She sent employees a petition to recall Democratic governor

Her company faces own concerns from staff over coming to work

An unusual email greeted employees at a Wisconsin shipping-supply company on Friday. It urged them to support a petition for the recall of the state’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers, saying he was violating their constitutional right to work during the coronavirus pandemic.

Most significant, the message came from their boss, billionaire Liz Uihlein, one of the Republican Party’s biggest donors and an economic adviser to President Donald Trump.

The request bothered some staffers, in part because they consider Uihlein insufficiently supportive of work-from-home policies — something her company disputes, calling its employees’ health and safety “our top priority.”

As protests grip Wisconsin and other states with Democratic governors, the debate is dividing neighbors, politicians and business executives. Big company CEOs — Democrats and Republicans alike — have generally urged caution about reopening because of the health risk, yet some of the GOP’s biggest donors have been pushing hardest on the side of lifting restrictions.

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