Trades union to skip rallies on right-to-work

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A trades union leader said Saturday that he and his colleagues will not be encouraging their members to take part in two rallies the AFL-CIO has organized next week to protest right-to-work legislation pushed by Republican lawmakers.

David Branson, executive director of the Building and Construction Trades Council of South Central Wisconsin, said he and representatives of six other laborers councils throughout Wisconsin instead plan to organize a “lobbying day” event Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, has said the Senate’s labor committee would hold a daylong hearing the same day on the right-to-work legislation Republican lawmakers introduced Friday.

Branson said the lobbying-day event will take place from 7 a.m. to noon Tuesday just south of the state Capitol in rooms rented at Monona Terrace. Those who attend will receive talking points that they can bring to the committee hearing and use in opposition to right-to-work.

Branson said he and his colleagues remain staunchly opposed to the legislation Republicans introduced Friday. Still, he said, construction-union representatives know they will have to work with GOP lawmakers if they are to have any chance at stopping various other proposals that are being advanced this year.

Of paramount concern, Branson said, is a recently introduced bill that would repeal the state’s prevailing-wage law. He said union officials have also become anxious after hearing some Republican lawmakers discuss a possible ban on the inclusion of mandatory project-labor agreements in government contracts.

Branson said he thought lobbying lawmakers would produce better results than joining the AFL-CIO’s rallies. He said he and his colleagues are well aware that Republicans control both houses of the statehouse and the governor’s office.

“We want to educate them,” he said, “and try to get them to see our point of view.”

The AFL-CIO of Wisconsin has scheduled rallies for Tuesday and Wednesday to protest the proposed right-to-work legislation. The events are scheduled to start at noon and are to take place on the northwest side of the state Capitol.

Branson said he cannot guarantee that all trades workers will avoid the rallies.

“I have no control over that,” he said.

Branson did say, though, that he and other trades union leaders will not be encouraging anyone to go.

“We’re going to be handing out information and asking them to take it to their Assembly representatives and their senators,” he said. “But we are not officially engaging in the AFL-CIO rally or anything like that.”

Republican lawmakers announced Friday they would hold an “extraordinary session” of the state Legislature over the next few weeks to ensure a quick adoption of the proposed right-to-work bill. Fitzgerald said he plans to have the full Senate take a vote on Wednesday or early Thursday and then have the proposal to the state Assembly by the following week.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Scott Walker has said he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk. Right-to-work laws, in effect in 24 states, generally prohibit employers from entering into contracts that require employees to pay mandatory union dues.

Proponents say no one should have to support unions as a condition of employment. Opponents say the laws prevent private-business owners from being able to decide what should be in their own contracts. Follow @TDR_WLJDan