A federal judge upheld the state law that limits public employees’ collective bargaining rights Wednesday, dismissing a lawsuit challenging the controversial restrictions.
While additional lawsuits against Act 10, which was passed by the Legislature in 2010 and ended collective bargaining for some public sector unions, are still pending, the two chapters of AFL-CIO who filed suits against Gov. Scott Walker and other officials contended their First Amendment rights should protect collective bargaining.
In his opinion, U.S. District Judge William Conley rejected this argument and said, “The implicit assumption in this argument – that the First Amendment gives employees an unfettered right to bargain collectively – is, at best, questionable.”
Conley added the 22 states that prohibit collective bargaining rights do so without hindering workers’ First Amendment rights.
The law does not allow government employee unions to negotiate anything besides base wages or for states to recognize unions unless 51 percent of all potential members support the union. Pay increases are also limited to the rate of inflation under the law.
State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said in a statement after the decision he expects Act 10 to be upheld again in the remaining court challenges.
“This case proves, once again, that Act 10 is constitutional in all respects and that the challenges to the law are baseless,” Van Hollen said.
Walker originally included his proposal to curb collective bargaining rights in his Budget Repair Bill, causing thousands of people to protest at the state Capitol in 2011. After Democratic senators left the state to prevent the Senate from reaching the quorum necessary to vote on the bill, Republican legislators passed the legislation that would be signed into law as Act 10 by stripping out the bill’s fiscal provisions.
The Department of Justice had no further comment on the ruling after Van Hollen’s statement was released.
State AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt also issued a statement expressing his disappointment for Wisconsin workers.
“In America, workers have the right to join a union and with one stroke of his pen, Gov. Walker decimated that right,” Neuenfeldt said. “Act 10 always has and always will infringe upon a worker’s right to collective bargaining and democracy in the workplace.”
Lester Pines, a civil rights attorney in Madison involved in other Act 10 lawsuits, said the plaintiff’s argument using the First Amendment was not effective.
“Everyone’s very excited about the fact that Judge Conley upheld Act 10 as being constitutional [but their reasoning] that it being unconstitutional was a foolish argument that should never have been made,” Pines said.
Pines added the lawsuit he is involved in, litigating for Madison teachers and Milwaukee workers, is a “much more sophisticated” argument, and was taken up by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in April.
Oral arguments will be held later this year for Pines’ case.
Pines said the Wisconsin Court of Appeals recognized the difficulty of their argument and asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to step in. While the Supreme Court has the ability to send the case back to the appeals court, it chose to hear the case.
Another lawsuit brought against Act 10 by the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Association is still pending in Dane County Circuit Court.
