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Candidates on Labor Day
Labor Day 2026 sounded a lot like the debate over Labor Day in 2011 in Wisconsin’s race for governor.
Democrat David Crowley and Republican Tom Tiffany spent their Labor Days talking about Act 10 and Right to Work.
“Every single worker should have the right to sit at the collective bargaining table and negotiate for fair wages,” Crowley said. “It’s not going to take just me becoming governor, we need to take back the Senate, take back the Assembly, so we can make sure we can repeal Act 10 and repeal Right to Work for less.”
Act 10 became law in 2011, and restricted how public sector unions can negotiate new contracts. While ending the law would not automatically return thousands of teachers in the state to the union, it would change what teachers unions could include in their new contracts. Wisconsin's teachers unions, along with other public sector unions, have made ending Act 10 their biggest priority.
Tiffany, at a different event, talked about worker choice instead of rolling back Act 10.
“If they want to belong to a union, they should. If they don’t want to, they should have that same choice,” Tiffany said. But when I talk to rank-and-file labor members that are up there, I hear from so many they are voting for me."
Wisconsin lawmakers approved Act 10 in March of 2011, it went into effect the same day. Lawmakers then approved the state's Right to Work law in 2015. Governor Scott Walker signed both laws.
Since Act 10, Wisconsin's union membership has fallen. As many as half of the state's teachers now no longer belong to a union. Overall, just over 6% of Wisconsin workers are in any kind of a union. Meaning more than 93% of workers in the state are not unionized.
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