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Wisconsin judge rules Act 10 is unenforceable, restoring collective bargaining rights to public workers [1]
['Destiny Devooght']
Date: 2024-12
This decision marks the final judgment in a 2023 lawsuit brought by seven labor unions arguing that Act 10 violated workers' equal protection guarantees.
MADISON, Wis. (CNS) — A Wisconsin judge issued a landmark decision on Monday to overturn Act 10, restoring collective bargaining powers for public workers after over a decade of protest.
Former Governor Scott Walker’s legacy legislation, Act 10, disarmed labor unions representing public employees for 13 years. The 2011 act created two distinct groups: “General” government workers and “public safety” workers.
The former group faced strict new rules. Collective bargaining was restricted to base wages, which were themselves capped by inflation, and unions in the general group became subject to annual recertification elections in which 51% of all employees — not just the ones who participated in the vote — had to vote in favor of the union in order to hold on to their representation.
While labor unions representing “general” public workers were in dire straits, “public safety” unions went untouched. This group included most, but not all, firefighters, law enforcement officers and state motor vehicle inspectors.
It took over a decade before a challenge to this law found its footing. In 2023, seven labor unions filed a lawsuit against the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission arguing that Act 10’s distinction between general workers and public safety workers was a violation of the equal protection clause and needed to be struck down. They also claimed that certain public safety workers were only spared because they endorsed Walker in his 2010 bid for governor.
On Monday, Frost released his final judgment and order in the case, which effectively guts Act 10 by striking more than 85 sections of the law mentioning the distinction between general and public safety workers. Those are just the ones that neither side disputed. He also struck several sections that either side had argued should remain intact, including some which may affect existing labor contracts.
The labor unions, despite previous arguments to the contrary, objected to the striking of certain sections “out of an abundance of caution” to avoid leaving some terms undefined in other parts of Wisconsin law. However, Frost discarded this argument and scolded the unions for their change-up.
“An unconstitutional law is null and void,” Frost said. “Striking it will of course impact some people in the State ... Plaintiffs asked to upset the current situation with public employee collective bargaining.”
In both its motion for dismissal and its objection to the labor union’s motion for judgment, the Legislature failed to offer a good reason for the law’s distinction between general employees and public safety employees, instead repeating the same attack on Frost’s power to strike parts of the law, Frost said.
“The Legislature argues that the Court can only render an empty judgment declaring parts of Act 10 unconstitutional but can provide no remedy to stop enforcement of those unconstitutional provisions,” Frost said in his decision. “If that were true, the judiciary would not be a co-equal branch of government. Judicial decisions must have meaning and effect.”
Although the lawmakers could not explain the distinction, Walker made it clear on X, formerly Twitter, that it was always about limiting workers’ rights in a tweet following the judgment: “Collective bargaining is not a right. It is an expensive entitlement.”
Frost also struck some provisions of the 2015 Act 55 as fruit of the poisonous tree — several sections of that act relate to Act 10’s special treatment of public safety employees. If those sections were to remain intact, the restrictions to collective bargaining would go into affect for all government workers in the state, according to Frost. This, he says, was clearly not the intention of the Legislature in 2011, and so they, too, cannot stand.
In 2011, workers flooded to the Capitol building to protest the restrictions. Democratic Representative Darrion Madison says this ruling was long overdue: “Judge Frost’s ruling is a monumental victory for Wisconsin’s working class. All Wisconsinites deserve the opportunity to live in a state that treats all workers with respect and dignity.
Republican lawmakers quickly denounced the decision to overturn Act 10, citing contradictory facts related to the law’s benefits.
Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu called Frost an “activist judge” and charged other “liberal activists” with attacking reforms that he says have saved taxpayers “billions of dollars."
State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, a Republican, said in his own statement that the law saved taxpayers $16 billion.
“This lawsuit came more than a decade after Act 10 became law and after many courts rejected the same meritless legal challenges," Vos said. "We look forward to presenting our arguments on appeal.”
Frost left open an opportunity for the Legislature to attempt to enact a new version of Act 10, without the employee distinctions.
“To uphold the role of the judicial branch, I must strike unconstitutional statutes and restore the statutes to a constitutional basis," Frost said. "The Legislature may then take up the work of drafting a new, constitutional framework for collective bargaining of public employees, if it so desires.”
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[1] Url:
https://www.courthousenews.com/wisconsin-judge-rules-act-10-is-unenforceable-restoring-collective-bargaining-rights-to-public-workers/
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