Right to Work Bill Passes Senate Committee 3-1

Senator Steve Nass (R-Whitewater), Chairman of the Senate Labor and Government Reform Committee announced that Senate Bill 44, the Right to Work Bill passed on a 3-1 vote (NOTE: Voting in the affirmative were Senators Nass, Wanggaard, and Marklein.  Voting No was Senator Wirch.  Senator Larson was present but refused to cast a vote).  The bill now moves to the Senate Floor for debate and a vote on Wednesday, February 25th.

"I voted in favor of Right to Work because the proposal offers significantly more positives for the people of Wisconsin than negatives.  We will join 24 other states that offer individual employees the freedom to decide if they want to be dues paying union members," Nass said.

Chairman Nass made the decision to enter into executive session earlier than the planned time of 7:00p.m., because of a threat of union disruptions to begin at that time.  In an article posted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel at 3:58p.m., reporter Jason Stein quoted Bruce Colburn of the Service Employees International Union State Council.  Mr. Colburn made it clear that disruptive actions by protesters would commence when the committee attempted to enter into executive session to hold a vote at 7:00p.m.

"We learned during the Act 10 chaos to take the union protesters at their word when making threats of disruption or actions to prevent the Legislature from voting.  As Chairman, it is my duty to keep the legislative process moving forward and not to allow the protesters to takeover the process of representing all of the people of this great state," Nass said.