Schimel: Right to work ‘is the law in Wisconsin’

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Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel sought to make it clear once and for all Wednesday that the state’s recently adopted right-to-work legislation is the law of the land.

“On May 24 … the Wisconsin Court of Appeals ended any confusion about whether the Right-to-Work Law is still in effect, by staying a circuit court’s decision declaring the law unconstitutional,” Schimel said in a statement.

Right-to-work laws, in effect in 26 states, prohibit unions and employers from reaching collective-bargaining agreements that require workers to pay union fees as a condition of employment at certain companies.

A group of unions is challenging the constitutionality of Wisconsin’s right-to-work law, which Gov. Scott Walker enacted in March 2015.

In April this year, Dane County Judge William Foust struck the law down, deeming it unconstitutional. Weeks later, Foust turned down a request to stay his ruling until questions over the law’s constitutionality could be resolved by a higher court.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice appealed Foust’s ruling, and the state’s District 3 Court of Appeals responded at the end of May by granting an emergency stay.

It was not clear Wednesday morning why Schimel felt there was a need to reconfirm through an official statement that Wisconsin’s right-to-work law is in effect. A call his office was not immediately returned.

“Act 1 (the right-to-work law) is the law in Wisconsin,” Schimel said in an official statement. Follow @alexzank