President Barack Obama wasted little time Monday night in blasting Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker for a new state law that bans requiring the payment of union dues as a condition of employment, saying it 'will weaken, rather than strengthen workers.' Walker signed the bill into law on Monday, making the Badger State the 25th with such a 'Right To Work' law. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed the measure into law Monday. Walker is expected to run as a Republican candidate for president in 2016. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEOS . Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed his state's right-to-work bill into law on Monday, making Wisconsin the 25th state with such a law . The Republican presidential front-runner said before his signing eremony that the law will send 'a powerful message across the country and around the world.' Hours later, he leveraged the issue in a fundraising email. 'The Big Government Labor Bosses will never forgive me for taking away their power but we are doing the right thing,' he wrote, asking for donations ranging from $10 to $1,000. By 9:00 at night, the White House was circulating a statement from Obama claimign that Walker had notched a 'victory over working Americans.' If the Wisconsin governor were interested in protecting workers, the president said, be would be 'taking meaningful action to raise their wages and offer them the security of paid leave. That’s how you give hardworking middle-class families a fair shot in the new economy.' The nod to wages was a subtle jab at Wisconsin for not embracing a White House-led push to raise the minimum wage nationwide. The new Wisconsin law, Obama claimed, is part of 'a sustained, coordinated assault on unions, led by powerful interests and their allies in government.' Wisconsin is the first to enact a right-to-work law since Michigan and Indiana did it in 2012. The president issued this statement shortly after 9:00 p.m. on Monday: . 'It’s no coincidence that the rise of the middle class in America coincided in large part with the rise of unions – workers who organized together for higher wages, better working conditions, and the benefits and protections that most workers take for granted today. So it’s inexcusable that, over the past several years, just when middle-class families and workers need that kind of security the most, there’s been a sustained, coordinated assault on unions, led by powerful interests and their allies in government. 'So I’m deeply disappointed that a new anti-worker law in Wisconsin will weaken, rather than strengthen workers in the new economy. Wisconsin is a state built by labor, with a proud pro-worker past. So even as its governor claims victory over working Americans, I’d encourage him to try and score a victory for working Americans – by taking meaningful action to raise their wages and offer them the security of paid leave. That’s how you give hardworking middle-class families a fair shot in the new economy – not by stripping their rights in the workplace, but by offering them all the tools they need to get ahead.' Opponents of the measure complain that the law will give companies the upper hand and drive down wages. Proponents say laws that de-fang powerful unions can bring renewed business investment into a state, creating more jobs. Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Committee, said the Wisconsin law could bring a new wave of imitators in the American Midwest – historically strong industrialized regions with robust labor unions. 'Every worker deserves freedom of choice when it comes to union membership and dues payment, Mix said in a statement, 'and if states like Michigan and Wisconsin can pass Right to Work then Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri and Ohio can too.' Not all WIsconsin residents are behind Walker, most notably labor union bosses and much of their rank-and-file. As legislators passed the new bill on Feb. 28,  thousands of opponents braved sub-freezing temperatures to rally outside the state capitol in Madison, chanting union slogans and listening to speeches. It was a far cry from larger protests that engulfed the capital city in 2011 when he endorsed a plan to cut $1.5 billion of state spending by requiring unionized government workers to fund some of their own health benefits. The proposal, which he later signed into law, also gave school districts the power to hire and fire without regard for seniority, something opposed by teachers unions. Getting that legislation to Walker's desk proved problematic, however: At one point 14 Democratic legislators fled the state to nearby Chicago, Illinois, denying Republicans the quorum they needed to hold a vote. He later survived a recall campaign led by unions, collecting more votes than he had during his election to office. HALFWAY THERE? WIth WIsconsin's new right-to-work law, it's now illegal in half of America's 50 states to require the payment of union dues as a condition of employment . About 5,000 union supporters marched against 'right to work' legislation on Feb. 28 in Madison, Wisconsin, a fraction of the estimated 100,000 who had massed near the state capitol four years earlier in another anti-Scott Walker protest . Walker is now fine-tuning campaign messages in advance of what is expected to be a bruising Republican presidential primary season – and many of those talking points have Obama in their crosshairs. Ten days ago at the Conservative Political Action Conference, he lambasted Obama for what he said was a weak performance fighting the ISIS terror army overseas. America needs a leader who 'realizes that radical Islamic terrorism is a threat to our way of life and to all freedom-loving people,' he said . 'If I can do that with 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world,' Walker later claimed, bringing howls for the comparison of his critics to violent Islamists. 'He is even less qualified to be president than I thought,' a Democratic Party spokesman said in response. The super PAC supporting Walker, called Our American Revival, defended the right-to-work law on Tuesday. 'Workforce participation is up in Wisconsin because Scott Walker is a leader who tackled the tough economic problems left by his predecessor,' the PAC's spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said in a statement. 'Right to Work is happening because Wisconsin supports it but also because it's pro-growth, pro-freedom and pro-work.'
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill into law on Monday, making his state the 25th to ban requiring union dues as a condition of employment . President Obama fired back, calling the wave of similar laws 'a sustained, coordinated assault on unions'
Walker has emerged as the GOP's latest front-running in the 2016 hunt for the White House and is already using the bill-signing to raise money . Republican-dominated state legislature approved the bill in just two weeks .