Another day, another Governor Scott Walker and Koch brothers’ scheme to further their extreme agenda and harm working families in the Badger State. This week, the Wisconsin state legislature is ramming through legislation that would make the state a right-to-work state, a measure that will pass both chambers and that Governor Walker has pledged to sign into law.
According to the Center for Media and Democracy, the bill is taken word-for-word from American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a group that counts Koch Industries as a key member. This is not the first time Governor Walker has pushed legislation from the Koch-funded group. Governor Walker has used his governorship to sign a litany of ALEC bills into law, including anti-consumer tort reform provisions, restrictive voter ID laws, voucher and virtual school expansions, the privatization of the state’s economic development functions, and more. Now that the ALEC-inspired right-to-work legislation is before the Wisconsin legislature, the Kochs’ political arm, Americans for Prosperity, is urging its grassroots activists to contact their legislators in support of the bill.
All workers — whether in a union or not — in states with right-to-work laws on the books, earn lower wages, and consequently endure lower living standards. Indeed, Governor Walker, the Koch brothers, and their allies are falling over themselves to deal a crushing blow to Wisconsin’s working families. It’s a deja-vu inducing move from a group that spared no expense in supporting Governor Walker’s campaign in the 2012 recall election, which centered on his attacks on the state’s public sector unions.