GOP candidate for governor Tim Michels says he supports Wisconsin's right-to-work law despite his company's past opposition
Republican candidate for governor Tim Michels says he supports Wisconsin’s current ban on requiring non-unionized workers to pay dues to their workplace union, despite his company’s history opposing it.
Wisconsin enacted the ban, known as “right to work,” in 2015 under former Republican Gov. Scott Walker. The state’s law is similar to those passed in more than 20 states nationwide.
Michels Corp, the construction company Michels co-owns, was a part of the Wisconsin Contractor Coalition that opposed the right-to-work proposal.
The construction company's employees were also a part of protests against the proposed right-to-work law at the time. At least one employee of the company was able to protest right-to-work legislation because Michels Corp. gave him time off, according to a 2015 article from The Daily Reporter, a construction industry newspaper.
Now, seven years after the law was enacted, Michels’ campaign says he supports it.
“Tim, who has helped lead a company with thousands of unionized and non-unionized employees, supports an individual’s right to work and he supports Right to Work laws,” said Chris Walker, an advisor to the Michels campaign.
Any suggestion that Michels mandated or encouraged his employees to oppose the 2015 law is “completely false,” Walker said.
“We can’t speak for Michels Corporation, but when with them, he never specifically encouraged or granted time off for Michels employees to protest for or against anything, including right-to-work. How employees express their First Amendment rights on their own time is up to them,” he said.
In 2015, a Colorado-based worker won a settlement from the Michels Corporation and a union after he was fired for declining to pay union dues.
Michel’s chief competitor in the Republican gubernatorial primary on August 9, Rebecca Kleefisch, criticized Michels for allowing his employees to protest right-to-work.
“Despite protests from the union bosses, Rebecca Kleefisch proudly stood with Scott Walker and the Republican legislature in the fight to free workers from forced unionization," Kleefisch's campaign manager Charles Nichols said.
"Republican voters have a choice: Do we want a governor like Rebecca who stands up to the liberal protesters — or Tim Michels who gave his employees time off to join the protests against conservative reform?”
Michels and Kleefisch are locked in a tight race, according to the most recent Marquette University Law School poll that showed Michels with a slight lead within the margin of error.
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Democratic Governor Tony Evers' campaign said he would continue to support workers, as he has throughout his tenure by cutting income taxes and investing in training and apprenticeship programs.
"Workers deserve to have a seat at the table, and when they do, everyone is better off because of it," said Kayla Anderson, a spokeswoman for the Evers campaign. "Working families can’t afford Tim Michels’ or Rebecca Kleefisch’s radical and wrong agenda for our state.”
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Wisconsin’s right-to-work law has been seen by many as a blow to the power of unions in the state because it limits their ability to collect money from employees who don’t want to join the union. Union leaders argued it was unconstitutional and challenged it in state and federal court in 2016. Both the U.S. Court of Appeals and the Wisconsin Court of Appeals upheld the law in 2017.