Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald speaks at a July news conference in Madison. He said Thursday the Senate will quickly take up so-called right-to-work legislation. Credit: Rick Wood

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Madison — Nearly four years after mostly eliminating collective bargaining for public workers, Republicans are considering putting limits on most private-sector unions while giving an unprecedented exemption to the labor groups that support them politically.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said Thursday he was gathering information on so-called right-to-work legislation so that it could be taken up early next year. Right-to-work laws — such as those approved in recent years in Michigan and Indiana — prohibit employers from striking deals with private-sector unions to require workers to pay dues.

"It's my opinion it has to come up early" in the session that begins in January, Fitzgerald told reporters. "I don't know how we get through the session without having this debate."

Fitzgerald said he was considering making Wisconsin the first state to exempt certain private workers such as the operators of earth movers, who have supported Wisconsin Republicans in recent years. An exemption from the union restriction would be granted because those labor groups help train workers in their industries, not because of their political backing, he said.

In 2011 Republicans spared police and firefighters — two groups that sometimes back them — from Act 10, which limited union activities for other public workers. That law didn't affect private workers.

Tens of thousands of workers protested for weeks and Walker faced — and survived — a recall election because of Act 10.

Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, said further weakening unions was the wrong prescription for an ailing middle class.

"It's a sad day for workers and the middle class," he said. "Right-to-work is bad for everybody, no matter how you slice it."

Advocates say prohibiting employers and labor groups from making these agreements would give workers more freedom. Opponents of the measure say it saps union finances and clout by allowing workers to get any potential benefits from a labor group in their workplace without having to provide anything in return.

Fitzgerald first raised his proposal with conservative talk radio host Charlie Sykes of WTMJ-AM (620), and then later Thursday discussed it with statehouse reporters. It was a complete shift from the rhetoric of Republicans who in the months leading up to the November election called the issue a distraction and insisted it was not a priority.

"We can't tiptoe through this session without addressing this," Fitzgerald told Sykes on Thursday. "We're not tackling this six months from now. We're not tackling this a year from now. ... There's no way we avoid this issue. We have to deal with this issue right now."

His comments come as Rep. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) vowed this week to introduce a bill to do that and as a longtime activist in the state with ties to national groups has started an organization, Wisconsin Right to Work, to promote the legislation.

Fitzgerald said he would be willing to have the Senate vote first on the measure. Given that the backing for it is stronger in the state Assembly, the majority leader's remarks signaled that support for the idea among conservative lawmakers could be too great to stop.

In 1993, Walker co-sponsored right-to-work legislation as a freshman in the Assembly.

Walker as governor and GOP legislative leaders have consistently downplayed seeking any restrictions on private unions in public statements while at the same time declining to say whether they would approve such a bill. Walker is now considering running for president and would face GOP primary voters who strongly favor right-to-work laws.

In May 2012, Walker called private-sector unions "my partner in economic development," noting they had lobbied for some of his priorities such as legislation making it easier to site an iron mine in northern Wisconsin.

As recently as Wednesday, Walker said he did not want to take up a right-to-work bill.

"As I said before the election and have said repeatedly over the last few years, I just think right-to-work legislation right now, as well as reopening Act 10 to make any other adjustments, would be a distraction from the work that we're trying to do," Walker said, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said in 2012 that he supported such legislation but lawmakers wouldn't take it up "in the foreseeable future."

Thursday, Vos said that is what he believed at the time. He said he is now largely in agreement with Fitzgerald but had no plans to take the issue up in January.

"Rushing into it certainly doesn't serve any purpose," Vos said.

Incoming Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse) said Walker should end the debate by promising to veto right-to-work legislation if it gets to him.

"It's not a question of whether 'Right to Work for Less' will be a distraction for our state — it already is," Shilling said in a statement. "Rather than creating economic uncertainty for Wisconsin families and businesses, we need to be focused on growing the economy and creating jobs."

One key impediment to passing such legislation has been the support Republicans have received from a few private-sector unions, including the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 139, whose members run the heavy equipment used to build roads and other infrastructure.

Thursday, Fitzgerald said Republicans could exempt the operating engineers, pipe fitters and certain other trade unions from any bill. But he also conceded that this approach could make the law more vulnerable to a legal challenge.

"We don't know yet what can or can't be done. If you asked three attorneys — three labor attorneys — what would or wouldn't work, you'd get three different answers," he said.

Local 139 regularly gives to candidates from both parties and has made more than $460,000 in political donations since 2008, according to state figures.

Other unions have criticized the engineers for backing Walker even after the governor introduced Act 10. Local 139 has given more than $57,600 to Walker's campaign since 2010, including $43,128 two months ago.

Terry McGowan, the union's business manager, said he had not cut a deal with Fitzgerald and was surprised by his comments.

Asked about the potential exemption for his union, McGowan said: "I think it's a slippery slope that nobody wants to go down. I just don't think there should be right-to-work."

A spokesman for the National Right to Work Committee said that of the 24 states with such laws, none had ever exempted any private-sector unions, though Indiana had considered doing so.

"It frankly would make the law more susceptible to a legal challenge," said Patrick Semmens of the committee. "Why would you want to leave some (workers) out as a favor to union officials?"

Marquette University Law School professor Paul Secunda said he didn't believe an exemption would hold up in federal court.

"There's nothing in the statutes that lets you pick and choose among unions," he said.

But Secunda also acknowledged that the National Labor Labor Relations Act doesn't explicitly prohibit exemptions and that courts have never ruled on that question.

Kapenga — the state representative working on the legislation in the Assembly — said he was encouraged by Fitzgerald's statements, but he opposed carving out an exception for particular unions.

Sen. Luther Olsen (R-Ripon) said GOP senators were looking at whether they could prohibit labor contracts from requiring all workers to pay union dues but still allow employers to collect voluntary union dues from those employees' paychecks.

"Do you want to give people the option of joining a union or not or do you blow up the union?" Olsen said.

Sen. Rob Cowles (R-Allouez) said he was surprised by Fitzgerald's comments because of Walker's position that such legislation is not a priority.

Cowles hasn't made up his mind on the bill but said, "I think the governor's got a point. I think we have to give some thought to that."

An extension of Act 10 to the private sector gained considerable ground in the Legislature after November's election, particularly in the Senate, where outgoing GOP moderates Mike Ellis of Neenah and Dale Schultz of Richland Center were replaced by more conservative lawmakers.

"There's not a senator who was re-elected or a challenger candidate who did not have this issue come up" in their recent campaigns, Fitzgerald said.