indiana adopted right-to-work laws — with states that didn't have right-to-work laws.

The comparison found that in right-to-work states, manufacturing jobs paid an average of $52,900, while in non-right-to-work states, manufacturing workers earned $61,000. Per capita income in right-to-work states was $3,875 less in right-to-work states, $33,101 versus $36,976.

The individual poverty rate in right-to-work states was nearly 2 percent higher: 13.9 percent versus 12 percent. And the percentage of people with a college degree was nearly 4 percent lower in right-to-work states: 24.4 percent versus 28.2 percent.

Imagine No Unions

The sad part is that there are people that really do think like this:

Right To Work Offers Workers Choices

And boy, what choices they are:

Right To Woe Comes To Wisconsin In Piecemeal Fashion

I got home and got inundated with emails and messages all pointing to the same press release jointly released by Senators Chris Larson and Julie Lassa and Representative Sandy Pasch:

A bill being rushed through the Republican-controlled State Legislature is an attack on private sector union bargaining rights, three legislators charged today.

The proposal, sponsored by State Senator Paul Farrow (R-Pewaukee) and Representative Ed Brooks (R-Reedsburg), would allow employers to reduce the hours of their union-represented employees without the union’s approval. Democratic legislators charged that the measure is the first blow in an effort to scale back private sector employee bargaining rights.

“Republicans began their war on bargaining rights with Act 10, and with this bill they have now turned their attention to private sector unions,” Senate Minority Leader Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) said. “This bill is a clear opening shot at undermining private sector unions.”

“This is the beginning of ‘divide and conquer’ part two,” said State Senator Julie Lassa (D-Stevens Point). “The Farrow-Brooks bill says that private sector unions shouldn’t be able to negotiate for their members. It’s one more step toward their goal of ending the right of Wisconsin citizens to have their voice heard in the workplace.”

“Sen. Lassa and I have authored legislation that accomplish the essence of AB 15 and SB 26, without increasing the risk of lawsuits or undermining the ability of unions to represent the rights of their members,” said Assistant Assembly Democratic Leader Sandy Pasch (D – Shorewood). “I urge the Republican authors of this flawed legislation to slow down and work with us in a bipartisan manner to ensure that we avoid completely unnecessary conflict and delay in implementing a work-share program.”

Senate Bill 26 and its companion, Assembly Bill 15 were introduced on Friday and were scheduled for public hearings today. Hearing notices indicate that committee votes could come as soon as Thursday. “They’re rushing this bill through to keep it below the radar before members of private sector unions and the public have a chance to react,” Sen. Lassa said.

This bill, as described, will do more than affect the hours that the private sector workers will be allowed.

Having just been through this with Scott Walker's illegal furloughs, which he used to give Milwaukee County employees up to 26 furlough days, it can affect their other benefits, such as seniority, pension and health care coverage. This legislation is a bit more than the beginning of Right to Woe laws, it's actually a watered down version of it.

No wonder the cowards are trying to ram this through with as little attention as possible.

They know that this will make the people rise up again.

But something tells me that they have more than a bunch of pissed off people showing up at the Capitol. They will need to answer to their corporate masters when Labor shuts the state down.

Pennsylvania Republicans Launch Attack On Unions

From Workers Independence News:

Another chapter in the relentless attack on union rights for workers is beginning to unfold in Pennsylvania. Right-wing Republicans are pushing so-called ‘right to work’ legislation in Pennsylvania that could cripple the ability of unions to collect dues and keep all workers in an organized workplace as union members. The Center for Media and Democracy says it’s no accident this is coming soon after a similar push in Michigan. The center says its part of an effort by American Legislative Exchange Council, backed by a witch’s brew of right-wing groups like the billionaire Koch brothers’ Americans For Prosperity and the Tea Party . Brandon Fischer of the Center for Media and Democracy says this looks like a state-by-state march attacking unions and labor rights in an effort to weaken progressive politicians and progressive groups. These efforts have been made in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio. Michigan and now Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Rick Bloomingdale told Working In These Times that the ‘right to work’ attack is firmly opposed by Democrats and some union friendly Republicans in the state legislature. He says the measure has been blocked before and he believes it will be blocked again. Governor Tom Corbett, though has said that if the Pennsylvania legislature passes the anti-union bill he will sign it.

We Need More Dems Like Michigan's Rep. Brandon Dillon

Amen, brother! Amen!

We have only a few true representatives that still are standing up for the people like this here in Wisconsin like Rep. Dillon did.

We need more people like Senator Chris Larson, Representative Chris Taylor, Representative Elect Melissa Sargent, Representative Chris Sinicki, and Representative JoCasta Zamarripa.

Michigan: Malfeasance, Malarkey and Motivation

By now, I'm sure the gentle reader has heard the tragic news that Michigan is no longer a free state. Through an act of great malfeasance, the lame duck state legislature passed the Right to Woe law. Within hours, the feckless Governor Rick Snyder signed this odorous piece of legislation into law.

It's not a law that the people wanted. This is evident by the fact that many of the reprobates who did this vile deed had lost their election in November after the voters rejected their malevolence. It is also evidenced by the fact that Michigan's Right to Woe law is written verbatim from ALEC's playbook.

But the madness didn't end there.

Shortly after the legislature did their nefarious deed, this video appeared and went viral among the RWNJ community:



Holy mayhem!

Of course, the likely suspects, aka the paid propagandists like Charlie Sykes and James Wigderson ran with it. I really got a chuckle from Wigderson's bluster about the video:

I’m looking forward to reading on leftwing blogs a) it never happened, b) Americans for Prosperity deserved it, and c) the Koch brothers faked the whole thing to make unions look bad.

But as one might expect, there is a problem with this scenario. A couple of problems really.

As the blogger emptywheel adroitly points out:

All this, in spite of the fact that witnesses say the Americans for Prosperity people were trying to provoke union members to violence, and witnesses reportedly saw AFP people loosening the ropes on the tents so they would come down. And in spite of the fact the place was crawling with cops (shipped in from around the state) who didn’t do see anything amiss. (Cops are as we speak arresting people engaging in civil disobedience at the Romney Building, where the Governor’s office is.)

And we know all too well that the state police has not been hesitant to abuse their authority and use force even when it's not needed. If there was something criminal happening, does anyone thing that the police would idly stand by?

They also have another problem - eye witnesses:



At the same time this is going on, some putz from Faux News was going around trying to agitate union protesters. He finally got someone to go after him. Funny thing is, even with all the police around, he never reported it and they never responded to it.

It's pretty safe to say we can chalk this one up in the same category as Sean Kedzie and Kyle Wood - playing the false victim. I can't wait for Christian Schneider to tell us he interviewed and verified everything before taking his post down and trying to bury it.

And as for the faux Faux News story, well, I'm also waiting to see if they show Lansing's palm trees:



The ALEC zombies think that they have it all sewed up in Michigan. They even added a fiscal note to the bill to keep the new legislature from overturning the law next year.

But things aren't as airtight as they'd like to think.

One, the Michigan law exempts police and firefighters. That's the same mistake that Walker and the Wisconsin Republicans made and which got Act 10 overturned.

Secondly, even though the legislature might have their hands tied, the people don't. They will have to ride it out for a year, but they can do for themselves what the government can't (emphasis mine):

However, labor unions believe they have found a way to challenge these bills at the ballot box, even if they would be allowed to remain in place for a while in the interim. As first reported by NBC News, an analysis by the Citizens Research Council of Michigan shows that labor would have recourse to put the right to work laws up for a citizen initiative. Republicans thought they short-circuited this by including an appropriation of funds in the legislation. By virtue of a state law, this means that the legislation cannot be challenged at the ballot box, they contended. However, the CRC of Michigan analysis shows that this is only true for one type of initiative. Here’s the full language of the analysis.

There are four methods whereby a proposal can be placed on the statewide ballot in Michigan: (1) statutory initiative, (2) voter referendum, (3) legislative referendum, and (4) constitutional amendment.

STATUTORY INITIATIVE is defined by Section 9 of Article 2 of the Michigan Constitution as the power which the people reserve to themselves “to propose laws and to enact and reject laws.” The power of initiative extends to any law the Legislature may enact and is invoked by filing petitions containing signatures of registered voters equal in number to at least eight percent of the total votes cast in the last election for governor. The Legislature is required to enact, without modification, or reject any proposed initiative within 40 session days. An initiative not enacted by the Legislature is placed on the statewide ballot at the next general election. A law that is initiated or adopted by the people is not subject to gubernatorial veto and one adopted by voters cannot subsequently be amended or repealed except by the voters or by a three-fourths vote of the Legislature.

VOTER REFERENDUM is defined by Section 9 of Article 2 of the Michigan Constitution as the power “to approve and reject laws enacted by the legislature.” Referendum must be invoked, within 90 days of final adjournment of the legislative session during which the law in question was enacted, by filing petitions containing signatures of registered voters equal in number to at least five percent of the total votes cast for governor in the last general election. The effect of invoking a referendum is to suspend the law in question until voters approve or reject it at the next general election.

LEGISLATIVE REFERENDUM is authorized by Section 34 of Article 4 of the Michigan Constitution, which provides that “[a]ny bill passed by the legislature and approved by the governor, except a bill appropriating money, may provide that it will not become law unless approved by a majority of the electors voting thereon.”

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT is authorized by Sections 1 and 2 of Article 12 of the Michigan Constitution and may be proposed either by a two-thirds vote of the Legislature or by filing petitions containing signatures of registered voters equal in number to at least ten percent of the total votes cast for governor in the last general election.

The question of CONSTITUTIONAL REVISION is required by Section 3 of Article XII of the Michigan Constitution to appear on the ballot automatically every 16 years after 1978.

Only the legislative referendum is short-circuited by the appropriation of funds. Labor could use the voter referendum or the statutory initiative to put right to work on the ballot, for example. This will take more signatures than the legislative referendum, but that just represents an organizing opportunity.

I hope that the good people of Michigan don't make the same mistake we made. Instead of marching in circles or yelling a building, they need to get all boots on the ground now to start collecting signatures.

The corporate special interests might have one this round in Michigan, like they did in Wisconsin, but they have in no way won the war.

POSTSCRIPT: I keep seeing comparisons between Michigan and Wisconsin and how similar they are. Does this mean that Snyder has a secret router and a legal defense fund too?