Workers get day off to fight legislation

Among the crowd gathered outside the state Capitol on Wednesday to protest right-to-work legislation were various trades workers who had received a day off from their jobs to attend the rally.

Jeff Bechard, a 50-year-old sheet metal worker, said he and several of his colleagues were only able to drive the roughly 2-1/2 hours from his home in Eau Claire to attend Wednesday’s demonstration in Madison because their employer, Hovland’s Inc. of Chippewa Falls, gave them the day off. Bechard said he and his employer recognize the chances were slim of stopping the right-to-work bill Republican lawmakers introduced last week.

GOP members control the state Senate 18 to 14 and the Assembly 63 to 36. A spokeswoman for Gov. Scott Walker, also a Republican, has said he will sign the right-to-work bill if it reaches his desk.

Bechard said it’s hard to tell how effective the rallies scheduled by the AFL-CIO for Tuesday and Wednesday would be.

“But we don’t want to roll over,” he said. “We want them to know we are going to be here throughout.”

Bechard said possibly the only way to stop the right-to-work legislation would be to call for a general strike across all industries in the state. Paul Secunda, a professor in Marquette Univeresity’s Labor and Employment Law Program, has said protests will probably not stop right-to-work and has argued the best hope lies in a general strike.

Bechard said he has heard much discussion about the likely benefits of a mass walk-off from job sites. But he does not know if the threat is credible.

The roughly 2,000 people who gathered inside and outside the state Capitol on Wednesday were nearly equal in number to those who attended a similar rally Tuesday. A worker who showed up both days likewise said he was only able to come because he had got some days off from his employer, Michels Corp. of Brownsville. Michels Corp. is a member of the Wisconsin Contractor Coalition, which represents more than 400 construction companies that are opposed to right to work.

Dan Ambrose, a member of Laborers Local 464 in Madison, said he does not necessarily think right-to-work presents a direct threat to unions. Ambrose said current union members, even if given the choice to not pay now-mandatory dues, will continue contributing. Unions provide workers not only with representation at the bargaining table, Ambrose said, but also the management of funds used to pay for health benefits, pensions and training.

“People would be foolish to give up on unions,” he said. “There is still a lot of value in them.”

Several representatives of trades unions have said they were not encouraging members to attend the rallies organized by the AFL-CIO of Wisconsin for Tuesday and Wednesday, but they weren’t discouraging them either. Besides going to the demonstrations in large numbers, construction workers formed the backdrop to Democrat Senators who spoke against the right-to-work bill at a press conference earlier Wednesday.

The state Senate started debating the legislation, Senate Bill 44, at 1:30 p.m. and was expected to continue well into the night. A final vote had not been taken by deadline Wednesday afternoon.

Construction companies that oppose right-to-work argue the law will disrupt a system in which unions now help to provide training, drug-testing and recruitment services. Proponents counter that no one should be forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment. Follow @TDR_WLJDan