As news of the state Senate passing the right-to-work bill diffused through campus this week, UW-Madison student organizations took diverse positions on the effects of the legislation.
The right-to-work bill would make it illegal for workers’ unions to require nonunion employees to pay dues. All employees could still choose to be a part of a union, but effectively fewer people would pay membership fees.
Senate majority leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said he proposed the bill as an effort to make Wisconsin economically competitive with other states.
Student Labor Action Coalition member Melanie Meyer said this decrease in paying members would weaken unions and job prospects in general.
“It’s been proven that jobs have higher wages, better benefits and the pay gap between women and men is decreased when you have a union in place,” Meyer said. “The potential of living in a right-to-work state and working in a right-to-work state means we might be looking at jobs that don’t have the wages and benefits that they could have.”
In a statement to The Daily Cardinal, Courtney Mullen, chair of College Republicans of UW-Madison, said the group supports the bill because it allows employees to choose whether or not they want to be in a union and creates more freedom in the workplace.
Meyer, who attended the protests at the Capitol this week, said the announcement of the bill has mobilized union members over a large area.
“It was really great to see the community turnout and unions came from all over the state. There were even some unions from other states that I saw,” Meyer said.
Fellow SLAC member Autumn Linsmeier said although the outcome of the bill seems already determined, she and other members of the organization will continue to oppose it.
“We all know it’s going to pass, but we’re not going to back down, we’re going to keep fighting it. That’s really all we can do,” Linsmeier said.
