Senate Majority Leader Says Legislature Needs To Take Up Right-To-Work

The Republican leader of the state Senate said on Thursday that lawmakers need to deal with right-to-work legislation “right away” when they return to Madison next year.

Speaking to conservative talk radio host Charlie Sykes, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said there was no way to avoid dealing with right-to-work next session. Right-to-work laws, which have been passed in other states, ban mandatory union shops in the private sector.

Focusing on such legislation would go against the publicly stated wishes of Gov. Scott Walker, who has said that pursuing a right-to-work law would be a distraction.

Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling said that GOP lawmakers should listen to the governor.

“I think it’s an example of, the right hand doesn’t quite agree with what the far-right hand is doing in his party. And the governor ultimately should come out, and if he’s going to veto this bill, let them know that this would be vetoed — that this is not something that he would like on his desk,” said Shilling.

Walker has never said he would veto right-to-work, and he actually sponsored a right-to-work bill a member of the Legislature in 1990s.