A Dane County judge has ruled that Act 10, the 2011 law that limited public union power in Wisconsin is unconstitutional, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Act 10 ended the ability of public-sector unions to negotiate over any issues other than raises, and those raises were capped at the rate of inflation. In addition, unions were required to hold annual elections to maintain their ability to negotiate for those raises. For those elections, they must win a majority of all eligible members, not just those who cast votes.
It has resulted in a decline in union membership in Wisconsin compared to other states. Republicans who supported and passed the law stated that it has saved state taxpayers $16 billion.
Circuit Court Judge Jacob Frost ruled in July that the 2011 law violated equal protection guarantees in the Wisconsin Constitution by dividing public employees into two classes: “general” and “public safety” employees. Public safety employees are exempt from the collective bargaining limitations imposed on “general” public employees.
Frost’s order last week came in response to a motion to dismiss the case from Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled Legislature.
A federal appeals court in 2014 ruled that the law was constitutional. And in 2014, the state Supreme Court also upheld the law.
The unions filed the new lawsuit in November, months after the election of Justice Janet Protasiewicz. Protasiewicz has said she would consider recusing herself from hearing the case because she demonstrated against the law and signed a petition to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker over it.
In response to the order, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jill Underly, a Democrat, said in a statement that Act 10 was “used to justify massive cuts in school funding.”
Frost said in his decision that he found “no rational basis” for separating police and firefighters unions from other public workers and ordered parties in the case to submit arguments about “what sections of Act 10 must be severed and struck under my ruling.”
