Friday, March 20, 2015

Could Wisconsin's Scott Walker now abolish the weekend? - LA Times

 

isconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a leading aspirant for the Republican nomination for president, made his state the 25th "right-to-work" state in the nation on March 9 when he signed a measure passed by the Republican-controlled legislature.

He may soon get another crack at a worker-unfriendly law: Legislators have introduced a bill to abolish employees' legal right to at least one day off per week.

Walker's tenure falls somewhere between lackluster and a failure.- Christopher Flavelle, Bloomberg

State law currently allows factory or retail employees to work seven days or more in a row for a limited period, but they and their employer have to jointly petition the Department of Workforce Development for a waiver. These petitions apparently number a couple of hundred a year. The new proposal would allow workers to "voluntarily choose" to work without a day of rest. The state agency wouldn't have a say.

lRIt can't be a secret what "voluntarily" really means in this context. As Marquette University law professor Paul Secunda told the Nation, the measure "completely ignores the power dynamic in the workplace, where workers often have a proverbial gun to the head." Workers will know that if the boss demands it, they'll be volunteering or else.

The new measure tracks one last year that was introduced too late in the legislative session to reach a vote. As the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported at the time, it came directly from the wish list of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state's biggest business lobbying group. According to the newspaper, the measure's sponsors at first "said they had heard from businesses with employees who want to work the additional time." Under questioning, one sponsor, Republican state Rep. Mark Born, acknowledged that he had met only with representatives of the business lobbying group.

Walker hasn't said he would sign the bill, but he hasn't spoken out against it either; nor did he when it was introduced last year. The elimination of a guaranteed weekend would fit nicely with the rest of Walker's anti-worker platform, which includes his having ended collective bargaining rights for most public sector employees and signing the deceitfully named "right to work" law, which prohibits requirements that private-sector workers join unions or pay a representation fee as a condition of employment. Right-to-work laws in general are associated with poorer workplace conditions and lower pay than in union-friendlier states.

Wisconsin vs. the nation

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