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Unions score major victory in Wisconsin with court ruling restoring collective bargaining rights
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Unions score major victory in Wisconsin with court ruling restoring collective bargaining rights

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin’s public employees and teachers unions scored a major legal victory Monday with a ruling that restores collective bargaining rights they lost under a 2011 agreement. State Law it sparked weeks of protests and put the state at the center of the national battle for union rights.

This law, known as Act 10, effectively ended the ability of most public employees to negotiate salary increases and other issues, and forced them to pay more for their health insurance and benefits. retirement.

According to Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost’s ruling, all public sector workers who lost their collective bargaining power would have it restored to what was in place before 2011. They would be treated the same as police officers, firefighters and other public safety unions. who were exempt by law.

The decision will almost certainly be appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. And although the high court is currently controlled 4-3 by liberal justices, the April election will determine majority control for at least the next year.

Supporters of the law said it gave local governments more control over workers and the powers they needed to cut costs. Repealing the law, which allowed schools and local governments to raise money through higher payroll taxes for employee benefits, would put those entities out of business, Act 10 supporters argued.

Democratic opponents say the law harmed schools and other government agencies by depriving employees of the ability to collectively bargain over pay and working conditions.

The law was proposed by the government of the day. Scott Walker and signed into law by the Republican-controlled Legislature despite massive protests that lasted weeks and drew up to 100,000 people to the Capitol. The law has withstood numerous legal challenges over the years, but it was brought for the first time since the Wisconsin Supreme Court shifted to liberal control in 2023.

The seven unions and three union leaders who filed the suit argued that the law should be struck down because it creates unconstitutional exemptions for firefighters and other public safety workers. Lawyers for the Legislature and state agencies have countered that the exemptions are legal, have already been upheld by other courts and the case should be thrown out.

But Frost sided with the unions in July, saying the law violated the Wisconsin Constitution’s equal protection guarantees by dividing public employees into “general” and “public safety” employees. . It ruled that general employee unions, such as those representing teachers, cannot be treated differently from public safety unions that were exempt from the law.

His decision Monday outlined the dozens of specific provisions of the law that must be removed.

Wisconsin Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he looked forward to appealing the decision.

“This lawsuit occurred more than a decade after Act 10 took effect and after numerous courts rejected the same baseless legal challenges,” Vos said in a statement.

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s largest business lobbying organization, also denounced the move.

“Act 10 is not only constitutional, it is an essential tool for policymakers and elected officials to balance budgets and save money for taxpayers,” said WMC President Kurt Bauer. “Thanks to Act 10, the state, local governments and countless school districts have saved billions and billions of dollars – protecting Wisconsinites from massive tax increases over the past decade.

The lawmaker said in court filings that the arguments made in the present case were rejected in 2014 by the State Supreme Court. The only change since that decision is the makeup of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, lawyers for the Legislature argued.

Act 10 effectively ended collective bargaining for most public unions by allowing them to negotiate only on base salary increases not exceeding inflation. It also banned the automatic withdrawal of union dues, required annual recertification votes for unions, and forced public employees to pay more for their health insurance and retirement benefits.

The law was Walker’s signature legislative achievement, which was the target of a recall election that he won. Walker used his fights with unions to mount an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2016.

Frost, the judge who issued Monday’s ruling, appears to have signed the petition to recall Walker from his duties. None of the lawyers requested his withdrawal from the case and he did not resign. Frost was appointed to the bench by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who signed Walker’s recall petition.

The law also led to a spectacular decrease union membership across the state. The nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum said in a 2022 analysis that since 2000, Wisconsin has seen the largest decline in the proportion of its workforce that is unionized.

In 2015, the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature approved a right-to-work law that limited the power of private-sector unions.

The public sector unions that filed the suit are the Abbotsford Education Association; American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Locals 47 and 1215; the Beaver Dam Educational Association; SEIU Wisconsin; Teaching Assistants Association Local 3220 and International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 695.

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