MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Public employee and teacher unions in Wisconsin won a major legal victory Monday with a ruling that restores collective bargaining rights they lost under a 2011 state law that sparked weeks of protests and pushed the state toward the center of the national struggle made about trade union rights.
That law, known as Act 10, effectively ended the ability of most public employees to negotiate pay raises and other issues and forced them to pay more for health insurance and retirement benefits.
Under the ruling by Dane County District Judge Jacob Frost, all public employees who lost their collective bargaining power would have it restored to pre-2011 levels. They would be treated the same as police, firefighters and other public safety unions that were exempt under the law.
Republicans vowed to immediately appeal the ruling, which will likely ultimately go to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. That only underscores the importance of the April election, which will determine whether the court remains controlled 4-3 by liberal justices.
Former Gov. Scott Walker, who proposed the law that catapulted him onto the national political stage, called the ruling “brazen political activism” in a post on the social media platform X. He said it would make the state Supreme Court election “all the more important.”
Supporters of the law said it would give local governments more control over workers and the powers they needed to cut costs. Repeal of the law that allowed schools and local governments to raise money for welfare benefits through higher employee contributions would bankrupt those institutions, supporters of Act 10 argued.
Democratic opponents argue that the law has harmed schools and other government agencies by depriving workers of the ability to collectively bargain over their wages and working conditions.
Union leaders were overjoyed by the ruling, which affects tens of thousands of civil servants.
“We recognize we may still face a court battle, but make no mistake, we are ready to keep fighting until we all have a seat at the table again,” said Ben Gruber, Conservation Commissioner and President from AFSCME Local 1215.
The legislation was proposed by Walker and passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature despite weeks of massive protests that drew up to 100,000 people to the Capitol. The law has withstood numerous legal challenges over the years, but this was the first time since the Wisconsin Supreme Court switched to liberal control in 2023.
The seven unions and three union leaders who filed the lawsuit argued that the law should be overturned because it provides unconstitutional exemptions for firefighters and other public safety workers. Lawyers for the legislature and state agencies countered that the exceptions were legal, had already been upheld by other courts and that the case should be dismissed.
But Frost sided with unions in July, saying the law violated the equal protection guarantees in the Wisconsin Constitution by dividing public employees into “general” and “public safety” employees. He ruled that general employee unions, such as unions representing teachers, could not be treated differently than public safety unions, which were exempt from the law.
His ruling Monday detailed the law’s dozens of specific provisions that must be made.
Wisconsin Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he looks forward to appealing the ruling.
“This lawsuit came more than a decade after Act 10 was enacted and after many courts rejected the same baseless legal challenges,” Vos said in a statement.
Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s largest business lobbying organization, also opposed the ruling. WMC President Kurt Bauer called Act 10 “a critical tool for policymakers and elected officials to balance budgets and achieve tax savings.”
Lawmakers said in court filings that the arguments presented in the current case were rejected by the state Supreme Court in 2014. The only change since that ruling is the makeup of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, lawyers for the legislature argued.
Act 10 effectively ended collective bargaining for most public unions by allowing them to bargain exclusively for base wage increases that were no higher than inflation. It also banned automatic withdrawal of union dues, required annual union recertification votes, and forced public workers to pay more for health insurance and pension benefits.
The law was the signature legislative achievement of Walker, who was targeted in a recall election he won. Walker used his battles with unions to launch an unsuccessful presidential bid in 2016.
Frost, the judge who issued Monday’s ruling, appeared to have signed the petition to remove Walker from office. None of the attorneys requested his dismissal from the case and he did not resign. Frost was appointed to the bench by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who signed the Walker recall petition.
The law has also led to a dramatic decline in union membership across the state. The nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum said in a 2022 analysis that Wisconsin has seen its largest decline in the share of its workforce that is unionized since 2000.
In 2015, the GOP-controlled Wisconsin Legislature passed a right-to-work law that narrow the power of unions in the private sector.
Public sector unions that filed the lawsuit include the Abbotsford Education Association; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Locals 47 and 1215; the Beaver Dam Education Association; SEIU Wisconsin; the Teaching Assistants’ Association Local 3220 and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 695.
