State Attorney General Brad Schimel filed an appeal Monday on a Dane County judge’s decision to remove Wisconsin’s right-to-work law.
The law, which is only a year old, was thrown out last week by Dane County Circuit Court Judge William Foust. Foust claimed the law violated Wisconsin’s constitution and contributed to a “free-rider” problem where non-union members benefit from due-paying union members.
Schimel appealed Foust’s decision, and also filed a motion to stay the right-to-work law while it goes through the appeals process.
“I’ve asked Judge Foust to stay his order to ensure that the right-to-work law remains in effect on appeal,” Schimel said in a statement Monday.
Opponents to the appeal and the law argue that it leads to lower pay and harms unions.
“If we want a strong economy, we should be strengthening unions so that workers can continue to collectively negotiate better workplaces for future generations," said Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, in a statement Monday. The Wisconsin AFL-CIO is one of the three unions involved in the lawsuit.
Those who support the law and the state’s decision to appeal feel it gives Wisconsin workers more freedom since it doesn’t tie them to a union.
“This injunction will immediately undermine the policies that the People, through their elected representations, have determined are in the public interest, while generating substantial uncertainty,” Schimel said in his motion to stay the law while in appeal.
Schimel remains optimistic that the appeal will yield success.
“Given that 25 others states have right-to-work laws and none of those have been declared unconstitutional, I am confident Wisconsin’s law will be upheld,” Schimel said in the statement.
