A federal judge upheld most of the law passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature last year that limited collective bargaining rights for many public employee unions, while striking down sections relating to annual recertification and allowing union members to deduct fees from their paycheck.
Judge William Conley of the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin on March 30 issued an order and opinion that said, according to equal protection and First Amendment grounds, general employee unions do not have to recertify on an annual basis if the state does not require public safety unions to recertify annually.
The order and opinion also said that general employee unions could be allowed to deduct union dues from paychecks because public safety unions are allowed to. However, Conley upheld the limiting of collective bargaining rights for general employee unions.
Mary Bell, president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, one of the organizations that brought the suit against the law, said in a statement the ruling is one more step in repealing the budget repair law.
“The court ruling goes to show that [the law] was never about balancing the state’s budget like Gov. (Scott) Walker claimed,” Bell said in the statement. “It was a mean-spirited attack designed to attack unions and the workers who belong to unions.”
However, she said in the statement that members of her union still lack collective bargaining rights and will continue fighting until they get them back.
Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, and Rep. Robin Vos, R-Burlington, said in a joint statement that while they were disappointed that two parts of the law were struck down, the majority of the law was found to be constitutional. They said they are hopeful the ruling will be appealed.
“The reforms in [the budget repair law] have undeniably helped the state move forward past difficult financial times,” Suder and Vos said in the statement. “The reforms were used by local governments and school districts to balance their budgets. Together with our jobs agenda, [the law] helped turn the tide and move the state toward a more prosperous future for its citizens.”
Cullen Werwie, spokesperson Walker, said in an email to The Badger Herald that while the Department of Justice is handling the case and will ultimately make the final decision on an appeal, he thinks an appeal is likely.
Rick Esenberg, president and general counsel of the Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty, which filed a “friend of the court” brief with the court in support of the Walker administration, said an appeal in the case would go to the Seventh Circuit Court, which would have to take on the case, regardless of who appealed.
He said depending on the decision of the Circuit Court, whoever was dissatisfied with the decision could ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case. However, he said the Supreme Court only takes 1 percent of the cases it is asked to take up, and typically the court only takes up those cases that raise an interesting turn of law.
Esenberg said WILL filed the brief with the court as part of a group of clients who preferred to negotiate plans on an individual basis rather than through unionized bargaining.
