Today the State Senate introduced Senate Bill 44 (SB 44), a bill that protects the individual conscience rights of Wisconsin workers. You can help make this bill a reality!
Some call this legislation Right to Work. We call this “Freedom of Conscience in the Workplace”legislation. Essentially, SB 44 says Wisconsin workers will have their individual conscience rights respected and will not be forced to join and/or pay dues to a labor union if they choose not to do so.
In recent years, labor unions have taken positions on (and sometimes even funded organizations working on) issues such as abortion and marriage redefinition–positions not shared by all their members. Unions have also frequently supported, by endorsement and/or funding, political candidates whose positions on issues such as abortion and/or marriage are opposed to the positions of some of their members.
Article I, Sec. 18 of our Wisconsin Constitution guarantees liberty of conscience to all citizens: “nor shall any control of, or interference with,
the rights of conscience be permitted….” This liberty of conscience should be extended to the workplace. No one should have to violate his/her conscience in order to be employed.
SB 44 ensures that the conscience rights of all WI workers are respected.
SB 44 does not do away with labor unions in Wisconsin. All SB 44 does is to make belonging to a labor union a matter of choice for an employee. For many this is a matter of, finally, being able to work without having their conscience rights violated because they’ve been forced to join and pay their hard-earned money to a union whose ideological and political positions are different from theirs.
Such freedom of conscience is a fundamental right of our American and Wisconsin citizenship.
We need your help to ensure employees’ individual conscience rights are respected in the workplace. Please take just a few minutes to make a phone call or send an email to your elected officials. In your phone calls and emails, feel free to use the language in this email as you make your case to your state senator and state representative.
WHAT WE NEED YOU TO DO (The Senate is scheduled to vote on this bill THIS WEEK! Please act quickly!)
1. Click here to get the contact information for both your state senator and state representative. On the home page, towards the top just right of center and just left of the small WI map, you’ll see “Find My Legislators.” In the box “Address,” simply type in your street address, city and zip code and hit “Find.”You’ll get a map of your legislative district along with an info box showing both your state senator and your state representative along with phone numbers and emails.
2. Use the contact information to call your state senator and state representative and/or send them an email urging them to support SB 44, the “Freedom of Conscience in the Workplace” bill.
3. Send us a quick email at info@wifamilyaction.org letting us know you contacted your legislators. It helps us know which legislators are being contacted and which ones we really need to work on.
4. Pass this information on to other Wisconsin citizens, encouraging them to join you in protecting the individual conscience rights of Wisconsin workers.
