Mary Spicuzza, and Patrick Marley

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

WAUWATOSA - President Donald Trump's administration is interested in going national with Wisconsin's restrictions on unions, Gov. Scott Walker said Wednesday.

Walker said he spoke with Vice President Mike Pence during his Friday visit to the White House about his 2011 move to sharply limit collective bargaining for most public workers in Wisconsin, known as Act 10.

The governor said he and Pence talked about "what we've done here in Wisconsin, how they may take bits and pieces of what we did with Act 10 and with civil service reform, and how they could apply that at the national level" for federal workers.



"It's something that they're interested in. The vice president has brought up before," Walker said. "It's certainly something we're willing to offer our assistance on, particularly if it helps improve not just the nation, but in turn helps improve the ability to be better stewards of the taxpayers' dollars here in Wisconsin."

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Moving to end or restrict collective bargaining for federal workers would likely provoke a major standoff between labor unions and the new Trump administration.

"I think it would be a pretty unfortunate thing for our country to go through," said Wisconsin state Rep. Melissa Sargent (D-Madison). "Certainly, families in Wisconsin aren't doing better than they were six years ago (when Walker took office) and I think it has a lot to do with those actions."

Most federal employees don't have collective bargaining rights over pay and benefits, but they can negotiate over workplace safety and other terms and conditions of employment.

Among the first major actions Trump took after becoming president was a federal hiring freeze for the U.S. government, which employs 2.8 million civilian employees and 1.4 million uniformed military personnel.

So far, Trump has tried to keep himself in good standing with private-sector unions by meeting with trade union leaders and emphasizing his plans to invest in infrastructure to create construction jobs.

Soon after he took office in 2011, Walker advanced Act 10, which forced most state, school and local government employees to pay more for their benefits and ended their ability to negotiate over their working conditions. It sparked the biggest protests in Madison since the 1960s and led to two years of recall elections for members of both parties.

Walker won a recall election in 2012, becoming the first governor in the country's history to survive one.

The fight made Walker a national figure and helped him mount a brief run for the presidency. Just before abandoning his presidential run, Walker proposed eliminating collective bargaining for federal workers and putting restrictions on unions that represent private-sector workers.

Last year, Walker signed a law overhauling Wisconsin’s civil service system that ensures government employees have job protections and ensures hiring is based on merit. The law got rid of civil service exams, ended the ability of longtime employees to avoid terminating by “bumping” less senior workers out of their jobs and cut by more than half the amount of time workers had to appeal their dismissal or discipline.

A White House spokesperson did not provide comment.

Democrats, labor unions and liberals quickly pushed back against the idea of limiting collective bargaining for more workers.

“Why would anyone want to make it harder for workers to have a shot at the middle class?" said a statement from Stephanie Bloomingdale, the secretary-treasurer of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO. "Act 10 hasn’t worked for Wisconsin, why would it work for America?”

On Wednesday, Walker was also asked about Trump's executive order barring people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. for the next 90 days, and suspending the admission of refugees for 120 days.

"I do not believe this should be a religious test. I do not believe this is a religious test," Walker said.

He added that he was concerned the previous administration hadn't "done enough to ensure that individuals coming in from Syria were properly vetted" to protect U.S. citizens.

Mary Spicuzza reported for this story in Wauwatosa with Patrick Marley in Madison.