MADISON, Wis. (CN)— Seven unions filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the constitutionality of a controversial Wisconsin law that largely slashed collective bargaining rights for public-sector employees.
The Abbotsford Education Association, Beaver Dam Education Association, and local chapters of the Service Employees International Union and International Brotherhood of Teamsters, among other unions, say the 2011 law — officially dubbed the Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill, but better known as Act 10 — violates the Wisconsin Constitution and should be permanently blocked.
According to the plaintiffs, Act 10 fundamentally violates the state constitution’s equal protections clause by dividing public employees into groups of “general” employees and “public safety” employees, then imposing burdens on the collective bargaining rights of the former group while allowing the latter group “to proceed as though Act 10 were never passed.”
The “public safety” group includes most but not all firefighters, law enforcement officers and state motor vehicle inspectors, excluding public employees in commonplace public-safety positions like conservation wardens and police at the state capitol in Madison and the University of Wisconsin. The “general” group, the plaintiffs say, includes all other public workers.
In what the unions call a “sea change,” Act 10 virtually eliminated collective bargaining for the general group outside the subject of base wage increases capped by inflation, subjects unions in that group to annual recertification elections where 51% of all employees — not just those voting — must vote in favor of representation to retain its certification, and burdens these unions’ ability to financially support their activities by prohibiting employers from deducting union dues directly from members’ paychecks.
The unions say the law was passed ostensibly “to address the state’s projected budget deficit during a temporary economic downturn” but was really just a way for the administration of then-Governor Scott Walker, a Republican, to target labor unions for political reasons and upend labor relations in the Badger State.
The plaintiffs note in their complaint the five public employee unions and associations that endorsed Walker during his 2010 campaign were exempted from the law’s restrictions on union activities, and the ones that did not endorse him were in the group whose collective bargaining rights got the ax. This scheme had no legitimate government purpose, the unions say, and was only put in place for political retribution.
The plaintiffs, represented by Jeffrey Mandell with the Madison-based firm Stafford Rosenbaum, point out that, by 2021, of the 983 public-sector unions that sought recertification under Act 10’s “anti-democratic regime,” only 318 remained certified, a reduction of nearly 70%.
“Indeed, Act 10 has completely altered the landscape for public-sector unions in Wisconsin — the birthplace of public-sector collective bargaining,” the plaintiffs say.
Act 10 has survived multiple legal challenges making a variety of arguments since it became the law of the land, including two federal lawsuits that reached the Seventh Circuit and another challenge that failed at the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Thursday’s lawsuit was filed in Dane County Circuit Court in Madison and for the time being will remain in the court of Judge Jacob Frost, but it will almost certainly reach the state Supreme Court, which as of this past summer elected a liberal majority for the first time in more than a decade.
However, newly elected liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz participated in protests against the law, has said she believes it is unconstitutional and told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel she might recuse herself from any litigation over it. Justice Brian Hagedorn, a conservative who was once Walker's chief legal counsel and had a role in drafting the law, has avoided promising he would recuse in such litigation, according to The Associated Press.
Act 10’s passage garnered nationwide headlines and widespread outrage among liberals and labor advocates, and sparked protests that drew tens of thousands of demonstrators, hundreds of whom occupied the state capitol building for weeks. Other high drama touched off by the law included 14 Democratic senators fleeing across state lines to Illinois to block a vote on the matter before the bill was signed in March 2011 and went into effect that June.
Walker has invoked Ronald Reagan, another well-known Republican union antagonist, when defending the law. The aftermath of its passage largely contributed to an unsuccessful 2012 election to recall him, and he rode momentum from the high-profile battle with labor into a presidential run in 2015 that fizzled after a couple of months.
Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature defended Act 10 and blasted the lawsuit to reverse it in statements Thursday.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester said repealing the law would “bankrupt schools and local governments right after we gave them a historic funding increase” and accused liberal special interest groups of trying to please donors by leveraging the Supreme Court’s shift to a liberal majority. State Senator Duey Stroebel of Saukville claimed Act 10 has saved state taxpayers $16.8 billion and echoed Vos’ statement that the left is engaging in “lawfare” with the new-look high court.
Conversely, state Senate Minority Leader Melissa Agard, a Democrat from Madison, applauded the unions’ lawsuit, saying Act 10 had “catastrophic ramifications for public-sector employees” and that it should be ruled unconstitutional.
Wayne Rasmussen, a union building technician and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, decried in a statement that he and his co-workers “have been forced to recertify our decision to organize a union each year.”
“The end of Act 10 would mean that we would have a real say again in our retirement plans, health care and time off — without the threat of loss of our union every year,” he said.
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