[Waukesha, Wis.] — In case you missed it, Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels is refusing to sign a pledge to protect the major worker freedom reform signed into law by Gov. Scott Walker, according to National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and National Right to Work Committee President Mark Mix.
In an interview with WSAU’s Meg Ellefson, Mix discussed Michels’ company’s history of opposing to right to work and said Michels has refused to commit in writing to keeping Wisconsin a right-to-work state.
Listen to Mix’s interview here, and see quotes from him below:
“We survey all the candidates running for statewide office and for federal office across the entire country. And we asked [Michels] very simple questions. I mean, the question that Tim Michels has in front of him right now from our organization is: Would you support Wisconsin’s right-to-work law, yes or no? It’s a very simple question. Yes or no…. I think the people of Wisconsin need to know where he stands.”
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“Tim Michels needs to just answer the question…. It’s a very simple question, very simple law. All he needs to do is say yes or no. You know, sometimes talking to the media is an easy way out, particularly if it’s a campaign spokesman, you know, they, they tend to say what they think people want to hear. We wanna see it in writing and and have him commit to protecting Wisconsin’s right-to-work law.”
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“Rebecca Kleefisch has answered the right-to-work survey 100% in support of right to work. She says she will protect the right-to-work law in Wisconsin, if given the chance to do that and confronted with that issue. And so I think the other candidate needs to stand up and say the same thing. And he has to put it in writing…. And we hope the folks at Wisconsin will continue to ask them these questions.”
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“There’s one company that kind of led the opposition to the right-to-work law’s passage in 2015, and that was the Michels Corp. Obviously, there is one co-owner of that company that’s asking for the support of Wisconsin voters as they go to the polls on, I think August 9th…. And that company, the Michels Corp. was probably the leader in organizing opposition to passage of the right-to-work law in 2015.”
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“We actually, our legal defense foundation represented one of [Michels Corp.’s] employees out in Colorado who was fired because he did not pay union dues. And unfortunately the company and the union out there, the Laborers’ International Union — LIUNA, as their known shortly — they had a worker fired because he wouldn’t tender dues or fees, and they said he had to pay full union dues. And that was a violation of federal law.”
To listen to the full interview, please click here.
