President Obama is “deeply disappointed” in Governor Scott Walker (R., Wis.) for signing “right-to-work” legislation that allows workers to decide if they want to pay union dues or not.
“Wisconsin is a state built by labor, with a proud pro-worker past,” Obama said in a Tuesday evening statement. “So even as its governor claims victory over working Americans, I’d encourage him to try and score a victory for working Americans – by taking meaningful action to raise their wages and offer them the security of paid leave. That’s how you give hardworking middle-class families a fair shot in the new economy – not by stripping their rights in the workplace, but by offering them all the tools they need to get ahead.”
Wisconsin is the first state to adopt right-to-work legislation since Governor Rick Snyder (R., Mich.) signed the bill into law during a lame-duck session of the state legislature in 2012. When workers were given the choice to stay or go, union membership fell.
“Michigan union membership fell sharply in 2014, the first full year under the state’s new right-to-work law,” MLive Media Group reported in January. “Overall, 14.5 percent of wage and salary workers in Michigan were members of a union in 2014, down from 16.3 percent in 2013, according to federal statistics released Friday.”